Mixing it Up: 3 Tips for Bringing More Diversity to Your Company

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Diversity continues to be important to the success of our businesses. From employee happiness to profits, we can all agree it is needed. The problem? What diversity means has changed in the last few years, and not everyone is up to date. It is no longer just what mix of ethnicities and age of employees you employ. Now it also includes personality types, skillsets, etc. Since diversity is a key to helping your business succeed, read below for three tips on how you can bring more diversity (and success) to your company:

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Focus on Inclusivity

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To truly have diversity at your company, you need to focus on inclusivity. Specifically, inclusive leadership. But what does that mean? In our opinion, inclusivity is ensuring everyone is treated fairly, valued the same, and that all your employees feel the culture is one they belong in and feel inspired by. As Juliet Bourke and Andrea Titus point out “Teams with inclusive leaders are 17% more likely to report they are high performing.” This is one example of the real, hard data impact inclusivity has on your diversity and company. The concept of inclusivity is best incorporated into your company by leadership, starting with you. Research the core characteristics of inclusive leaders and build them into your strategy/business plan.

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Boost Employees Skills

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Having a wide range of skillsets among and within each employee, is a key part of the new wave of diversity. While there are many ways you as a leader can boost your employee’s skillsets, we have one suggestion you might not have thought of. Project management. As we’ve talked about before, working with a good project manager helps your employees grow their own skills and show you skills they already have, but have not been using. The reason project management is effective here is simple: the project manager has their own skills they transfer to your team. They also create a new environment within your company. It is from this new environment that your employees can think and act differently by showcasing skillsets and talents not utilized in their daily activities.

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Provide Flexibility

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If 2020 has taught us anything, it is how to be flexible – whether we want to or not! This is an important skillset and trend for you to take into your 2021 plans and beyond. If you offer flexibility, you will automatically attract a more diverse employee and culture. Remember, flexibility comes in many forms. You need to listen to what kind of flexibility your employees need and want. It could be flexible working hours, continued remote work, or a myriad of other things. Your job as a leader is to promote flexibility, by modeling it yourself.

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As business leaders, we all need to expand and re-focus on our commitment to diversity. It is changing, and we need to change with it. We must move away from traditional thinking and start taking action on what our employees and cultural needs are telling us, because diversity helps all areas of our business. In an era (such as our current pandemic recovery reality) where the smallest advantage can help, we owe it to ourselves, our employees, and clients to adopt diversity. Incorporating more diversity helps us become more disaster resistant, something we ALL want. Let’s make a deal: we’ll focus on diversity in 2021 and beyond if you do!

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Interested in learning more about increasing diversity in your business? Contact our team at Kim@QuantumMark.com today!

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