“Diversity is being invited to the party, inclusion is being asked to dance”
– Verna Myers, Leading Diversity and Inclusion Expert
In these unprecedented times, the road to survivability and subsequently success consists of 2 key factors - adaptability and resourcefulness. To take advantage of this situation, it is imperative to set in place an inclusive and culturally-diverse environment.
Diversity is all about including, valuing, embracing, respecting and recognising each employee and their respective differences. It is also about trusting that the sum of these differences creates a variety of views, knowledge, skills and experiences that tallies a good amount of value to an organisation. That is what diversity stands for, apart from doing the bare minimum of ensuring the right balance of race and gender amongst employees.
How does a diverse workplace translate into business success?
According to research by the Boston Consulting Group, companies that consist of diverse management teams have 19% increased revenue resulting from innovation. The rationale is that employees hailing from diverse backgrounds have much to offer to their teams with regards to experiences, ideas, and perspectives, leading to teams with increased creativity and problem-solving abilities. This proves that new ideas often come about when people are faced with differing viewpoints and are persuaded to reconsider their assumptions.
Creative, agile, resilient, and effective teams are born when one brings together a diverse group of people that possess differing viewpoints, which leads to the eventual outperforming of their competitors. This is backed by a study by McKinsey which discovered that companies in the top quartile for ethnic and racial diversity are 25% more likely to receive an above-average return on investment (ROI). Moreover, it was discovered that companies which are gender-diverse are 15% more likely to receive above-average ROI.
In contrast, companies that are in the bottom quartile for diversity are less probable to achieve above-average results. The findings are perpetually supported by the Catalyst report, which is a summary report of current studies from around the globe. It constantly shows that more companies that practice diversity tend to outperform their competitors. This strongly suggests that diversity is not merely a statistic to be strived for; it should be an inherent part of a strategy of a successful profitability-and-growth generating business.
How then, do businesses ensure that they have a diverse workforce?
Being transparent and responsible for diversity and inclusion begins from top-down management. Wholesome acceptance, diversity and inclusivity are values and traits that need to be integrated into the organisations’ cultures. Organisations need to challenge existing biases that hamper hiring decision-makers’ thought processes when selecting talent. Organisations also need to think outside the box about how diverse workforces can create more creative and productive management teams.
The question then becomes: how can we re-programme our innate natures to avoid any unconscious bias? This is where Artificial Intelligence (AI) can step in. Enter Empauwer, a Singapore-based start-up that utilises AI to enhance employment success for autistic individuals, which helps to reduce biases by approximately 80% and improve tenfold the quality of hiring decisions.
How can Empauwer help to tackle biases in hiring?
1. Artificial Intelligence (AI) – To understands the needs of individuals with autism, and provide recommendations in real-time through our Virtual Mentor Chatbot.
2. Natural Language Processing (NLP) & Natural Language Understanding – To enhance the interactivity of the Virtual Mentor Chatbot.
3. Machine Learning – To enable the Virtual Mentor to adapt better to the users’ specific needs and challenges.
4. AI-Integrated Job Marketplace – To establish a marketplace of such talent and employers seeking to hire them. AI-fuelled job matching matches the best-fit candidates to jobs and enhances employment opportunities for candidates with autism.
To conclude, research has shown that there is increased revenue, and greater returns-on-investment from innovation in companies, which is brought about by diversified teams. Moreover, research has shown that companies that champion diversity outperform their competitors.
Organisations need to reduce biases in current practices in hiring. This is where Empauwer steps in with their AI offerings to tackle the issue of biasness to help neurodiverse individuals get hired, leading to a more diverse pool of talents in the workforce. Look no further to Empauwer’s AI and Machine Learning offerings, should you want to jump onto the Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) bandwagon.
Get involved with Empauwer and pre-register as an employer today by sending us an email at info@empauwer.com. For more information on Empauwer, head to www.empauwer.com.