David Reis
Sep 12, 22 | 6 min read
Building a diverse workforce
Reading time: 4 minutes
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) have never been a strong agenda item for companies. But today we are talking about it thanks to employee demands, pressure from investors, marketing strategies or because companies like Rock Content know it is the right path.
Whatever the reasons, we are seeing that this is not a passing wave. People, both consumers and employees, are more concerned about DEI.
It is no longer a simple option for companies to start working on issues of diversity and inclusion, nor is it a simple option to behave ethically and comply with the law.
On the other hand, it is not uncommon to see lost managers wondering what actions to prioritize: “How can I become an inclusive leader? How do I manage a diverse team?”
What's more, there are those who still question whether it will actually have a significant and positive effect on the team.
The answer is yes, and we'll dive into numbers, stories, and data that show that having more diversity in companies not only benefits the bottom line, but is crucial to it.
This is what I learned as a DEI leader at Rock Content, with our efforts to build a more diverse and inclusive environment for our 400 Rockers spread across 20+ countries.
Within companies
The concepts of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion list of sweden consumer email have been built in the business and university environment over the last 30 years.
Intense globalization processes have forced multinationals to interact not only with the diversity of consumers, but also with the diversity of their work teams in other countries. This raises the first challenge: how to create products and offer services to such different people?
Managers began to realize that people were similar to each other and that something had to be done about it. They also realized that it was not possible to separate oneself from social movements around the world. Society also began to better understand the effects of discrimination in the business environment.
The conquest for the rights of historically underrepresented groups and understanding that without affirmative actions many changes would not be possible became key in business models and business management.
The true value of diversity
If you are still not convinced that companies are affected by social problems and that they also need to be allies in the fight against inequalities, I have some other data that will help you think differently:
83 % of millennials are more engaged when they believe their company fosters an inclusive culture. ( Deloitte )
Companies with a high percentage of gender diversity are 15% more likely to have financial returns above the national industry average. Companies with a higher percentage of racial/ethnic diversity are 35% more likely to have financial returns above that of their national industry. ( McKinsey )
Companies that reported higher levels of racial diversity generated 15 times more sales revenue on average than those with lower levels. ( Science Daily ).
More diverse companies are 70% more likely to capture a new market and 45% more likely to report increased market share each year. ( Harvard Business Review ).
As we have seen, working on the issue of diversity and inclusion is not only the right thing to do, but also the smart thing to do, because everyone wins.
It’s not a campaign or an endorsement. Your brand must genuinely care about diversity, equity, and inclusion . A stance that comes from the inside out and must be felt from your practitioner to your most important customer.
How Rock Content went from talk to action
These concepts have always been part of Rock Content's values since 2013. However, in 2019 we officially structured our Social Impact and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion areas. As you can see, this is also new for us.
We have come a long way since then, so we can share some victories, actions and also lessons learned.
Over the past three years, we have promoted events, conferences and workshops on these topics. We carry out volunteer activities in education and employability, connecting Rockers with their purpose of positively impacting the world.
And how do we manage these actions?
In addition to the Social Impact and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion teams, we have the Rocker Network Groups, focused on five pillars: gender equity (Women and Parents in Rock); racial equity (AfroRock); accessibility (Rock Inclusion), focused on people with special needs; identity (Roqueer), focused on the LGBTQIAP+ community; and giveback (Rock.org), which works on volunteering issues.
With these groups created organically by employees, we manage to bring management closer to representation and more people closer to inclusion practices. In a decentralized way, but connected to the whole, we propose that the teams themselves review their processes.
An example of this is what the Talent Acquisition (TA) team has been doing, who reviewed all their recruitment processes to attract diverse talent to the company.
