The Importance of a Diverse Workforce

We hear about it a lot, and if you are part of a minority group, it’s an obstacle you must face every day. Yet, when it comes to a company hiring diverse candidates to do the job, what does diversity in the workplace mean?

First, let’s talk about what it doesn’t mean. It does not mean hiring workers simply because they fit a specific minority group that your company is currently lacking so that you can check off a box on a list to say we are diverse. It means hiring qualified workers based on merit but doing away with any bias associated with these minority groups. That sounds like a good plan, but when it’s put into action by a human resource director or business executive who is a person with both conscious and unconscious biases, it gets a bit more tricky.

Here is a more detailed description of how diversity in the workplace should look:

Diversity hiring is hiring based on merit but with careful attention given to making sure all of the hiring and workplace procedures are free of all bias related to age, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and any other physical trait or characteristic that is not related to job performance.

For a Human Resource director to free the workplace of bias and create a more diverse field of workers, they must first look closely at the current hiring process that is in place. Choose one thing to change and improve about hiring more diversely. Next, look at how you are sourcing candidates, screening them, and who gets added to the callback list for second interviews. How diverse is this process?

There is also a large array of job boards dedicated to helping employers find and hire employees with diverse backgrounds, such as HRJobBoard.com, Women for Hire, Military.com, Hispanic Today, and Diversity Jobs. These are extremely helpful in creating a diverse and inclusive work environment within your company.

Oftentimes, the way we write the job description includes bias we never realized was there that turns away potential diverse interviewees from the start. If they make it through the initial recruitment, the unrecognized biases held by the person looking over the resume is a hurdle that can put up a wall to consider the more diverse candidates. A way around both of these problems is to use computer software to help write the job description ads and gather pertinent data from applicants before sending it to the Human Resource Director for interviews.

Always keep in mind that your end goal is not to increase diversity in the workplace for the mere sake of diversity. The goal is to rid of all potential biases in the sourcing, interview screening, and hiring process. In the end, the way you write your job description, want ads, the way you conduct interviews, and who you hire will ultimately become more open to diversity and welcome a larger pool of candidates who can do the job well and represent your company with excellence.

Here is a list of the top fifty most diverse companies 

1. AT&T

2. Marriott International

3. ADP

4. Hilton

5. Eli Lilly and Company

6. Comcast NBCUniversal

7. Accenture

8. Mastercard

9. KPMG

10. Abbott

11. Cox Communications

12. BASF

13. Wells Fargo

14. Target

15. TIAA

16. Nielsen

17. Northrop Grumman

18. Toyota Motor North America

19. TD Bank

20. The Walt Disney Company

21. The Kellogg Company

22. Procter & Gamble

23. General Motors

24. Exelon Corporation

25. The Hershey Company

26. AbbVie

27. CVS Health

28. Colgate-Palmolive

29. Aramark

30. Randstad

31. Sanofi

32. The Boeing Company

33. Southern Company

34. Walmart

35. Medtronic

36. KeyBank

37. Dow

38. JC Penney

39. AIG

40. HSBC

41. McCormick & Company

42. Humana

43. Allstate Insurance Company

44. Express Scripts

45. HP Inc.

46. U.S. Bank

47. United Continental Holdings, Inc.

48. BBVA

49. Tata Consultancy Services

50. Intel Corporation