Why Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity are critical to company growth

Diversity creates new ways of thinking and is a critical lever for growth and value creation across improving customer experience, recruitment, and innovation.

In order for companies to increase productivity, hire top talent and create a market-leading brand, it’s essential to prioritize and actively work on a culture that promotes diversity, inclusion, and equity. A motivated, happy and diverse workforce tends to be more productive while creating a culture that becomes an asset to the business in attracting top talent and creating solutions that differentiate from competitors. When an organization prioritizes building and developing an inclusive environment, they are investing in their greatest asset with the highest potential return: their people.

Attract the best talent and capture the network

To support company goals and growth, an organization needs to attract the best and brightest minds. A survey report by the Society for Human Resource Management found that “57% of HR professionals say their recruiting strategies are designed to help increase diversity in their organization.” This shows that job seekers actively seek out diverse workplaces, which is not surprising as many job seekers seek out companies that reflect their own values. When the best minds join your company and are happy, they will share this across their professional network, helping to attract even more brilliant candidates.

Happier and more engaged employees

Feeling represented and listened to makes people happy and happy employees tend to be more productive. Data from Fordham University states that when employees feel included in their environment and they feel like a part of the community, they work harder and feel more committed to their organization, “The data revealed that when celebrations are used in leadership practice, employees make connections and develop crucial workplace relationships. This, in turn, can make employees happier and engage them in their work, resulting in high functioning organizations with a strong culture of community.” When employees feel like they belong to something important, they are more likely to be more productive and create the best work of their lives, but they will only do this if they feel included in the company culture and not marginalized.

Building a stronger customer experience

When employees are more engaged, motivated, and feel included in their roles, they pass on this feeling to their customers. Deloitte Australia found that “When employees think their organization is committed to, and supportive of diversity and they feel included, employees report better business performance in terms of ability to innovate, (83% uplift) responsiveness to changing customer needs (31% uplift) and team collaboration (42% uplift).” By being instilled with a feeling of belonging, engaged and empowered employees may be more motivated to go above and beyond to support their customers’ needs and requirements. This in turn helps companies improve their net promoter score which helps drive growth.

Drive creative solutions and boost innovation

A diverse workplace brings together people of different backgrounds which enables new ways of thinking that boost solution-focussed innovation. According to Boston Consulting Group, “companies that reported above-average diversity on their management teams also reported innovation revenue that was 19 percentage points higher than that of companies with below-average leadership diversity—45% of total revenue versus just 26%”. Individuals with different backgrounds bring unique ideas, solutions, and knowledge, creating opportunities for innovative new products, solutions, and thinking. In today’s fast-paced world, companies constantly need to be on the edge of innovation which is easiest to achieve with a diverse workforce that is more representative of their customer base.

Increase profitability and propel company growth

Not only do inclusive environments breed more innovation and help attract the best talent, companies with more diversity report higher levels of profitability. Research from McKinsey shows that “companies in the top-quartile for gender diversity on their executive teams were 21% more likely to have above-average profitability than companies in the fourth quartile.” They also went on to say that “for ethnic/cultural diversity, top-quartile companies were 33% more likely to outperform on profitability.” A more diverse workforce helps prevent companies from becoming rigid and encourages them to embrace the fail-fast approach which many of the world’s most successful businesses follow. These companies are able to rapidly incorporate new knowledge and ideas into their strategies to increase overall profit margins with new products and services.

Diversity creates new ways of thinking and is a critical lever for growth and value creation across improving customer experience, recruitment, and innovation. At Taulia, we are committed to maintaining a culture of diversity and inclusion. We are proud of the unique culture that all Taulians contribute to on a daily basis.

Our Chief of Staff, Anjali Tumrukota, recently spoke at PowerToFly’s Diversity Reboot 2021: Financial Inclusion virtual summit and discussed how one of Taulia’s core values is “Diversity is how we grow”. During this discussion, Anjali reiterated that hiring diverse talent is essential to the growth and success of Taulia’s business operations and expansion. She goes on to say, “We aim to live by our values and we encourage people of all backgrounds, ethnicities, and genders to join us at Taulia. There is an opportunity for everyone at Taulia to flourish and succeed.”