Inclusivity = Innovation : The Hidden ROI of Diverse Workplaces

In this episode of The Inclusive Edge: The Power of Diversity, I explore the transformative impact of diversity on business innovation and success with special guest Gill Cooke, an Inclusion Consultant.  Together, we unpack the hidden return on investment (ROI) of fostering inclusivity in the workplace.

Key Highlights:

The Business Case for Diversity:

Andrea and Gill dive into data-driven insights, such as McKinsey's finding that companies with ethnically diverse leadership teams are 36% more likely to outperform peers financially. They also discuss how diversity drives innovation, with companies boasting diverse leadership generating higher revenues from innovative products.

Barriers and Misconceptions:

We discuss how despite the clear benefits, many organisations struggle to embrace diversity due to misconceptions about costs, resistance to change, or a lack of leadership accountability. .

Actionable Takeaways:

Gill offers practical steps for building inclusive workplaces, such as diversifying recruitment pipelines, offering inclusive leadership training, and leveraging metrics to track progress. .

Transcript

Andrea Derbyshire (00:10)
Hello everyone and welcome back to the Inclusive Edge, the Power of Diversity podcast, a podcast dedicated to helping leaders and HR professionals create fair, diverse, inclusive and dynamic workplaces where everyone can thrive. In each episode, we explore different practical strategies for tackling workplace equality challenges and helping you to build an inclusive culture. Join us as we learn how to unlock the full potential of your team and create a workplace where every voice is heard.

Gill Cooke (00:34)
Thank you.

Andrea Derbyshire (00:40)
In today's episode, we'll be diving into one of the most compelling reasons to prioritise diversity and inclusion in the workplace. It's not just the right thing to do, it's a business imperative. With the episode, inclusivity equals innovation, the hidden return on of diverse workplaces. And my guest joining me today is Gill Cooke, who's an inclusion consultant. I'm delighted to have you here with us today, Gill, to explore the benefits of inclusivity and innovation. So welcome and thank you for sharing your time with me today.

Gill Cooke (01:14)
Thank you for having me, Andrea.

Andrea Derbyshire (01:16)
we often hear that diversity is more than a moral priority. Research shows it goes a lot further than that. It's a critical driver for business success. And there's research from McKinsey in 2020 in a report called Diversity Wins that found that companies that have gender diverse executive teams are actually 25 % more likely to experience above average profitability. And those equally that have an ethnically diverse leadership team at the top. more likely to outperform their peers financially. What do you think it is that makes diversity so impactful?

Gill Cooke (01:55)
Thank you. So, yeah, I mean, it really does. There is evidence that diversity inclusion work, as long as it is embedded properly across the whole organization. So that's from attraction to marketing and PR initiatives, to equitable policies and processes, that it actually increases the bottom line. You've already shared some statistics. But there's also other things like customer loyalty and increased customer appeal.  66 % of the LGBTQ plus community would rather purchase goods from businesses that are friendly to their community, even if the prices are higher. And also about 80 % of people believe that it's important that a company does have inclusion and diversity policies when they decide to work for them. And the millennial generation which is 27 % of the global population. They actually seek out employers.

Andrea Derbyshire (02:34)
Yeah.

Gill Cooke (02:51)
with a strong inclusion and diversity record. So as well as retention, brand reputation, it actually does reap economic benefits. I'll give you an example actually of when it hasn't worked or, you know, because lack of diversity, you can really miss a trick. So if we think about Apple's Health Kit, which was launched in 2007, it could help you keep track of your blood alcohol content.

If you were still growing, it could track your height. If you had an inhaler, it would help you track how often you use it. And you could even use it to input your sodium intake. And yet of all the stuff that you could do with the health app, Apple somehow managed to emit a menstrual cycle tracker. The period tracking feature only arrived in 2019. And why was that? Because none of the developers were women.

Andrea Derbyshire (03:26)
Mm-hmm.

Wow.

Wow, so we know that like half of the population are female and that just hadn't been considered. It's really missing a trick isn't it in terms of the research and that's it's phenomenal as well around

Gill Cooke (03:52)
Yeah.

Andrea Derbyshire (03:56)
much of an impact diversity and inclusion has. So I've heard that, you know, the younger generations that they wouldn't consider working for an organisation unless they really demonstrated commitment to the equality and inclusion agenda. It's something that's, that's just so important to them. And that as well around things like the pink pound and just, they don't always consider these things, do they?

There's also lot of compelling evidence that diversity fuels innovation. Consulting Group have shown that companies that do have a diverse leadership team, can generate up to 19 % higher revenue from innovative products and services. So it's just fascinating how diversity drives such measurable results. And there's another statistic that stood out to me.

