The business case for boosting diversity is simple. A more diverse team will result in innovative thinking, fresh perspective, and improve the appeal of your business to new talent. However, there are some businesses that continue to take the wrong approach when hiring, opting to recruit cookie-cutter versions of existing top performers, believing that this will amount to success. 

Choosing to do this will in most cases mean that you will be missing out on great talent and therefore the opportunity to improve your teams and your business. A diverse team at the helm will encourage collaboration, idea generation, and can inspire a new approach to everyday business challenges that will engage new customers with your products and services. But what are the key benefits of ensuring diversity within a digital team?

The lack of diversity in the digital sector stems from gender bias in certain subjects at school. Up until now, STEM subjects at schools have been male-dominated. This has then continued to university and, therefore, led to males going into more technical, analytical, numbers-focused roles in digital marketing when they graduate and start their careers. It is important to target individuals when they are at school, so you can showcase to them what digital roles can offer and persuade them to train for the industry during their studies. 

The benefits of a great D&I programme

A diverse team and a comprehensive diversity and inclusion (D&I) programme are both invaluable tools that will enable you to approach the market differently when hiring. Here are some of the key benefits of developing a great D&I programme within your organisation:

  • Diversity in ideas and increased innovation.
  • More creative campaigns.
  • A better understanding of the population.
  • A clearer strategy to target populations.

All of these are important as when you are marketing to customers, you are marketing to a diverse group of men and women, all coming from different backgrounds. You will, therefore, need the teams behind your campaigns to reflect the diversity of your customer base. 

How to begin making changes to your D&I strategy

There are a number of ways that you can begin to alter your approach in order to promote better diversity and inclusion in your business. Amending your strategy is all about learning from your changes and making adjustments accordingly. Learning about your business and your staff is crucial in making the right changes that will directly benefit your business, and these changes aren’t the same for everyone. 

Mentoring schemes

Mentoring schemes help to connect members of the business that may not have connected naturally. They also give staff members the opportunity to learn from one another and build professional relationships. Not to mention, some female digital marketers could be put off from working in businesses where there is a lack of senior women in digital or a lack of mentorship available to them.

Leadership

Making sure you have a diverse leadership board or staff at management level is crucial, as this will ensure that diversity spreads through the more junior positions of the business. As these junior individuals work their way up in a business or their careers, then you are creating a diverse, skilled talent pool of the future. If there are senior women and diverse professionals in a role, it will encourage diversity from the top down as more junior people within the team will have a diverse pool to look up to in the business, which drives motivation. 

Focus on inclusion

It is crucial to support your diverse teams once they have joined your business. Inclusion will shape the culture and atmosphere within your business. There is no use in having a diverse team that doesn’t feel comfortable within a business, you need to make sure they feel as though they can bring their full selves to work, as this is the only way they will properly succeed in the workplace. Not only will this promote a better working culture, but you will also see an increase in internal networks being built within the business as you encourage your teams to network with other teams and departments in a bid to increase inclusivity. 

Attracting and hiring a diverse workforce

Your recruitment process plays a huge part in how diverse your workforce is, therefore it is vital to adopt a recruitment process that enables diversity in your organisation. It is important to advertise for roles in a way that isn’t unbiased towards gender, race, location, background, or physical ability. This can be done through using inclusive language, which can even be drilled down to which words you use, in your adverts and making sure that your advert is being seen by the correct audience.

Building an inclusive workforce can take time in today’s market, but by making small changes and adopting new processes to your business, you will begin to see the benefits of a happier, more productive workforce. If you are interested in finding out how inclusive your sector is, use our Inclusivity Mapper to see where you rank.

If you are interested in increasing the diversity of your digital team or organisation, please get in touch with one of our specialist recruitment consultants. Alternatively, submit a job spec today.

Becca Moore
Business Manager, Michael Page Digital