Cultural diversity in a workplace involves companies that are open to hiring professionals from all over the world with different backgrounds and regardless of religion, race, culture or country. There are many advantages a multicultural team can bring to your workplace and business leaders should, nowadays, totally consider ways in which they can include more diversity to their working environment to enrich the culture and knowledge of their companies. In this article, we will highlight five of the many benefits of having an inclusive team in your business.
Disrespecting people based on their cultural background is an old fashion behaviour that, unfortunately, still exists. As businesses, it is our duty to bring a positive change in society and the world. Welcoming any culture in a team, will raise the standards and the values of the company and help vanish this social problem as time goes by.
Moreover, this will help the workplace to enjoy a more positive reputation and environment that will ultimately result in an improvement of the productivity levels.
This feeling of inclusion and understanding will strengthen team-building and demonstrate an equal opportunity mindset when hiring and promoting people from within.
As a part of society, people’s points of view and ways of thinking highly depend on the country they were born in. Therefore, having a diverse group of workers can provide the team with a different and new perspective and, as a result, boost creativity, drive innovation and stimulate the creation of new ideas. Having members form multiple backgrounds within a team, will provide workers a clear and quick insight of different cultures, traditions, events and history all over the world.
Having a team that speaks various different languages, and the same language but from different parts of the world, is beneficial for any team. It brings in language diversion and a local knowledge that is precious to teams like Sales, Customer Service and Marketing. On the other hand, it also gives team members the chance to learn a new language. The best way to get better and to learn a language is by speaking it. Having the opportunity to practice another language on a daily basis can be a great way to motivate and to consolidate the working team, allowing employees to connect and to learn in a more fun way!
Regarding business growth, a multicultural workforce can definitely help your business to expand into different geographic and demographic areas that might be unfamiliar for your firm. This cultural sensitivity and understanding is directly related to providing a higher quality and with the ability to offer better targeted marketing.
On a personal scale, people can share their unique experiences and stories and learn from them, as well as developing different communication and working skills that will not only help them perform their jobs better but also provide them tools to expand their professional careers.
Team members with diverse backgrounds are known for bringing a wide variety of solutions to the table, which leads to a more informed and accurate decision-making process that will usually generate better results. According to some studies, multicultural workplaces solve problems faster than groups with cognitively similar people. All these competitive advantages finally lead to more efficiency and increased profits for companies.
Workplace diversity is an exceptional way for attracting top talent from different talent pools. It is not a politically correct trend anymore, but rather a real competitive advantage that will help your group grow both on a personal and professional level. By becoming a more inclusive and empathetic team, your workers will achieve greater engagement, creativity, success and problem-solving skills. Making decisions to support and celebrate cultural diversity in your company will make your employees feel included and cared and result in a positive and inspiring working environment.
Ainhoa Canales is a freelance graphic designer and artist from Valencia, Spain. She specialises in creating and elevating lifestyle brands through brand identity, digital and print design, while creating minimal artwork inspired in nature and soul connections. You can find more about her and the work she does by visiting noadesignstudio.com