Gill Cooke (04:22)
No.

Andrea Derbyshire (04:46)
around diverse teams making better decisions 87 % of the time, which is a huge statistic, isn't it?

Gill Cooke (04:55)
It really is. also what's interesting about that and the reason that diverse teams make better decisions is because if everyone just agreed with everyone, how are you going to get innovative? How are you going to come up with new ideas? You've got to have diversity and that's diversity of thought, life experience and identity to come up and sort of bring and increase that innovation. But also, as you said, efficiency as well.

Andrea Derbyshire (05:21)
Yeah, if you've got a homogenous group, it's very similar life experiences, just missing out on so much, said, diversity of thought Jill, despite the evidence, we know that still not all organisations have fully embraced or do embrace DEI. What do you think are the biggest misconceptions or barriers that holding people back on this agenda?

Gill Cooke (05:44)
Yeah, it's a really interesting one. And I think some of the biggest challenges against sort of fully embracing diversity, equity and inclusion is the perception that diversity excludes a huge demographic. There's too much focus on the nine protected characteristics in the UK. But the reality is, that gender equality can't happen without men being on board as allies.

Race equality will never exist unless white people acknowledge their privilege and bias. So true inclusion needs to bring everyone on the journey. And I think the problem here is up to now is that perhaps we have been guilty as D &I professionals of maybe omitting or being seen to have excluded a huge demographic. And we're seeing the outcome of that.

Andrea Derbyshire (06:11)
Absolutely. Yeah. 

Gill Cooke (06:37)
with across the pond, with the high percentage of, if you look at the gender as well as the race split of who voted for Trump, for example. So I think the key thing is that in order to be more effective in the future, we have to start with inclusion, focus on culture and diversity will follow.

Andrea Derbyshire (06:39)
the US.

Gill Cooke (07:00)
So it's almost like make sure your house is in order first before you invite people in. Otherwise, you're to be recruiting people. And in the past, what's happened is that they've recruited, organizations have recruited, you know, much more diversity. But then those people have been recruited, do not feel included. They don't feel safe. They don't feel that they're able to progress. And so they leave. And so perhaps, you know, maybe these sort of initiatives haven't been as successful as they could have been. I think the other thing is that you've got to consider that it's a long term goal. It's a program. a, it's basically a change program that needs to be delivered as a project. And it's not an add on. Inclusion needs to be considered as a key stakeholder in every project, every marketing campaign, product development and launch with inclusive design being embedded right at the beginning.

And once leaders and managers understand that the impact of not doing this work will cost their profits and hurt their brand, then they'll jump onto the inclusion bus.

Andrea Derbyshire (08:05)
Mm-hmm. Yeah definitely. I totally resonate with some of the things that you've just said there Jill, like around equality and inclusion. It's the long game. We don't always see immediate short-term results, but I think that it happens over a period of time. And I think people often forget as well that we've all got protected characteristics. It's the nine protected characteristics. Some people, know, minoritised or have historically been disadvantaged, but we all do have those protected characteristics.

Gill Cooke (08:23)
Mm.

Andrea Derbyshire (08:39)
It's about everybody and including everybody. what you said as well reminded me of what aboutism, so that sometimes people think, you if you say there's an issue and you recognise there's an equality issue and they'll say, what about this or what about that without accepting an element of denial.

Gill Cooke (08:59)
Yeah, absolutely.

Andrea Derbyshire (09:01)
some of the statistics as well show the opposite of that, the inclusive workplaces, they do have higher team collaboration and greater levels of team commitment. So it not only helps to boost morale, but it does also help to retain and keep them talent in the organisation.

Gill Cooke (09:21)
Yeah, that's so true. And all the organizations that I work with, both in the private and public sectors, are driving this change from the top. Inclusive leaders recognize that it's in their interest and the organization's interest to focus on culture, well-being, belonging, mental health, as well as recognize that we're all different with unique lived experience, unique perceptions. As you said, we will all
identify with at least one of those protected characteristics. And if we all come together to be more innovative, then we're also going to perform better and be more productive, which is what you mentioned before. So if leaders look after their people, organizations will have less sick days, they'll have less turnover of staff, they'll have more internal promotions and happy and loyal employees who retain.

So it's almost like what the cost of not doing this work is going to be higher than the cost of doing the work.

Andrea Derbyshire (10:20)
Yeah, yeah, It's so short-sighted, isn't it, to not think of these things and the benefits? I know an organisation, Salesforce, they've tied executive bonuses into achieving measurable diversity and inclusion goals, so that helps to embed the agenda from the top down, so it's aligning it to the core business and the. equality objectives. Do you think that kind of accountability is that the way forward?

