According to a study carried out in 2022 by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), which involved 1700 firms across eight countries, those companies that embrace diversity enjoy a 9% lift in profits and 19% more revenue from innovative products. This data underscores the importance of building teams consisting of individuals with varied backgrounds and viewpoints as they are more likely to succeed and devise fresh and inventive solutions.
Forbes, the widely respected magazine, has hailed the report as “massive” for industries such as IT companies, start-ups, and others that hinge on innovation for growth. This suggests that diversity is no longer just a desirable ambition to aim for but has now become a crucial element for any organisation looking to achieve success.
A report by Scientific American has revealed that including diversity in teams and organisations can be a wellspring of creativity, leading to sound decision-making and fewer issues. This is due to the fact that diversity promotes inquisitiveness and enables a wider spectrum of perspectives to be taken into account when making choices. Ultimately, cultivating a diverse atmosphere can have a favourable impact on the triumph of any enterprise.
Forbes states that having a diverse team is advantageous as it generates a range of viewpoints and methods for solving problems. This can lead to sounder and more thorough solutions, as all facets of a problem are examined. Ultimately, this can result in the best possible resolution to the issue.
The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) developed the Diversity Index to assess differences among individuals based on age, nationality, education, work experience, and career path. The index discovered that the most crucial predictor of both innovative output and financial achievement was the National Origin metric, which gauges the percentage of employees who are not from the same country as the parent company.
It is widely acknowledged that boosting workforce diversity can have a positive impact on efficiency and foster creative problem-solving. Nevertheless, as per the Boston Consulting Group, it is not sufficient to solely recruit employees from various backgrounds. To attain the desired outcomes, an active strategy must be implemented that encourages involvement from all parties concerned. Without an active approach, any endeavours to gain from a diverse workforce are unlikely to succeed.
The varied perspectives offered by a diverse team can result in significant benefits for the team’s performance, as Michael Archibald, the Chief Technology Officer of SalesRabbit, a software company that helps with sales, can confirm. SalesRabbit has reaped the benefits of hiring multiple Asian remote developers, as their distinct ideas and backgrounds proved to be more beneficial than just filling the skills gap that would have caused a delay in hiring locally and proven expensive.
According to Michael, the engineers stationed in Asia bring an array of cultural insights and expansion strategies to the forefront. This has allowed SalesRabbit to be receptive to new modes of thinking, and due to the diverse viewpoints in their workplace, they have been able to uncover novel techniques to enhance the quality of their work.
To accomplish their objectives, the SalesRabbit team was motivated to adopt a proactive approach and not settle for the current state of affairs. This involved upgrading to the latest platform version, revamping the SalesRabbit Application Programming Interface (API) with a more robust programming language, and automating processes that were previously done manually. These actions provided the team with new perspectives and empowered them to move ahead with their goals.
As per Michael, the team recognised that they might need to contemplate differing perspectives given that people were residing and working in a variety of settings – their own homes as well as those of their colleagues, which were being accessed via Zoom. Consequently, he encouraged everyone to pay careful attention to the suggestions being put forward as they were likely to be extremely valuable. The team was eager for the chance to receive such input.
With the emergence of remote work for engineers, it has become simpler for businesses to form engineering teams with a diverse range of experience and expertise. As software teams gain proficiency in fully remote collaboration, the potential candidates’ geographical locations are now no longer as important as before while recruiting. SalesRabbit utilised Works to hire engineers for their team in Asia. Works is specialised in providing staff augmentation services, bridging the gap between U.S. companies and highly skilled engineers from around the world for extended periods of time.
Read More: Diversity Hiring: How to Recruit Diverse Talent for Your Organisation
