Diversity and inclusion are becoming more and more important to companies. Bringing different ideas, cultures and lifestyles to the company and making them feel that these differences belong to the company basically ensures the development of the company culture. This brings with it the increase in customer satisfaction with the products that companies produce and the services they provide, while also expanding the company's talent pool.
It is beneficial in many ways for companies to employ people from different genders, socio-economic status and demographic structures.
So, what are these benefits and how can companies implement them?
(1) Maximizing Potential with Diversity and Inclusion
Having a highly diverse workforce enables companies to better respond to the needs of their stakeholders, especially their customers. A study published by the Harvard Business Review shows that ethnically diverse companies are 35% more likely to outperform, and gender-diverse companies are 15% more likely. In addition, many consumers turn to brands with which they can personally relate. Diversity and inclusion also benefit companies in this respect.
(2) Maximizing Operations with Diversity
From a talent management perspective, diversity and inclusion help create an environment where everyone can maximize their potential and contribute their best ideas and competencies. If a company's success today is measured by its capacity to innovate and develop new solutions, you cannot do this by excluding a portion of the population. For this reason, creating a corporate culture that is open to different perspectives, where these differences belong and where ideas can be freely discussed can be considered as the key to success for both talents and companies.
Diversity and inclusivity are becoming a necessity for companies' employer branding, especially in today's world where we are witnessing global trends such as "The Great Resignation" and "Silent Resignation" and talents are becoming more mobile. Companies that have diversity and inclusion policies and implement them effectively stand out as institutions where talents want to work. Considering that the number of Z generation representatives is increasing day by day in business life, it is very important to present a corporate culture where talents can share their values.
(3) Creating an Inclusive Environment
The benefits of diversity and inclusion for companies are clear. So, what are the ways to make it a part of corporate culture? The first is to place diversity and inclusion at the center of human resources policies. The basis of this is to ensure equality of opportunity, and to establish a system based on the competencies of individuals regardless of “who” they are in all areas from recruitment to performance management. It is important that human resources management is a function that contributes to awareness-raising activities as well as being the guarantor of equal opportunity in companies. At the same time, it is critical for diversity and inclusion management to ensure that talents are included in the decisions taken in the company with employee participation.
(4) Monitoring Diversity and Inclusion Studies
In addition to all these, it is a must for companies to set targets for diversity and inclusion, to follow these targets and to report them. Starting from the "you can't manage what you cannot measure" approach attributed to Peter Drucker, one of the leading names in the field of management, the first condition of progress is that companies also measure their work in the field of diversity and inclusion.
Just as annual targets are set for each employee and the performance of individuals is measured accordingly, we can say that one of the critical success indicators for companies is their performance in the field of diversity and inclusion.
I believe that the annual reports published by Yıldız Holding Women's Platform for Yıldız Holding companies are very valuable in this respect. As the team that contributed to the report by sharing basic data in terms of human resources management, we can say that this creates a great awareness and creates an incentive to perform better in this field every year.