Gill Cooke (10:50)
Yeah, it's got to be really, it's got to be. I mean, I think we do have to be aware of like how we approach it and what is the best way of approaching it within different organisations. Because what works for one organisation won't necessarily work for another. So we do need to make sure that that, you it's not just a one size fits all. We also have to be very aware of what's going on you know, over the pond.

Andrea Derbyshire (11:11)
Yeah, it's fit for purpose.

Gill Cooke (11:15)
So for example, Walmart has just announced that they are reducing their diversity inclusion metrics, their targets, et cetera. They're focusing more on belonging. Now we can obviously react to this really badly and it is bad news, don't get me wrong, but I do think that there's a bit of a tied movement around focusing more on belonging and inclusion rather than diversity.

Andrea Derbyshire (11:26)
Yeah.

Yeah, I think this might be about the positioning of the agenda, that if you make it about inclusion and belonging, people may feel that it's relevant to them and you might be able to win more hearts and minds rather than talking about particular characteristics, potentially.

Gill Cooke (11:56)
Yeah, I'm not saying it's necessarily right, but I do think we possibly need to play the game to get the long-term aim.

Andrea Derbyshire (12:03)
Yeah. Okay. Thank you, Jill. Can we leave our listeners with some practical advice? So what do you think are the three main actionable steps that they could take away today to help them to create more inclusive workplaces?

Gill Cooke (12:18)
Yeah, so I think the first, basically start from the very beginning. Like what do your people want? Have you even either asked them? Do you action your employee engagement responses? Do you listen to what they say? So first of all, find out what your people want and ask. Don't make assumptions, ask. Secondly, I think it's really important to understand that key metrics and progress can be measured through qualitative, i.e. voices and insight, as well as quantitative, i.e. data. So you probably already have a wealth of insight that you can use immediately. So it's not like there's extra stuff that you need to do. Look at what you've already got before you start trying to capture more data. And then thirdly, it's training. Training is fundamental. And it's not just a one-off bias training, but it's a program of education and coaching of leaders and managers so that they can role model and support and uphold like the Employee Code of Conduct and demonstrate organisational values and behaviours.

Andrea Derbyshire (13:24)
I agree. That's so important around increasing skill sets and knowledge and competence at all levels in the organisation.  it's clear that creating an inclusive environment, it's just about so many different elements and aspects throughout the employment cycle but also in everything that the organisation does be able to create and foster a culture where everyone feels empowered to thrive. So that's when magic happens. Are there any points or comments that you'd like to make, Gill?

Gill Cooke (13:59)
Yeah, I think it's just really important to remember that it's not, it doesn't have to be massively expensive. It doesn't have to be a big, big change program. But by making small, inclusive changes to your processes, to your policies, you can actually enhance the experience for everyone. So for example, in your recruitment, consider what actual role you're hiring for.

Usually these job roles are just so long, there's hundreds of bullet points and must haves. And quite often you're immediately ruling out huge demographics from even applying to your organization without you even being aware of it. So for example, does the role really need a university degree? Does the role really need to have five to seven years experience? Because that immediately rules out anyone under 25, anyone who's had a career break, anyone who's been abroad,
or anyone who might be changing careers. And these are all groups of people who could have fantastic capability for the role, but they're not even being considered and they wouldn't even apply because they're being ruled out immediately. So I think it's brilliant that, you know, when we do want to use technology and AI processes in recruitment, that's absolutely great because it, you know, can be really efficient, but do please ensure that they're free of bias and they've been developed by a diverse team with different life experiences and identities.

Andrea Derbyshire (15:28)
Yeah, I think it's spot on what you said about things that there doesn't always have to be lot of investment in terms of resources. There can be some really small things that can make a real impact and a big difference and you don't always have to be going doing the latest new thing or introducing initiatives. But if you think about equality and inclusion in everything that you do, mainstream it into core business, it just becomes embedded than and part of the way that you do things in the organisation. thank you so much for joining me today and for sharing your insights and expertise with the listeners, really appreciate it, it's been great speaking to you and you've shown us and demonstrated that diversity isn't just a moral imperative, it's a business superpower. To all our listeners thank you so much for tuning in to The Inclusive Edge, the power of diversity. If you enjoyed today's episode don't forget to subscribe

If you'd like to be a guest on the show please do reach out to me and let's continue working together to build workplaces where every voice is heard and everyone thrives. Until next time stay committed to inclusion, stay on the inclusive edge and keep driving positive change in your workplaces.