A Reason for Diversity

Too many leaders who say they embrace diversity may be saying it simply because it is what they think they are supposed to say, without really managing diversity within their workforce in a way that improves their organization. But if you understand what diversity means and how it can help you, you will discover just how powerful it can really be.

Diversity does not just mean having a mix of men and women, or having people with different skin colors or different religions. What it really comes down to is having people with different perspectives. The point is not to meet a quota, but instead to bring a range of viewpoints into your organization that can help you understand a broader cross-section of consumers, or provide a wider range of ideas to help yu meet your goals. Factors like gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, economic class, marital status, education…all of these contribute to one’s perspective on the world, so finding a mix of these attributes can offer you a diverse mix of inputs to your business. Without diversity in your workforce you are more likely to keep working along a narrow path, missing opportunities as they arise because your focus is so limited. In a knowledge economy, that can spell death for a company.

When you are hiring, try to look beyond the obvious features that signal diversity and instead listen to your potential employees during the interview process to see what they can bring. While asking questions that are too personal can be a no-no, listen carefully to how they respond to the questions you do ask to see what they bring. If they offer a perspective that sounds different from what you are used to, that should be a point in their favor. Expand your recruiting beyond the “normal” places to increase your chances of broadening your corporate perspective. For that matter, expand your recruiting beyond that which your competitors do, so you have a chance to pick up some of the talent they miss.

In the end, that does not mean you should try to set and meet quotas of a certain number of specific types of people. What you should do instead is create a corporate culture that is open to lots of different groups, that actively seeks out new employees from a variety of sources, and that makes use of these various perspectives, so you are able to attract new employees, hang on to them, and get the most benefit from them.

Do not celebrate diversity just because a bumper sticker told you that you should. Celebrate it because it is good for your business. And remember that “celebrating diversity” does not just mean having a statement about it in your employee handbook, it means nurturing a culture that sees diversity as the norm and takes full advantage of it.