Diversity In The Workplace: How To Achieve It And Why It’s Important

It’s 2021. How diverse is your workplace?

These days, the call for diversity is greater than ever. A spotlight is being shone on companies across the world, and it’s time to step up to the playing field.

Are you doing the most to make sure your workplace is as diverse and inclusive as can be?

Likely, your answer may be no. Countless surveys and investigations in the UK show that diversity, or the lack thereof, is an issue within workplaces.

But, that doesn’t have to be the end. Thankfully, at Shape The Market, we’re committed to helping other businesses grow.

This is why we’ve compiled this article as a way to help your business become more diverse and welcoming.

So, never fear! Keep reading to find out what it is you need to do.

According to encyclopedia.com, diversity in the workplace means “employing people who may be different from each other and who do not all come from the same background.

The differences may be those of national origin, physical appearance, religion, education, age, gender, or sexual orientation.”

So, simply put, diversity means being able to look around your office and see a wide variety of people: not just people who look like you.

Undoubtedly the calls for diversity in the workplace have been inspired by the recent Black Lives Matter movement in the UK, particularly the Summer of 2020.

In fact, this is an issue specific to the marketing industry too.

Back in June 2020, over 600 Black marketing professionals wrote an open letter, titled ‘A Call For Change’, which demanded that those working within the marketing industry would adopt approaches that would fight “the systemic racism that is afflicting our industry.”

Clearly, it’s a pressing issue.

With so many companies reaching out and declaring their support for the BLM movement, and making vague and often unspecific claims to improve their workplace diversity, it’s important to separate the performative actions from the real ones.

How many of these companies are implementing change in their offices?

And, whilst racial diversity is extremely important, how many companies are making sure their workplaces are inclusive of other types of diversity too?

If you want to see how you can improve your own workplace diversity, continue reading. Here, we break down the simple steps it takes to create an inclusive office space.

There are lots of different reasons why diversity in the workplace is important.

The most obvious is that, as an employer, you need to be including underrepresented people in your workplace.

Perhaps there are candidates from lower income areas, who didn’t go to the top universities, but are just as talented or qualified as the ones who did.

Have you given these people an equal opportunity?

Often, people who are from lower income areas, are People of Colour, women, or identify as having a disability, will claim that they feel like they aren’t given the same opportunities.

This is in comparison to their workplace counterparts who are white, male, upper class, or fall into the categories of those who do not suffer from underrepresentation.

Workplace diversity, particularly diversity in marketing, is also important because it provides many different types of perspectives for your work.

Rather than hearing one type of voice or opinion in the room, having a more diverse and inclusive workplace means that you’re hearing lots of different perspectives from different types of people.

As a result, you’re seeing a more diverse range of talent, and a wider variety of approaches to tasks.

What employer doesn’t want that?

Firstly, if you’re looking to improve the level of diversity in the workplace, you need to take a look at your office space.

Do you see a wide mix of people, or is your team overwhelmingly reflective of only one type of person?

When you make this evaluation, you need to be objective and not defensive.

It’s very likely that your workplace won’t be the most diverse or inclusive. Especially considering that, according to Your Prime Recruitment, in 2018 only 9.7% of executive positions in FTSE 100 companies were held by women.

What’s more, in the same year it was found that the employment rate for ethnic minorities is only 62.8%, compared to 75.6% for white employees.

As well as this, only 46.3% of people with disabilities are employed, in comparison to 76.4% of those without disabilities.

Because of this, it’s very likely that your workplace won’t be very diverse or reflective of other backgrounds and types of people.

But, the most important thing you need to remember is that you need to be objective and honest.

Don’t cast any judgements on the people within your workplace, and don’t get defensive about why you’re lacking diversity in the workplace. Taking an objective approach is the only way to do this. And, if you think that you will struggle to make these kinds of evaluations, outsource it!

There are plenty of companies and businesses that are qualified to do this for you, and who will take a look at your business and evaluate areas in need of improvement.

Now that you or a separate organisation has evaluated your workplace and recognised areas in need of improvement, you need to create some plans.

Do you want to see some more diversity in your employees? Do you think management should have more women in positions?

Whatever your plans are, you need to make sure that they are effective for the long haul. Think about where you want your business to be 6 months from now, a year from now, and three years from now.

By setting targets for the long haul, it makes sure that these steps you’re taking to improve the level of diversity in the workplace aren’t performative or temporary.

What’s more, it’s also important to write down these steps and share them with your employees.

Now that you’re come up with these plans and implemented them, you need to make sure that you’re doing consistent reviews.

Whether it’s by yourself or, even better, an outside and independent source, having someone reviewing your policies ensures that there is consistent improvement.

Diversity in the workplace isn’t something that is simply ‘achieved’ one day when you reach a certain quota. It’s something that needs to be worked on and maintained, and always improving.

So, now that you’ve come up with some goals for your business that you’re going to consistently review, what is it that you can actually do?

Lots of different companies will post job offers that are only open to People of Colour, people with disabilities, or people from low income areas.

These vacancies provide opportunities to those that usually wouldn’t have it, by limiting the application process to only certain types of people.

One such organisation that does this, Creative Access, states that its mission is to “help under-represented communities, not just enter the creative industries, but to thrive when they get in.”

For the businesses they partner with, they only ask of three things: that they hire diverse candidates when recruiting, that they invest in staff from under-represented communities for senior positions, and that they help create an inclusive workplace.

This is just one example of how you can improve the quality of diversity in the workplace, by actively seeking under-represented people during the hiring process for new vacancies.

Just because your workplace is diverse, doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s inclusive.

Diversity training educates yourself and your employees on the ways to run and maintain an inclusive workplace, and how to be welcoming of people who are not like you.

Perhaps some of your employees engage in religious practices that impact the way they work. Maybe some of your staff need special allowances, like extra break times, because of a disability they may have.

Whatever the case, there are hundreds of possibilities and reasons why you should consider diversity training for your employees and management.

It helps ensure that your workplace is not only tolerant, but also accepting and safe for people from under-represented backgrounds.

And, considering that according to Stonewall, one in eight Transgender employees have been physically attacked by staff or customers, and 18% of LGBT staff in the UK have been the target of bullying from other colleagues, it’s safe to say that there are still some ways to go to make sure all workplaces are inclusive.

It’s clear to see that there is still a long way to go in improving diversity in the workplace, particularly diversity in the marketing workplace.

From gender or racial discrimination, to a lack of opportunities, and also a lack of representation in management, there are lots of areas in need of addressing and improvement.

And, most importantly, it’s always good to remember the benefits that a more diverse and inclusive workplace will bring. Not only does it boost your company’s representation and ensure for a greater variety of ideas and approaches, it could also boost your revenue too.

According to Market Inspector, increasing diversity in the workplace can boost the UK economy by £24 billion a year.

So, how are you going to be making your workplace more diverse? Let us know in the comments!