Diversity and Inclusion – The Kindle of Breakthroughs and Innovation

Workplace diversity has hit the HR world like a storm. It is astonishing to see business owners ready to invest in inclusion and diversity initiatives to ensure their teams are set up for success.

“For business; diversity and inclusion may count as a smart thing, however, for humanity, this is the right thing to do”.

Since there is a buzz going around in the business world discussing the potential and benefits of workplace diversity and inclusion, in this blog I will try to share my take on why I believe diversifying the workplace is the smart and right thing to do for businesses.

But before we look into the benefits, let’s just see what really is meant by the diversity in the workplace.

What is diversity in the workplace? 

When we talk about workplace diversity, it refers to the intentional effort of an organization to recruit employees from different genders, backgrounds, cultures, religions, races, ethnicity, education, and others (yes, this is almost a non-exhaustive list).

There have been various studies put out focusing on assessing the tangible and intangible benefits of keeping a diversified and inclusive workforce and if we are, to sum up, those studies all of those conclude positively of the positive effects of a diverse and inclusive workforce.

It would be harsh to not indicate the potential risks and challenges that come with diversification initiatives in an organization. However, discussing the challenges and risks of a diverse workforce is beyond the scope of this blog (we will look into that sometime else), so we will stick to the positive impacts of diversity and inclusivity in the workplace.

The benefits of diversity in the workplace

1. Fresh perspectives

For me, the biggest impact of bringing in people from diverse backgrounds is the fresh and often the out-of-box perspective that comes with it. People coming from different backgrounds come with their own set of unique experiences and perspective and when you bring them all to the table, you are definitely in a great position to find a bold and innovative solution for any given problem.

“I understand that the idea of bringing fresh perspective onto the table feels intimidating to managers; as they are too rigid to listen to unpopular opinions. However, if we are to go by numbers; we will clearly see that organizations with diverse and inclusive teams are able to improve their decision-making capacities by over 60%; a clear indication of the positive impacts of diversified teams”. 

2. Broader talent pool

“Various studies have pointed out job dissatisfaction as one of the biggest reasons for employees leaving an organization. This means that employees today are looking beyond the paycheck; they are rather looking for a conducive work environment where they feel accepted, appreciated, and competitively challenged, and perhaps such an environment is what brings out the most of the employees.”

The top talents around the world are looking to get attached to companies with diverse and inclusive teams, where they can hone their skills and grow their careers; subsequently, such companies are able to attract the top talent.

3. More innovation

There is a direct correlation between workplace diversity & inclusion with increased creativity and better innovation for the companies. It’s only rational that homogenous groups of people coming from similar backgrounds and experienced will have similar thought patterns and problem-solving skills. And this homogenous group won’t be leading to any innovative solution. Whereas, a group heterogonous group with people coming from different backgrounds and different experiences will come up with their unique perspective and often bold opinions; which ignites the breakthroughs in thought process and lead to innovative solutions.

“If we are to look around to some of the biggest conglomerates like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and others, these firms have much in common including very diverse and inclusive teams that have enabled them to continually innovate solutions and remain ahead of the competitive curve.”

Takeaway

Lack of initiatives by companies to diversify their teams and adopt an inclusive approach is perhaps one of the many reasons that have hindered the innovation and growth of businesses in Pakistan. The homogenous teams, along with protocols discouraging the inclusivity for all employees have not only resulted in the stagnation of the growth for businesses; but also led to a high brain-drain from the country, where the top talent and brightest brains feel congested and out of breath in confined workplace culture and choose to leave for more liberal and inclusive work cultures.

Perhaps, its high time businesses start investing in diversification and inclusivity initiatives and encourage its people to connect and relate to their work; which may become the growth accelerators for the businesses.