For the past several years diversity in the workplace has been one of the major topics regarding working culture. Many companies are discussing why it is needed in our society, is diversity as crucial as the media says, and how to ensure a safe working environment for employees from various backgrounds. No need to say, when employees are happy with the working conditions, business is thriving. In this sense, diversity is a significant factor, especially, when an employee from a different culture or environment joins the team. Unfortunately, it becomes challenging to ensure ideal conditions for all employees regardless of their beliefs, gender, race or sexual orientation. Then, what is needed to be done to create a workplace where everyone can feel comfortable, and why inclusion is essential in order to make your business flourish?

To be more specific, it is recommended to divide diversity into two kinds: inherited and acquired. The first one stands for traits people are born with, such as a race or gender. The acquired diversity is what you, as a person, learn during your life, for example, living in a different ethnic or religious background. By providing safe implementation and expression of both kinds of diversity, you can ensure a more efficient workflow. Recent research states that employers who encourage inclusion within a company are 1.7x more likely to be the market’s innovation leaders and generate a more significant profit.

However, it’s just one of the many benefits that a diverse working environment can bring. To dive more in-depth, we will discuss why we should encourage and seek inclusion and what are the main challenges facing its implementation.

Why Should Companies Strive For a Diverse Workplace

“Strength lies in differences, not in similarities.” — Stephen R. Covey

Diversity among a team brings a different perspective on certain affairs, gives a more comprehensive opinion, and offers broad solutions while dealing with problems. It’s proven that employees’ inclusion accelerates innovations, a more efficient customer service, creativity, and increased profit. We divided the benefits of diversity into five major points.

1. A better understanding of customers

49% of companies concentrate on inclusion because they strive for better customer service. Why is it so crucial for the business? It’s a fact that we relate more to familiar people, this feature displays when it comes dealing with customers. When team members from different backgrounds participate in a product design process, it has higher chances to suit a broader audience. With an inclusive campaign, your business has a higher chance of success and more significant profit from it.

2. Accelerates innovation and creative process

The feeling of belonging creates a safe and satisfying environment, accordingly, employees perform better and show a greater outcome. The experience we gained varies depending on the conditions we have been growing and learning in. Therefore, a diverse team has an advantage of a broader perspective and different views. As a result, it is enhancing new and more improved methods of dealing with customers and increasing business satisfaction rates. All different ideas gather together accelerating creative thinking and innovations which can lead a business to success.

3. Attracts more talents

Inclusion based on gender, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation has a direct link to employee’s engagement in a company’s improvement. LinkedIn’s Global Recruiting Trends 2018 shows that employees perform better if they have a feeling of belonging. Not to mention, talents tend to stick with the company if it provides a safe and friendly environment despite diverse backgrounds.

On the other hand, the feeling of belonging does not only help to keep employees satisfied but also attract new talents. This point mainly goes to a hiring process, because when a new candidate applies for a position at a company, it’s more likely for them to be considered as a potential hire if the same or similar background interviewers are interviewing them. It happens because candidates feel more confident facing someone familiar, and interviewers demonstrate more trust when they can relate to the applicant. Thus, if the company’s hiring management is diverse and has employees from different backgrounds, it helps to find and maintain new talents.

4. More global opportunities

In today’s digital age it is easier than ever to expand a business to international markets and generate a global audience. However, as much as our society is globally-open, people still have different origins and backgrounds. In order to follow up with international companies, it is essential to take their culture and beliefs’ system under attention. The easiest way to attain this goal is to have a diverse team which can understand different market needs. It’s not only appreciated but also encouraged as it helps to bring your product or service to a new country or region.

5. Improves brand’s image

Last but not least, a reputable brand image is crucial for a company due to finding clients and partners. It is a central point if your business targets a younger generation or an international audience. As millennials are rapidly becoming one of the major age groups in the market, it is necessary to have in mind that their generation is one of the most diverse ones.

