How to Capture the Benefits of Gender Diversity
The link between gender diversity and capturing the business benefits is clear. Studies have shown that tech companies can benefit from hiring women as teams with equal numbers of men and women are more likely to be experimental, creative and share knowledge to fulfil tasks than any other team structures.
A gender diverse team leads to more innovative thinking. For investors it can signal that a company is competently run, increasing its appeal. And when it comes to recruitment, it should be considered that talented individuals make choices based on companies that do better with their diversity.
Gender diversity helps invite innovation and attract better tech talent for your company
A diverse workforce is an attractive working environment for tech and digital talent – with most job seekers looking for a gender diverse workplace when evaluating a job offer. This is particularly true of female candidates and especially so when candidates consider the leadership team.
It’s now considered that diversity is driving companies to outperform peers by enabling a culture where there is a better exchange of ideas. This chimes with what we discovered when researching Age and Culturally diverse workforces – when teams made up of people from different contexts work together those varying perspectives lead to greater creative output.
Embracing inclusivity signals that your company is well-run
The reason tech investors tend to look highly at companies with gender diverse workforces, particularly in a context where gender diversity is generally accepted, is because it signals to them that a firm is well-run.
Investors value companies that adopt commonly accepted positive values, such as gender inclusion – again, emphasised when there is a female board or leadership presence.
Gender diversity is more than just messaging for your website
While studies have shown that gender diversity relates to a more productive business, measured by market value and revenue, it is only visibly beneficial when diversity is accepted as ‘normal’.
By ‘normal’, we mean where there is a widespread shared value that gender diversity is important. So even if your company establishes policies or frameworks that resonate with the values of diversity, if there is a strong patriarchal culture in your company, the net effect may be insignificant.
This is also true of companies trying to capture the benefits where regional or Industry support for gender diversity is mostly lip service.
The takeaways
It’s clear that with most of the global tech community now extremely supportive of the gender equality agenda, diversity is vitally important but to capture the benefits, a true culture of gender diversity should be promoted as much as the actual value it brings.
If you’re interested in knowing more about diversity and how it can add value to your tech company, read our other blogs in this series:
