The benefits of having a diverse workforce

Having a diverse and inclusive workforce isn’t just about displaying the best values as a business – it also makes good business sense for your company to be diverse.

Let’s look at the positive benefits of having a diverse team, and the action you can take as a business to bring a real mix of talent into the company.

What does diversity and inclusivity mean?
Let’s start by defining diversity and inclusivity.

Diversity is about having a wide range of people, races and human differences represented within your team.

Inclusivity is the practice of creating a culture where all your employees feel valued, respected and have equal opportunities to contribute and succeed.

Having a workforce that’s diverse, varied and inclusive ensures that all groups in your local community are represented. But it also helps you to stay competitive, productive and able to outperform your close competitors.

Here are four major benefits that diversity and inclusion can bring to your business

- Better performance: Diverse companies outperform less diverse companies. According to a 2023 report from McKinsey & Company, top-quartile companies had a 39% greater likelihood of financial outperformance compared with their bottom-quartile peers.

- Superior decision-making: Diverse teams are better at analysing a situation, looking at all available options and making the best decisions. Research by Cloverpop found that diverse teams are 87% better at making decisions in a business situation.

- Improved revenue: When your company is diverse it leads to better revenue generation. A study by Boston Consulting Group showed that companies that reported above-average diversity on their management teams also reported innovation revenue that was 19 percentage points higher than that of companies with below-average leadership diversity.

- Greater innovation and skill-sharing: Inclusive teams are more creative and drive better innovation, by listening to everyone’s voices and ideas. According to Australia’s Inclusion@Work Index, inclusive teams are 9.5 times more likely to be innovative than non-inclusive teams.

It’s clear that having a diverse and inclusive workforce can give your business a genuine boost. But what can you do to improve the diversity of your core talent and culture?

Think about:

- Having more inclusive hiring practices, such as blind CV/resume reviews and diverse interview panels, so you can attract and hire a more diverse range of talent.
- Building up a culture of inclusivity and respect, where everyone from within the business feels valued and empowered to contribute.
- Think about setting up Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) to provide support and networking opportunities for employees from underrepresented groups.
- Provide regular diversity and inclusion training for your employees to help promote a broader understanding and awareness.
- Set up mentorship programs to help employees from underrepresented groups advance their careers and achieve their full potential.

Talk to us about updating your people strategy.
If you want to maximise the impact of having a diverse and inclusive workforce, that means updating your people strategy to attract and support a better cross-section of society.