Furthermore, they are more open and liberal when it comes to ethnicity, sexuality, gender or religion. Millennials also tend to pay more attention to a brand’s values and use those brands to which they can relate. When consumers, as mentioned, become your customers, it is essential to take their needs seriously and adapt your business accordingly.

How to Ensure Diversity

We can discuss for hours and hours about the importance of diversity in the workplace, but when it comes to an actual adaptation, it might get challenging. When a company is expanding and hiring more employees, it is hard to avoid conflicts and misconceptions regarding their diverse backgrounds. Nevertheless, hiring experts suggest several methods how not only make your working environment more open to employees from various origins but also establish mutual respect within a team.

Adopting a new values’ system is not enough, it has to be more than just a promising description on your company’s website. It is necessary to encourage diverse mentality and build your brand towards enhancing it. The latest LinkedIn’s research about global hiring practices indicates various methods how brands around the world are trying to ensure diversity within their company. 67% of interviewed companies state that a fostering environment that respects differing opinions is the primary method to support inclusion, belonging, and diversity internally. A bit less, 51% suggest that by encouraging people to be themselves at work helps to enhance diversity adoption.

The tips mentioned above are more or less general, some recruitment experts recommend using easy-to-apply everyday methods in order to make potential and established employees to feel more comfortable. An employment process starts with a job ad, that’s why it is recommended to use inclusive language in a position description. Avoid words or phrases that are directly linked to one particular group of people. Further, it’s appreciated when companies give their employees a voice and allow them to share their office activities and individual experiences.

What are the Challenges?

As noble as it sounds diversity in the workplace is hard to attain, more than that, it’s harder to make it work purposely. When a program involving a broad range of employees needs to be effectively implemented it’s not a surprise when it starts facing issues, especially, when the problem can easily affect a personal level. If you are running a business and want to make sure that all employees, regardless their background, can feel comfortable and appreciated, you might want to pay more attention to these five main challenges facing a proper diversity implementation:

1. Acceptance and respect
2. Ethnic and cultural differences
3. Understanding Beliefs
4. Age gap
5. Language barrier

Acceptance and respect closely correlate with the second and third points of ethnic and cultural differences and understanding beliefs. All three objectives require patients and a better understanding of employees’ characteristics. Employees do not only have to be told to tolerate their colleagues who are coming from different backgrounds but also learn about each other’s differences. Education and accessible information is the key to a professional work relationship.

When it comes to an age gap, sometimes it might get hard to control stereotype-based assumptions, and as a result, it forms segregated groups within the team. If you want to avoid this unfortunate scenario, it is recommended to encourage your employees, despite their age gap, to share experiences and insights on business. In this way, all parties will learn from each other and pattern a more efficient performance and better working conditions.

The same rule goes for the fifth issue — language barrier. In many international companies, the primary spoken language is English. Therefore, language misconceptions might appear when a new hire from a non-English speaking country joins the team. No matter how professional the employee is, he or she could have an accent or not be aware of all phrases in the dominant spoken language. It’s understandable that working and at the same time trying to understand your co-worker may get tiring, but you should always strive to help them and explain misconceptions they might have. The outline is — if we all help each other and learn more about our origins, it will be painless to integrate and make everyone feel appreciated and comfortable in the company.

Diversity is the Primary Value at LuxTag

We at LuxTag® are proud to have employees from more than 12 different countries. Our team members come from various ethnic and religious backgrounds. With diversity and inclusion, LuxTag strives to reshape the tech sector and bring a more comprehensive perspective on our niche. We celebrate our differences and bring them together to create a better business environment for everyone!

Diverse teams become one of the focal points in company’s development and improvement. Diversity drives business to new milestones, encourages employees to be more creative and take on innovations. However, it’s not that simple to make your workplace diverse, and at the same time, all team members feel appreciated and comfortable. To accomplish success by creating a fulfilling working environment, try your best to educate your team and understand everyone’s needs. Achieving inclusion takes a lot of time and effort, but in the end, it aspires the company and brings it to broader success.

®“LuxTag”, Trademark registered.