The Importance of Diversity and Inclusion:
Over 85% of employers in the UK believe that it is a priority to increase diversity within their workforce with 73% believing that higher diversity helps foster greater creative and innovative thinking within their team.
Recent surveys have also shown that it is increasingly important for younger generations to join organisations where diversity and inclusion are a top priority, with Gen Z placing it at the top of the priority list.
The importance of D&I continues to grow. More and more employers are placing greater value on having more diverse teams. Here are a few reasons why!
Why do employers value diversity?
73% of employers say diversity encourages creative and innovative thinking
67% believe that diversity is important so that their workforce can reflect the community they operate in
54% say diversity is crucial to ensure that they are doing business ethically
51% believe diversity helps introduce staff with unique skills into the workforce
Diversity and Inclusion at RecruitME:
RecruitME is 100% owned by military veterans, half of whom would describe themselves as LGBT. Our team is made up with a very diverse mix of colleagues including women in recruitment, LBGT, veterans, ethnic minorities, neurologically challenged and from disadvantaged backgrounds.
We are committed to attracting and retaining qualified talent from diverse backgrounds for our clients as well as making sure that we as a company ourselves have created a work environment which values every individual for their own distinctive skills, experiences, and perspectives.
We are a small team of seven now (looking to expand soon) and we pride ourselves on the diversity within our team. We always say that – you will never find any lone wolves here – and that is truer than ever. We have found that in having a more diverse team we have thrived and collaborated in a much more efficient way!
As a diverse workplace, we have seen amazing results with innovative and fresh ideas in terms of marketing and decision making within the sales department. We value each other for our differences – which not only makes for a great and fun workplace environment – but also enables us to identify each other strengths and weaknesses and find ways to collaborate and help each other with projects and can trust someone else to help support our clients and candidates when we are on holiday or are preoccupied with another project.
Our mission at RecruitME is to remove barriers, liberate minds, and change lives; and we believe that by placing diversity and inclusion at the forefront of our company values, we are in a much better position to achieve these aims.
How do we recruit diversely?
RecruitME puts inclusion and diversity at the heart of our business, and we include it in our company narrative, on our website, in our job descriptions, on social media and in all internal and external communications.
Most employers seek to hire employees based on culture fit and whilst it’s understandable to hire people who will fit in, it can lead to a homogenous workforce. We encourage employers to hire for culture-add, i.e., targeting candidates that bring something unique to the company culture that may currently not exist. We cast our recruitment net wider to include people from underrepresented groups, for example women in engineering.
Additionally, due to our location in the heart of Lincolnshire we work alongside companies that predominately have homogenous workforces and have found it difficult to find diverse talent. As a company, we pride ourselves on the fact that we are a highly inclusive recruitment agency, and we actively work to engage with candidates from backgrounds that would normally have been overlooked within our client’s standard recruitment process.
Unconscious racism, ageism and sexism play a big role in who gets hired and we still see this. That’s why it’s important for all our team here at RecruitME not only to recognise and speak openly about unconscious bias, but also to eliminate it through discussion and education.
Why is a diverse workforce so important?
We understand that becoming a more inclusive and diverse workplace is not always easy! But it is always worth it and will always be beneficial to both companies and workers. It requires a conscious effort to reach out to a larger supply of quality candidates, remove the barriers to hiring and ultimately create a more diverse employee population. But the advantages are endless and overwhelmingly outweigh the effort put in by recruiting a more diverse and inclusive workforce. Allegis Group has outlined some of the benefits below!
Competitive advantage – (ethnically diverse companies are 35% more likely to financially outperform their competitors )
Improved attraction and company reputation – (86% of candidates view diversity an important factor when looking for a new job )
It provides you with a broader talent pool
Increased creativity, productivity, and innovation – (inclusive companies are 1.7 times more likely to be innovation leaders in their market. )
Better relationships with clients
Bottom line profits – (companies with diverse leadership teams tend to produce 19% more revenue ).
References:
[1]Diversity-In-Recruitment-Whitepaper-web.pdf (robertwalters.co.uk)
[4]Why diversity matters | McKinsey
[6]Why Diversity and Inclusion Has Become a Business Priority – JOSH BERSIN
[7]A Study Finds That Diverse Companies Produce 19% More Revenue (forbes.com)
