The Diversity Bouquet
An Islamic proverb states, “A lot of different flowers create a bouquet.”
A bouquet’s function may be hard to see at first, but with a closer look, it can communicate empathy, remorse, adoration, appreciation, and much more. Individually, each flower can carry a meaning, but when used together in a dynamic group, a big, broad, colorful bouquet corresponds to a greater impact.
From a business perspective, a big, carefully crafted wedding bouquet is more expensive; yet it can potentially garner more profit and allows for additional innovation compared to a bouquet of single roses from the grocery store. Businesses often behave the same way. Each person is valuable, but when working in a diverse and inclusive environment, a business becomes more effective pragmatically and financially when working as a team.
Knowing how to create such an environment can be complicated, but there are many ways to encourage diversity and inclusion beyond the recruiting process.
Definition of Diversity and Inclusion
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) defines diversity as “the similarities and differences among individuals accounting for all aspects of their personality and individual identity.”¹
Some factors in SHRM’s definition include:
-Age-
-Race-
-Disability-
- Life experience-
- Religion-
A team that consists of people with similarities and differences is like the bouquet from the Islamic proverb. Variety in a bouquet contrasts one flower’s colors and shape with another, providing depth.
The two bouquets shown above demonstrate the definition of inclusion. Both use the same variety of flowers, and compared to the workforce, both teams have an equal representation of diversity. However, in the first bouquet, the flowers are mostly separated by type. The second bouquet successfully utilizes flower differences to create a more visually engaging arrangement.
In this analogy, the variety of flowers is like a diverse work population, and the arrangement is like inclusion—the ability to have them all work well together. Inclusion relies on the differences of the individuals in the group to create the best possible solutions.
History of Diversity and Inclusion
The concept of diversity and inclusion in the workplace is not new. Since World War II, we have seen a shift in the labor force worldwide. During the war, many women began to work in factories while their husbands and sons fought abroad. When the war was over and the men returned home, many women stayed in the workforce.
The civil rights movement helped create additional shifts in the labor force to include diversity of race into a previously discriminatory workforce. Today, many individuals, companies, and groups call on businesses to be even more accountable and proactive for their workplace diversity. Throughout the previous decades, we have seen the focus on diversity and inclusion switch between gender, age, race, and other protective classes.
Progress
Deloitte recently published a study of current levels of diversity and inclusion among Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 companies. The study shows that in the past ten years, the workforce has seen improvements in several aspects of diversity in the previously mentioned companies.
In 2004, only 12 companies had over 40% representation of women and minority groups.
In 2020, that number more than quadrupled: 52 Fortune 500 and 100 companies now have more than 40% diversity.²
Deloitte’s study also noted that the largest increase was seen in gender ratios. White women saw a 21% increase in leadership and board positions in 2020.
While noteworthy, these improvements are not replicated in every company or market. The same Deloitte study shows that most of the labor force is still dominated by white men. White men represent 61.7% of the workforce. This shows that while we have seen improvement in recent years, there is still room for improvement.
Benefits of Diversity and Inclusion
Several studies show a direct correlation between workplace diversity and increased company financial benefits.
A Harvard Business Review study illustrates that companies with an above-average diversity rating typically return 19% higher revenues and 9% higher EBIT margins.³
McKinsey & Company highlight similar findings when surveying companies in Germany, France, England, and the United States. They note that companies with more diversity regarding women and foreign nationals saw a higher return on equity based on earnings before taxes.⁴
Glassdoor reported that about one-third of job seekers will not apply to a company with a lack of workplace diversity.⁵
These numbers indicate that a lack of diversity can become a liability for talent acquisition and company branding. Conversely, companies that promote their current diversity levels—such as their commitment to creating a physically and culturally diverse workplace—receive a higher rate of applications and have a greater reach in recruiting talent.
