Key Takeaways:
- Modern businesses embrace diversity as a powerful way to grow their bottom line.
- A diverse team provides critical perspective, creativity and problem solving, and multilingual client service.
- Diverse companies outperform their competitors and build a stronger reputation.
Diversity and inclusion are essential to modern business. In addition to empowering marginalized professionals, cultural diversity yields real benefits for businesses in a variety of industries. Diverse businesses foster an open, innovative work environment that breeds new ideas and modes of thinking.
Let’s look at 5 key benefits your business can realize through diversity.
1. More perspectives leads to fresher ideas
In a highly-globalized market, perspective can make or break your business. Perspective is a critical ingredient for identifying client needs and coming up with innovative solutions. It’s also an important part of creative problem solving.
That said, perspective cannot come from a single source. No one group or individual possesses the knowledge, wisdom and experience needed to make a business successful. When talented professionals of all ages, races, gender identities, sexual orientations, countries of origin, religions, and physical and mental abilities collaborate on an issue, they each bring a unique worldview to the table. In doing so, biases and assumptions that might otherwise hold back innovation can be exposed, and new solutions installed in their place.
Diversity in the workplace is as much about cultural inclusion as it is cognitive inclusion. According to the Harvard Business Review®, those with "differences in perspective or information processing styles," solve problems more quickly than cognitively homogenous groups.
The takeaway for business leaders is that a single method for processing information isn't necessarily superior. Employers who are open to different problem-solving approaches can develop an edge over competitors who rely on a limited viewpoint.
Studies have shown workplace diversity is better for your bottom line. For example, research by McKinsey & Company® showed that companies with gender diversity on executive boards are 21% more likely to experience above-average profits. Similarly, businesses with culturally and ethnically diverse executive teams were 33% more likely to see above average profits. This data suggests that inclusion strategies in the workplace may be a path to creating a competitive advantage. In other words, diversity is good for business.
4. Stronger company reputation
Clients, customers and applicants value representation in the companies they do business with. Companies that employ diverse groups of people feel more approachable and more accessible to a much wider range of the population.
Beyond that, every business is a brand. Too often, organizations alienate groups of people with narrow messaging. By including people from many backgrounds in your organization, you gain perspective. This can help you avoid public pitfalls and cultivate a brand that is inclusive and welcoming to all. In the long run, diversity will improve your company's reputation.
Last but not least, having bilingual employees on staff is one of the most immediate business benefits of hiring diverse personnel. As the world becomes more globalized, organizations often find themselves pursuing deals in foreign countries, working more with international business partners or encountering more individuals who speak English as a second language. Having people on your staff who speak more than one language can drive better business outcomes in these multilingual situations.
At Comerica Bank, we’re proud to offer our clients powerful web banking, financial services, and a suite of resources. We also pride ourselves on the cultural diversity within our team. The combination of world class products and a representative team have led Comerica bank to earn the title Leading Bank for Business.
Want to learn more about how a diverse culture can power your business? Learn more how Comerica supports diverse businesses.
