Cultural Cocktail: Diversity and Inclusion in Workspace

The relevance and need for diversity and inclusion in the workplace are crucial in the current times. The Harvard Business Review found that companies with diverse management teams have a 19% increase in revenue in comparison to their counterparts.

Before we delve deeper into the topic, let’s understand the meaning as well as the difference between the two terms. Diversity is the practice of including and involving individuals (or in this case, employees) from varied social/ethnic backgrounds, genders, sexual orientations etc. Inclusion refers to the nurturing of a feeling of involvement, fair treatment and being valued in the organisation. It is necessary for an organisation to inculcate both these concepts into its culture to yield positive results.

Advantages of diverse workspace

1. Inclusion helps in making employees develop a sense of belonging to the organisation resulting in higher retention, quality of work, higher productivity and overall improved employee well-being.

2. Diversity in the workplace gives out the sign that the organisation is open to newer perspectives and ideas, which help in finding solutions that are more creative and efficient.

3. An increase in returns is a consequence since a diverse team will have a sense of belonging and help the organisation during a crisis. For instance, during a recession, the organisation would still be able to work better than its counterparts.

The fruit of inculcating diversity and inclusion is definitely sweet and it takes continuous efforts to maintain. The Human Resource team of the organisation would play a key role in sustaining and tracking its progress. The HR team needs to identify the right tools to intervene with the current employees, develop policies for recruitment while ensuring both diversity and inclusion. The team also needs to maintain accurate annual reports that tell the organisation where they stand and the measures they need to take in the future.