Why diversity is more than a hiring trend, it’s vital for growth
August 1, 2018A new report released from LinkedIn has found that the most embraced new trend in job recruiting is diversity. It’s no surprise either as more and more companies are discovering that having diverse employees leads to innovation, creativity, and a better understanding of a broader range of consumers.
LinkedIn’s 2018 Global Recruiting Trends Report extensively interviewed and surveyed 9,000 talent leaders and hiring managers from across the world. By far the biggest trend they found was a push for diverse hires. “78 percent of talent leaders responded that they are tackling hiring diverse talent, head on,” the report reads. “Why? Well, 78% of companies indicated they are prioritizing diversity to improve culture, and 62% are doing so to boost financial performance,” while 49% said having diverse employees was vital to better represent their customers.
“Diversity used to be a box that companies checked. But today, diversity is directly tied to company culture and financial performance,” writes Maria Ignatova for LinkedIn.
As consumer bases shift and minorities grow it has become vital for companies to be able to understand a wider range of customers, and to be seen publically as inclusive and open to those customers. “Key forces are at play here: changing demographics are diversifying our communities, shrinking talent pools for companies that don’t adapt,” writes Ignatova. “Growing evidence that diverse teams are more productive, more innovative, and more engaged also makes it hard to ignore.”
“78 percent of talent leaders responded that they are tackling hiring diverse talent, head on.”
Vivian Hunt, a senior partner at McKinsey & Company, a management consulting firm, also notes the recent push for diversity hires comes from a recognition of their value, not from the tug of a social conscience. “While social justice typically is the initial impetus behind these efforts,” she writes, “companies have increasingly begun to regard inclusion and diversity as a source of competitive advantage, and specifically as a key enabler of growth.”
Ian Altman, a multi-bestselling author, strategic advisor, and internationally sought after speaker on integrity-based sales and business development, pins the importance of diversity to five key factors. The first is that it leads to greater creativity of ideas and a wider set of viewpoints to utilise. “A company made up of employees from diverse ethnic backgrounds, generations, genders, races and religions (just to name a few) has more creative energy to harness than one with a more homogenized workforce.”
The second is that it fosters innovation by crossing these different perspectives together and coming up with something new – he highlights Nike's new "Pro Hijab", a lightweight, breathable head cover for female Muslim athletes as an example. The third is that this leads to a better understanding of your customers He points to Tom Webster’s research – he’s been studying voting and buying habits for well over two decades. "If you don't have (diverse) voices in your research...you're denying yourself the potential opportunity to explore different markets that you're not even thinking about," Webster says.
The fourth is that this creates a richer brainstorming environment, “a diversity of opinions, ideas and input can lead to richer, more productive discussions during brainstorming sessions,” he writes. And finally, “diverse perspectives lead to better decisions -- for your company, your employees and your customers.”
“A company made up of diverse employees has more creative energy to harness than one with a more homogenized workforce.”
It is important to note that Altman defines diversity as anyone that comes from a different background and can share a different perspective. “Lack of diversity is the enemy of many organizations today,” he writes. “This doesn't just mean traditional categories of diversity. It extends to diversity of political viewpoints, too.” Different genders, races, ethnicities, cultural backgrounds, political beliefs, religious associations, and yes, sexual orientations. The LGBT+ community is unique in that at the heart of the community lies a cross-section of identities and values: the community itself is a hive of diversity.
While the LGBT+ community includes people from all walks of life it has its own distinct challenges and needs. It is a growing consumer base that must be correctly catered to. The cumulative aggregated annual spending power of the global LGBT+ community, according to LGBT Capital, is estimated at more than $5 trillion. The so-called “Pink Dollar” (or “Pink Pound”) is an immensely valuable resource for companies to mine.
“As a gay consumer, when I'm not at work I can go to the grocery store, I can go to the pharmacy, and I buy toilet paper, I buy toothpaste, and I look at an advertisement that has someone that doesn't look like me, and I'm still going to buy it,” explains Zach Stafford, editor in chief of LGBT+ site Into. “But if I see one brand that has someone that looks like me, either interracial or gay, I'm buying it immediately.”
A study from Brand Innovators has found that 70% of companies have said they want to target the LGBT+ community, but their research also found those companies lacked the knowledge (or follow-through) to correctly do so.
Michelle Tobin, vice president of brand partnerships and advertising at Grindr, who helped lead the study with Brand Innovators, explains: “Very often when we go talk to brands, we'll talk to the head of marketing, we'll talk to the head of multicultural marketing, we'll talk to agencies, and a lot of times when I ask them who handles LGBTQ initiatives at your company, I get 'I'm not sure, I'll have to check into that,' or, ‘Occasionally, I handle that.' But I think in the research it shows that the vast majority of brands have no one allocated or dedicated to this audience at all.”
The study found a third (32%) do not include the LGBT+ community in their marketing plans, while 14% said they only go after the market during Pride Month. Tobin says that is not enough, “surprise, surprise, people are gay all year round and continue to need to buy laundry detergent, and diapers, and clothing, and cars.”
"70% of companies have said they want to target the LGBT+ community."
Stafford points out the issue isn’t just about seeing better LGBT+ representation in advertising, it’s about knowing the product or service is meant for you. “For us, when we see ourselves in a movie or in an advertisement,” Stafford said, “it's not that we think ‘Oh, representation is great!’ It's also a safety thing. I belong here.
“That's why you see the rainbow flag on college campuses or the counsellor’s doors. That's not just saying 'Oh, this person is cool, it's saying, 'Hey — if you come into this office and you tell me you're gay, you're going to feel safe, you're going to feel supported, and that's what your brands can also do every day, and that's massive to a lot of people.”
Companies have recognised the need for diversity, in employing and catering to it, but they have yet to figure out how to implement it successfully. “Progress on diversification initiatives has been slow,” writes Hunt, “and companies are still uncertain about how they can most effectively use diversity and inclusion to support their growth.”
Simply recognising the need isn’t enough. To successfully engage diverse consumers, you need to successfully engage diverse employees. For LGBT+ employees that can include sponsoring queer business events, creating LGBT+ networks within your own company, or, indeed, signing up for myGwork and finding LGBT+ employees directly.
myGwork is the online job board and networking hub for LGBT+ professionals and inclusive organisations to promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace and beyond.
By Tim Gibson
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