What is workplace diversity? Well, workplace diversity means having a range of people with different, genders, ages, religions, ethnicity, and much more in the workplace environment. Here we are going to explore the meaning and the impact of diversity in the workplace.
Over time as seen in the graph above diversity in gender and race from 2015 to 2018 has grown and is still currently growing. However, as seen in 2015-2016 inclusion/diversity wasn’t as high as in 2018. Many individuals were being underrepresented. Also part of the reason that there wasn’t much diversity was that there weren’t many people willing to join job sectors such as tech. Many businesses lacked diversity because many people didn’t want to apply and there weren’t many to recruit. This is because minorities and women already felt unrepresented and felt like they weren’t going to be appreciated in the workplace. Especially since many major companies didn’t take the necessary actions to help and if they did many failed. Some of these include the hiring process, false job advertising, or no advertising at all.
If you haven’t got the best talent you’re not going to be the best, if you’re not representing properly the available pool of talent then you’re missing an opportunity.
-ALEX WILMOT-SITWELL
However, this had a large impact on businesses and how they operated. An environment with no workplace diversity is like only having one type of drink. Diversity in the workplace allows for more ideas, different perspectives, and a chance to also gain more customers. When a customer feels like they are being represented in a workplace they are much more likely to go into that business and spend. Also when every worker is being represented in the workplace they are more likely to feel comfortable and productive in helping the business bloom.
A few things that businesses can do to increase workplace diversity is to be more open-minded. They should recruit or accept applicants that have the proper skills, experience, or knowledge in a particular field. They can also make policies that help minorities and all workers feel included and accepted. They can also have workshops that provide proper training and that teach about diversity and inclusion.