The Importance of Diversity in the Workplace

By Elaine Bellio, Toronto Sales & Marketing Recruiter

Diversity in the workplace is a hot button topic lately. Many organizations are now more focused than ever on creating a diverse workforce that reflects society and the people they serve, and taking steps to create a diverse and inclusive organizational culture will only become more important in the years to come.

The Benefits of a Diverse Organization

“An organization’s success and competitiveness depends upon its ability to embrace diversity and realize the benefits. When organizations actively assess their handling of workplace diversity issues, develop and implement diversity plans, multiple benefits are reported,” says Josh Greenberg on multiculturaladvantage.com.

Here are some of the main reasons why organizations are investing in diversification of their workforce:

• A positive brand reputation among job candidates
• You’ll be in a stronger position to attract and retain top talent
• It breeds a more creative work environment
• It allows for more diverse and widespread viewpoints when making strategy decisions
• It helps make your company more adaptable to change

Challenges to Improve Diversity

While there are many benefits, improving diversity and working toward making your company more inclusive does not come without a number of difficult challenges, including:

• An internal resistance to change
• Implementation of diversity policies can be difficult
• Managing diversity is ongoing and requires constant focus and attention
• A variety of barriers need to be overcome – cultural, language, procedural

3 Opportunities to Increase Diversity and Inclusiveness in Your Workforce

There are a number of opportunities to make your company more diverse. Here are the main three:

1. Hiring: Hiring is your primary opportunity to build a strong and diverse team of professionals.

2. Development and training: Internal training about diversity and inclusiveness will help your team identify inherent biases and how to promote diversity and inclusion.

3. Retention: To create real change, it’s important to create an environment where, once hired, everyone feels comfortable and wants to stay with the company long term.

With these 3 opportunities in mind, in order for companies to work toward a more diverse organizational culture, it’s important to assess what diversity is now, develop a plan for how to improve it, and implement changes over time.

Additional Tips to Improve Your Workplace Environment

Check out these blog posts by our recruiters in Toronto about how to hire and retain top (and diverse) candidates:

55+ Is One of Canada’s Hottest Job Markets

5 Elements That Will Hurt Your Organizational Culture

5 Types of Employees Who Can Ruin Your Company Culture and Kill Morale

IQ PARTNERS is an Executive Search & Recruitment firm supporting clients across the country. We help companies hire better, hire less & retain more. We have specialist teams of recruiters in Financial Services & Insurance, Marketing Communications & Media, Emerging Tech & Telecom, Consumer Goods & Retail, B2B & Industrial, Technology, Accounting & Finance, HR & Operations and Mining & Engineering. IQ PARTNERS has its head office in Toronto and operates internationally via Aravati Global Search Network. Click here to view current job openings and to register with us.