4 Considerations to Enhance Workplace Diversity

(4 min read)

International Women’s Day is around the corner on the 8th of March… With this in mind, it is the perfect opportunity and a good time to reflect on the amazing influence of increased diversity in the working environment and how you could improve diversity and inclusion within your own businesses. 

Keep reading this blog post to get further ideas on how you can advocate positive change in your organisational diversity.  At NTT DATA Business Solutions and NTT Data, we are just at the start of developing this important topic, and we will be sharing how we intend to move forward. 

Diverse workplaces often perform better; this alone is a leading factor in why business leaders would want to increase diversity. HR departments and leaders have had the objective of increasing diversity in the workplace for decades. Diversity is often viewed with a moral question of right and wrong, but an individual should not be rejected on the grounds of religion or race, especially when diversity is thought to enhance productivity.

I discovered a very interesting study by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) that illustrated that “companies that have more diverse management teams have 19% higher revenue due to innovation.” Looking back at statistics and research from previous years, it’s clear that diversity and inclusion is great for business, in terms of profitability, creativity, innovation and productivity.

International Women’s Day is an effective reminder to consider what approaches are best in implanting workplace diversity, especially when it comes to unconscious gender bias. Women represent only 1 in 5 members  of the C-suite, statistics like this show that we need to make a difference but it’s not enough to simply want a change. We have to bring this to life and commit to diversity.

Developing a Groundwork for Diversity

Step number one towards getting your commitment to diversity is to start with looking at your current KPIs and measuring progress. Laying a foundation is the only way to measure if efforts are successful.

Step number two, think about your own mind-set. Change starts from within, from you. Ask yourself, how can I be a leader? How can I vary my behaviour and communication to aid cultural change? You also have to ask yourself why there isn’t already the diversity you need in the company?  Where is it stemming from? What can you do to change this?

At NTT DATA Business Solutions, we consistently ask ourselves these questions to reflect on how far we are on the journey towards our goal of workplace diversity.

Step number three, take a look your company policies –are there policies that promote cultural diversity and inspire freedom of thought? Are managers trained on inclusivity and how to guide diverse teams? Are there foundations in place that help minority employees enjoy the same opportunities as others when they are looking for career development?

Applying these foundations will absolutely help to expand diversity in your organisation. It is imperative to stay in contact with your organisation on this topic and to raise discussions to continually stay in the loop.

Pushing a culture change will depend on your colleagues and employees, so prioritise the importance of internally communicating this topic.

At NTT DATA Business Solutions, we incorporated diversity as a fixed component in our people values. This was done to raise the significance to our employees. This is just one way of pushing change and just one aspect of many changes that need to be made.

Step Four: We have gone through ways you can nurture diversity, it’s also important to study how you will attract and retain a diverse pool of talent.

Vary Your Talent Pool

A study from LinkedIn found that women are 16% not as likely to apply for a job, but 16% more likely to get a job for which they do apply. “If women apply for jobs at a lower rate”, asks the Havard Business Review, “but tend to be the right candidates, why are they more selective about the jobs they apply to, and how can companies more effectively reach them?”

The article recommends a number of steps companies can take in order to make up for the “confidence gap” between men and women. One suggestion would be to avoid aggressive and masculine language. You can also highlight and promote success stories from successful women, networking events, and internal women’s organisations within your company to help increase inclusiveness.

I hope these thoughts and ideas helped to increase your outlook on workplace diversity. What are you’re thoughts on these questions and ideas that have been raised in this post?

How We Engage at NTT DATA Business Solutions with Workplace Diversity

At NTT DATA Business Solutions, we are aware of the importance of workplace diversity and are constantly working on improving it within our company. Through internal communication, we try to sensitize our employees and colleagues for that meaningful matter.

Our owner, NTT DATA, has all but achieved this in Romania and Myanmar. It boasts a multinational, employee-led women’s group – Women Inspire NTT DATA (WIN) – active in nine countries, supporting and promoting women throughout its workforce. In addition to various other country-specific efforts and women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) recruitment programs, itelligence and NTT DATA are proud to endorse the UN’s Women’s Empowerment Principles.

We may not yet be where we want, but we’re on our way.
And we’re always happy to talk and exchange perspectives.
What are your experiences? How do you proceed on this way?

I’d be happy to talk with you,

Olesija Polowinko