Diversity according to the New Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary is “when many different types of things or people are included in something”. At the workplace, diversity talks about employing people of different age, gender, race, educational background, ethnicity and abilities. Considering the growing globalization of organizations and the need to increase profit, workplace diversity is a key to success in business.
Many if not all business owners have a sole interest in minimizing costs and increasing profit. This of course should be the main aim or reason for the existence of any profit making business. According to Milton Friedman, the social responsibility of a business is to increase profit and make as much money as possible. The reason behind his position is not suggesting that managers should ignore all ethical responsibilities and simply pursue their self interest. He is rather suggesting that in pursuing maximum profits, a business entity is fulfilling her responsibility to society. To pursue this responsibility, business owners employ workers to work for them for a pay.
Unfortunately, many business owners forget about the advantages of workplace diversity and therefore employ based on ethnicity, gender, race among others. This is in fact affecting the profit margin of many businesses. Because of ethnicity, people employ “square pegs into round holes” thereby putting their business into jeopardy. If business owners would employ people of diverse backgrounds; the following benefits would accrue to them.
Reduced costs: If business owner would open up to employ people from different origin, they would get more qualified workforce which would propel their business to a higher level. This is because; any qualified worker no matter the origin would work hard for the betterment of the organization unlike the unqualified relations.
Easy and cheap resource acquisition: Many organizations source their resources from very far places at very expensive prices. However, with employing people from diverse background, a particular business or organization may get first hand information on where to get resources very easily and cheaply since the workforce are from around the world.
Increased problem solving avenues: Adopting workplace diversity brings about heterogeneous groups of individuals. These individuals from different backgrounds tend to increase problem solving abilities of the organization through a broader range of perspectives on the issues.
Increased customer satisfaction: It is no doubt that customers who transact business with many organizations are not from the same origin. They therefore have different ideas and perceptions about things. A diverse workforce tends to better understand the various needs of a diverse customer base and also help in attending to them thus leading to customer satisfaction which becomes a plus for the organization.
Attracting a higher quality and more diverse workforce: Any business enterprise that is noted for employing people from diverse backgrounds scarcely lacks workers. Workers are always knocking at the doors of such businesses thus reducing the labor turn-over.
It is worth noting that multicultural organizations tend to create workgroup cohesiveness, mitigate conflict and foster coherent action on major organizational goals.
In conclusion, workplace diversity is an influencing factor in increasing profit at the workplace. Business owners who want to increase profit should adopt this approach and see their businesses booming.
By: Bernard Amexo