Buffer is a global company with both the opportunity and the responsibility to bring a variety of cultures, backgrounds, life experiences and perspectives to our work in order to truly represent our customers.
There are 3 main reasons that any business can and should focus on diversity:
Let’s look at each one in a bit more detail.
Research shows that socially diverse groups (those with a diversity of race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation) are more innovative than homogeneous groups.
Prof. Ron Burt of the University of Chicago conducted an empirical study indicating that people with more diverse sources of information generate consistently better ideas:
(The vertical axis shows management assessments of a series of employee ideas related to supply-chain management. The horizontal axis measures the level of diversity in an employee’s internal connections. As you move to the right, you see employees who are more insular in their connections. They lack diversity of input in their day-to-day world.)
The graph indicates that higher diversity of connections also translates to the perception of higher quality ideas.
This data is borne out in the results of studies of diverse teams.
A focus on diversity also brings in more candidates: In a recent Glassdoor survey, two-thirds of the people polled said that diversity was important to them when evaluating companies and job offers. Deloitte found that 80 percent of employees say that inclusion is an important factor in choosing an employer.