How to Promote Diversity and Inclusion
Having reviewed several studies showing workplace diversity’s benefits, the next question is how to increase diversity. Most people first think of **recruiting efforts** as a solution. However, businesses can employ several tactics.
Recruiting
Recruiting is directly responsible for growing a diverse workforce. However, if your potential employee pool lacks diversity, so will the company’s incoming workforce. To ensure recruiting efforts are aimed at diversity, a company should expand hiring pipelines and eliminate unconscious bias.
Companies often focus recruiting efforts on local colleges and universities to cut costs. However, recruiters should be cautious of sourcing pools that are too homogeneous. Expanding recruiting efforts to include institutions and organizations that promote diverse groups—such as the **United Latinos Job Bank** or **Black Career Women’s Network**—expands possibilities.⁶
Leadership
When leadership understands the importance of diversity to their company, diversity and inclusion initiatives are met with less resistance.
-Diversity and inclusion initiatives should start with an audit of the company’s current diversity levels.
- These levels should be combined with research to create a clear initiative with specific goals and timelines.
- Progress should be communicated clearly and frequently.
A Harvard Business Review study shows that 70% of employees felt more engaged when leadership kept open communication regarding their company’s plans, goals, and strategy.⁷ Frequent communication of goals, progress, and even failures leads to higher participation and progress in initiatives.
Leadership should also share diversity and inclusion with the public to build a brand and company culture of equality.
Conclusion
Though significant progress has been made over the years in creating more diverse and inclusive workplaces, current studies reveal a need for improvement.
What can be done? Even as young workers, we can keep an eye out as we enter the workforce. Though many strategies for improving workplace diversity come from the top down, businesses will respond and take action if individuals from inside and outside organizations bring attention to these issues.
We may not yet have input into a company’s recruiting efforts, but we can ask for diversity training. We can run our own teams and departments according to the latest research on diversity. As the next generation of employees rises to management, we can influence change at a greater level to benefit companies, economies, and cultures.
We must start building now to incorporate and celebrate the beautiful bouquet of flowers that diversity and inclusion represent.
Notes
1. “Introduction to the Human Resources Discipline of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion,” SHRM, December 21, 2023, [https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/tools/toolkits/introduction-to-human-resources-discipline-diversity-equity-inclusion](https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/tools/toolkits/introduction-to-human-resources-discipline-diversity-equity-inclusion).
2. “Missing Pieces Report on Board Diversity,” Deloitte, 2022, [https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/center-for-board-effectiveness/articles/missing-pieces-report-board-diversity.html](https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/center-for-board-effectiveness/articles/missing-pieces-report-board-diversity.html).
3. Rocio Lorenzo and Martin Reeves, “How and Where Diversity Drives Financial Performance,” *Harvard Business Review*, September 16, 2020, [https://hbr.org/2018/01/how-and-where-diversity-drives-financial-performance](https://hbr.org/2018/01/how-and-where-diversity-drives-financial-performance).
4. Thomas Barta, Markus Kleiner, and Tilo Neumann, “Is There a Payoff from Top-Team Diversity?” *McKinsey & Company*, April 1, 2012, [https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/is-there-a-payoff-from-top-team-diversity](https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/is-there-a-payoff-from-top-team-diversity).
5. “What Job Seekers Really Think About Your Diversity and Inclusion Stats,” Glassdoor, July 12, 2021, [https://www.glassdoor.com/employers/blog/diversity/](https://www.glassdoor.com/employers/blog/diversity/).
6. Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan, “Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination,” *American Economic Association*, September 4, 2004, [https://www.aea-web.org/articles?id=10.1257%2F0002828042002561](https://www.aea-web.org/articles?id=10.1257%2F0002828042002561).
7. “The Impact of Employee Engagement on Performance,” *Harvard Business Review*, 2013, [https://hbr.org/resources/pdfs/comm/achievers/hbr_achievers_report_sep13.pdf](https://hbr.org/resources/pdfs/comm/achievers/hbr_achievers_report_sep13.pdf).