Does diversity really boost your bottom line?

Diversity and inclusion has shot up retail agendas and gone from a ‘nice-to-have’ to business-critical at a time when globalisation, increased travel and changing social demographics are transforming workplace attitudes, and when digital transformation requires new innovative ideas.

But can diverse teams and inclusive organisations be linked to a tangible increase in revenue or profits?

The True Value of Diversity, a new report produced by Retail Week in partnership with Google, seeks to answer this question.

“Companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams are 21% more likely to outperform on profitability”

A 2018 study by McKinsey & Company, Delivering Through Diversity, found that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams are 21% more likely to outperform on profitability, and 27% more likely to have superior value creation.

Numerous other studies published in recent years suggest that homogenous workforces with boards of directors made up of people from the same background are likely to fall into the business trap of ‘group-thinking’.

By contrast, the same studies indicate that groups exposed to people from different backgrounds, cultures, genders and ages think differently because their brains are forced to process complicated material normally alien to them.