Workforce Diversity: Companies continue to suffer from gender, ethnic, and age gaps, among others. But since companies with more inclusive workforces are more profitable and capable of offering solutions, it is time for them to use all available strategies and technologies to end this problem.
But gender is not the most serious gap in the world of work: only one in four people with disabilities of working age works compared to 64% of the general population, according to the analysis. In addition, in a country that includes ethnicity in its statistics, the median salary of the black population was 68% lower than that of the white population.
Ways To Increase Diversity
Tackling the different forms of historical and systemic inequality is difficult, but not impossible, as the employment agency demonstrates. Its director of Human Resources has found several ways to increase the diversity and inclusion of companies. One is to use blind resumes, that is, without the candidate’s gender, age, address, marital status, or sexual orientation.
Training specially designed to meet the needs of companies is also key to promoting access to employment for minority groups in the labor market “There are very few people with disabilities with higher or very specific training.” Flexibility in the workplace is another element that benefits these groups.
Diversity Is Profitable
A diverse workforce is one in which people of all genders, ethnicities, ages, abilities, and come from different socio-economic backgrounds feel welcome. But, in addition to the social impact of diversity, Wolfe points out the added benefits of promoting inclusion in work teams.
Beyond ethical issues, diversity is an investment for the companies themselves. Companies with the most gender diversity in their management teams are 25% more likely to be more profitable than the competition.
This percentage rises to 36% in the case of ethnic diversity, according to a report by the consultant to McKinsey.
Where does this direct impact of corporate diversity on productivity and profitability come from?
It turns out that staffs made up of different people demonstrate a greater ability to attract customers and come up with different ideas. The director of Human Resources explains: “If we don’t have greater diversity in the teams and the entire organization is cut from the same pattern, all the solutions we give to the client are of the same type and we will only have one type of client. More diverse companies tend to offer more diverse solutions .”
Technologies In Favor Of Inclusion
Faced with the biases of the people who select the workforce, there are technological advances that could help increase social inclusion. If developed according to ethical principles, artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms have the potential to improve quality of life and reduce social gaps. Thanks to this power of technology, the action group C Minds, led mainly by women and dedicated to accelerating the positive impact of new technologies in Latin America, has chosen AI as a weapon to reduce diversity gaps in the continent.
Technology can help make the first screening of resumes and predict the possibility that the person will be suitable for the position. However, he asks for caution: “I don’t think we are prepared, nor is it the most appropriate thing for technology to do everything. The desirable thing is for technology to take away work that does not add value, but leave us the differential part: the final selection process, to sit down and look the candidate in the eye”.
But if done correctly, a well-designed AI-driven selection process can bypass candidate race and sexual orientation data to promote inclusion and redress inequalities, To achieve this, the Indeed expert points out that it is necessary to include a guide for the experts who create, train, and refine these systems.
Whether due to prejudice, unconscious bias, or systematic inequalities, it is clear that companies still have a lot of work to do to achieve equality and diversity in the workplace. But, given all its benefits, it should be just a matter of talent being the only variable to access a job.
