The Benefits of a Diverse Workforce

Liam Noonam | Head of Talent Acquisition, CloudPay

Every business suffers with problems and pain points from time to time, and often the solutions are hampered through a lack of imagination or through generally homogenous thought.

However, improving diversity within a workforce can break down these barriers and help businesses overcome their challenges more easily. Diversity brings together people from various different backgrounds (which could be based on gender, age, ethnicity, nationality, or life experience) that can offer a variety of different perspectives on challenges and important decisions.

The good news is that it has arguably never been easier to recruit and employ a diverse global workforce, with so many barriers to international business being broken down. This blog investigates why diversity can be so beneficial in the business world, and how to pursue it on a practical level.

Seven benefits of a diverse workforce

The benefits of diversity are more tangible than you might think, and as you’ll read here, those benefits can spread far and wide throughout an organization:

• Improved innovation: as mentioned above, different experiences generate fresh perspectives and new ideas. This makes it far easier for the workforce as a whole to ‘think outside the box’, and helps foster a culture where people strive to be creative when problem-solving.

• Greater productivity: when problems are solved better and faster, because diverse workforces come to better decisions more often, then disruption to business is minimized. This means people can get more done in their days and improve overall output.

• Better profitability: according to research from the Boston Consulting Group, companies with diverse teams at management level generate an average of 19% more revenue than less diverse equivalents.

• Stronger employee retention: within a diverse workforce, all employees feel more valued, and feel that their opinions and voices will be given a fair hearing. This generates more satisfaction and loyalty, encouraging staff to stay with a business long-term.

• Wider knowledge base: by employing staff from different backgrounds, cultures and countries, you expand the overall experience and knowledge within the workforce as a whole. This also helps other employees develop greater cultural awareness, which makes them more likely to take different views into account.

• Healthier brand perception: when companies have a positive, diverse culture with high levels of employee satisfaction, word gets around. Not only can this help your business be perceived well within your industry and with customers, but it can also help you attract the most talented candidates in a competitive job market.

• More marketing opportunities: being able to accurately and truthfully tell stories about the diversity of your workforce (i.e. that it’s much more than lip service) can make a big difference to your standing within the marketplace.

How to create a diverse workplace

There are lots of ways to explore improving diversity within a workforce. Which methods are right for you depends on your current diversity situation among other factors. But these ideas are a good place to start:

• ‘Blind’ recruitment policies: conducting recruitment processes without those involved knowing the names or demographics of candidates can remove any unintentional bias from hiring decisions.

• New practices: small changes can make a big difference in making people feel included, such as making Christmas parties more general end-of-year celebrations, or providing training resources in different languages.

• Clarify diversity policies: many organizations already have policies around diversity and inclusion, but it’s worth reviewing these to ensure they are crystal clear, are still relevant to a changing society, and are as public and readily accessible as possible.

• Diversity training: employees should be encouraged to learn more about other cultures, and feel positively empowered to take part in diversity training, so that everyone in the workforce can contribute to a more diverse culture.
  
  

One particularly effective way to diversify a workforce is to hire internationally and break down some of the previous geographical barriers around hiring. Historically, businesses have shied away from internal hiring, because of complexities around compliance with multiple sets of laws, difficulties in running payroll, and issues in communication and team bonding. However, global payroll solutions and video conferencing adopted widely during the pandemic have advanced to the stage where these problems can be overcome, certainly to the point where they are easily outweighed by the benefits of diversity outlined above.

In summary

It’s in no small part thanks to technology that businesses have been able to pursue greater diversity throughout their workforces. Whether it’s bringing people together virtually, or enabling easy running of payroll in multiple territories, people and cultures can now collaborate and drive each other forward like never before. And as this blog demonstrates, it’s helping businesses grow and succeed, too.

CloudPay’s global payroll solution can play a leading role in breaking down the barriers separating you from a diverse, productive, and empowered workforce. Learn more about our managed global payroll today.