Workforce Diversity

Workforce Diversity Diversity could be key to growing your business

Workforce Diversity

Is Diversity a key to growing your business?

Statistics show that a diverse staff could be key to growing your business. According to analysis by The Wall Street Journal, the 20 most diverse S&P 500 companies generally performed better financially over five- and 10-year periods. The analysts created a diversity ranking based on ethnicity and age of employees, whether a company has a diversity and inclusion program, the percentage of women leaders, and the board’s composition. 

A May 2020 report from global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company titled “Diversity wins: How inclusion matters” concurs: “the business case for inclusion and diversity is stronger than ever…The most diverse companies are now more likely than ever to outperform peers on profitability.” 

For instance, McKinsey & Company found that companies whose executive ranks were more than 30% female were more likely to outperform companies where the number of women executives ranged from 10%-30%. In the case of ethnic and cultural diversity, the top companies demonstrated similar success. 

The McKinsey & Company report also noted two common threads for successful diversity leaders in top performing companies: a systematic approach and bold steps to strengthen inclusion. Fairness and transparency are important to ensure the representation of diverse talent and enable equal opportunities. 

Workforce Diversity Diversity could be key to growing your business
Iris Farley, senior human resources director for Komatsu, said that the construction industry has close ties to the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields that have been highly promoted as careers during the past several years. “Highlighting that construction and mining careers involve operating and working on technologically advanced equipment to gain interest is something we should be doing, as well as showing that you don’t have to be male to be in these fields,” said Farley.

That success extends to companies that are inclusive of LGBTQ and nonbinary persons. A Gallup survey released in early 2021 reported that those who identified as LGBTQ in the United States rose to 5.6%, up a percent since 2017. 

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index 2021, a survey of leading companies and law firms, showed that the highest number of companies in the annual report’s 19-year history — 767 — received top scores for advancing LGBTQ policies. Organizations receiving a 100% score collectively employed over 13 million people.

“Our participating companies know that building an LGBTQ-inclusive workplace is not just the right thing to do — it is also the best business decision — allowing companies to attract, retain and engage top talent,” said HRC Foundation President Alphonso David. 

Workforce Diversity Diversity could be key to growing your business
Research by The Wall Street Journal analysts found that the 20 most diverse S&P 500 companies generally performed better financially over five- and 10-year periods. A McKinsey & Company report showed that the greater the representation, the higher the likelihood of outperformance.

Multiple, diverse perspectives

An overall snapshot of the U.S. population shows it is evolving. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one in four American adults has some type of disability, while the 2020 Census, which counted more than 330 million people, highlighted the changes in the U.S. 

For the first time in history, the white population in the U.S. declined. The
multiracial population, however, increased nearly four-fold — from 9 million in 2010 to nearly 34 million in 2020. People who checked “white” in combination with another race grew by more than 300%, and Hispanic and Latino, Black, Asian and other minority populations increased as well. 

A 2015 Census Bureau report projects that by 2044, the U.S. will no longer have a white majority. By that time, people of color will comprise more than 50% of the population. And while “the non-Hispanic white alone population is projected to remain the largest single group, no group will have a majority share of the total, and the United States will become a ‘plurality’ of racial and ethnic groups.”

Editor’s note: This article is excerpted from a longer piece with additional information about diversity and how it could help alleviate the labor shortage in construction. To read the entire piece, visit komatsu.com.