News & Insights
Diversity and Business: Recipe for Success
We’ve all seen it before. A pride month like Black History Month comes around and it seems like every other company is tweeting a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. and then calling it a day. Supportive? …Not really. There’s so much more a company can do to enact diversity, equity, and inclusion in their own business practices to support diversity and inclusion. You can talk the talk. Now here’s how to walk the walk.
Diversity – In your business, it is extremely important to include people of all backgrounds and experiences at every level of the company. Many groups are often underrepresented in business environments and the effects can be seen when trying to reach diverse communities through advertising and marketing. Prioritizing diversity in your company gives access to new financial and social capital for these underrepresented groups. This not only allows your company to be more inclusive of everyone but is also great for the business’s future success. The more diverse your staff and leadership team becomes, the more perspectives you have to innovate and propel your company to new heights. Diversity is not skin deep, behind each person is a different experience, idea, and outlook. Business is unpredictable, you constantly need to adapt and think creatively to solve problems. That’s where diversity comes in, each unique perspective is another opportunity to solve the problem faster. And as we all know, time is money.
Staff Training – Diversity is obviously very important in business, but it’s what you do with that diversity that matters. DE&I training for immersive inclusion is the next step in encouraging opportunities for multicultural groups. Diversity is an asset for businesses and ensuring that staff members are able to recognize where an employee’s unique perspective benefits the company is paramount in utilizing it. Position their talent in an effective way that highlights their skills and their story. Diversity is just as important in the top tiers of the business as it is on the lower tiers.
Training your staff is also about familiarizing them with different cultures they may not have ever experienced. It’s important to realize that most of the time people aren’t being purposely ignorant of other cultures. Unfortunately, many people have never had the opportunity to interact with these cultures and training is a great way to introduce them. Having your staff understand new cultures provides a healthy environment among employees. A major part of business is keeping your employees happy and the best way is creating a workplace where everyone is comfortable with whom they work with. This level of comfort is also transferred to customers. The more comfortable and accepted everyone feels in your business, the more customers will be driven there.
Professional Development Programs – A great way to promote diversity and inclusion in your business is to give minorities an avenue to move up in the company and develop or create new skills. Johnson & Johnson has been on the forefront of this. They offer resource groups, mentor programs, and have even established a Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer that reports directly to the CEO. Creating similar programs can help your company’s overall diversity and truly support the variety of cultures you employ. Once you have a flow of people in programs such as these, it brings the whole thing full circle. You now have diversity being implemented in your business promoting innovation, creating a healthy environment, and high-level employees familiar with diversity to continue to the progression within your company.
These steps create ongoing changes to a business to support diversity and equality for employees. It promotes real change within these groups and provides them with opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable. Showing support is one thing, actively supporting is another.
