Do you want to improve the productivity of your team and keep your business on the road to success? Focus on diversity in the workplace.
In this article, we’ll define diversity, tell you why it’s an essential part of every successful business, give you some tips on building a diverse team, and discuss the benefits of diversity in the workplace.
The Importance Of Diversity In The Workplace
Diversity in the workplace is about bringing people from different cultures, backgrounds, personalities, and viewpoints together to work as a team.
The primary reason why diversity in the workplace is essential for productivity — and, ultimately, success — is because businesses are more global than ever before.
Right out of the gate, new companies can serve a wide array of countries and cultures. Even within a single country, the opportunity to provide goods and services to diverse ethnic groups is a very real possibility.
If your business isn’t prepared for that, productivity suffers.
Whether you run a large corporation or a small business, diversity will help your team be more productive and your business stand out amongst its competitors.
How To Build A Diverse Team
The key to working toward diversity in the workplace is to find the best employees for your team — regardless of their race, culture, personality, beliefs, nationality, or viewpoints.
Diversity can take many forms, so don’t try to make your team or your business look like someone else’s. Do what’s best for your unique situation and you’ll set your business on the road to success.
Here are some tips for building a diverse team.
Tip #1: Promote An Active Interest In Diversity
The first step toward making diversity a part of your company is to promote an active interest in the concept.
In the past, you may not have given much thought to the makeup of your team. Now, though, it’s time to actively focus on diversity and promote its importance to your employees.
That may require everyone — including you — to start dealing with some unconscious thought processes and behaviors. It may not be easy, but when you care about increasing diversity, your business, your team, and your productivity will thrive.
Tip #2: Tap Into The Diversity You Already Have
You may think your team is fairly homogeneous, but look closer. It may be more diverse than you realize.
Take the time to get to know your existing employees. Find out about their backgrounds, their experiences, their likes, and their dislikes. You may be able to tap into the diversity you’ve already got in your current team.
Tip #3: Promote From Within
Consider and recommend the best employees for advancement regardless of their nationality, culture, or background. When you do that, it shows that you value their work, not their race.
When you get in the habit of promoting from within with an eye toward diversity in the workplace, other managers will begin to send candidates your way to help round out your team’s abilities.
And once you’ve started, this self-perpetuating cycle can have a significant impact on the diversity and productivity of your team.
The Benefits Of Diversity In The Workplace
1) Positive Reputation
One benefit of diversity in the workplace that managers and owners often overlook is its power to give your business a positive reputation both within your customer base and amongst other businesses.
Companies that dedicate themselves to fostering a diverse team develop a standing within the business community as being better than their immediate competitors, more socially responsible, and more relatable to diverse customers and markets.
So, if a client or customer has to decide between your business and another identical business, they’ll choose the one with the better reputation as a diverse employer — yours.
That’s an intangible you can’t pay for. You have to physically put in the time and effort to build diversity in your business. Only then will you reap the rewards.
2) Broader Customer Base
Even the smallest businesses are no longer trammeled by geography and distance. The internet and affordable shipping have opened the world up wide.
But as easy as it is to reach the far corners of the globe, you still have to deal with cultural differences, novel viewpoints, and, of course, language barriers.
Assembling a diverse team with knowledge of other cultures helps your business move past these barriers and unlocks access to a much broader customer base.
3) Efficient Problem-Solving
Inefficient problem-solving — a common speed bump for most teams — creates delays in workflow, drops in productivity, and implementation of solutions that aren’t quite right.
What is the source of inefficient problem-solving? Often, it’s a lack of diversity in the workplace.
A diverse team has a wide range of skills, viewpoints, knowledge, and experience from which to draw. Team members can leverage that life experience to reach better solutions in a shorter amount of time.
That makes problem-solving more efficient and, ultimately, better for your business.
4) Extensive Talent Pool
Building your team with diversity as a primary goal opens your business to a much more extensive talent pool.
With access to a wide range of cultures, ages, and experience levels, you give your business a much better chance to find exceptional candidates that will fill your needs and fit in with your company culture.
5) Effective Decision-Making
Every business is faced with multiple decisions each day. Some are basic and relatively unimportant. Some are complex and integral to your success.
Ineffective decision-making — like ineffective problem-solving — can cripple your productivity, cause unnecessary delays, and subject your team to undue stress.
Diversity among your employees improves the decision-making process as a whole, allows your team to see more of the consequences of their actions, and helps them make more informed choices.
6) Enhanced Profitability
When your diverse team makes better decisions and solves problems faster, your business will have a significant advantage over its competitors.
That advantage translates into intangibles like:
Improved productivity
Higher-quality products and services
Deeper business insights
An overall reputation for success
And when you harness those intangibles, your profits will increase as a result.
Think about it in terms of cause and effect:
You create a diverse team
They make more effective decisions
They solve problems faster
The intangibles mentioned above develop in your business
Profits increase
A more successful business starts with building a diverse team.
Workplace: The Other Half Of The Equation
While the major focus of this article deals with diversity, the setting where that diversity exists — the workplace — plays a significant role in the productivity of your team as well.
Even the most diverse team ever created will experience losses in productivity if they don’t have the right work environment.
You can ensure that your team has the best workplace possible by basing your business in a coworking space like those at Bond Collective.
There’s no need to go through the stress, strain, and expense of building your own workplace from the ground up. Bond Collective has already done that for you. Your team just needs to move in and get to work.
Each of our shared working environments incorporates inspiring design elements, like natural light, open floor plans, tasteful and professional decor, and multipurpose workspaces to inspire you and your employees to greatness.
And at Bond Collective, the benefits don’t stop with the workspace itself. In addition to our unique work settings, members also enjoy amenities like:
Unlimited black-and-white printing
Daily on-site cleaning
Guest reception and greeting
Private-label mail service
Mothers’ room
Lightning-fast Wi-Fi
Concession food market
Conference Rooms
Networking and curated events
24-hour access
Bike storage
So if you’re looking for a way to promote diversity in the workplace and increase your team’s happiness and productivity, become a member of Bond Collective.
Visit any one of Bond Collective’s many locations in the United States, including workspaces in New York, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., Illinois, Tennessee, and Texas. Then take advantage of our coworking spaces, dedicated desks, and private offices to suit all your team’s needs.
To get started or to learn more about the advantages of coworking spaces for digital nomads, remote workers, diverse teams, and businesses of all kinds, visit BondCollective.com today.