5 Tools You Didn’t Know About to Amplify Diversity in Your Business

Building a diverse organization — one that better represents its customers and the broader public — isn’t only the right thing to do. It’s also good business.

That’s the conclusion of a McKinsey study establishing a clear correlation between workplace diversity and financial performance.

Pulling data from North America, Latin America, and the United Kingdom, McKinsey found that companies in the top quartile of racial and ethnic diversity metrics were 35% more likely to show financial results above their respective national medians. Companies in the top quartile of gender diversity metrics were 15% more likely to show above-average financial results. In the United States specifically, earnings before interest and taxes rose 0.8% for every 10% increase in racial and ethnic diversity on senior leadership teams.

It seems clear that diverse organizations are stronger organizations. The next question: How can business leaders, especially in small and midsize firms, work efficiently and urgently to increase and amplify diversity?

These five tools and strategies may help.

1. A Vendor Management System That Endorses Supplier Diversity

Truly diverse organizations must have diverse supply chains.

Vendor management tools like Certifiably Diverse can help. Built around a comprehensive intelligence solution called the BuyerSmartHub, Certifiably Diverse empowers users to find new diverse suppliers, manage existing supplier relationships and hold current vendors accountable, maintain diversity certification and compliance throughout the business relationship lifecycle, and gain granular visibility with thorough reporting tools.

Supplier diversity tools don’t only help businesses reach their own vendor representation goals. They provide enterprises with the tools they need to hold the entire supply chain accountable for reaching those goals. The more businesses that choose to use them, the more accountable that supply chain becomes — and the closer “diversity and inclusion” gets to becoming more than just the buzzword du jour.

2. A Holiday Calendar That’s Flexible and Inclusive

Don’t ditch the traditional 10-holiday business calendar. Definitely don’t make your employees work on Thanksgiving or Independence Day, problematic as these holidays might be for some.

But do make your company calendar more inclusive with a “floating holiday” schedule. Per SHRM’s helpful floating holiday policy template, the typical arrangement allows for two “bonus” holidays in addition to regularly scheduled company days off. Employees can use floating holidays to take time off for religious or cultural celebrations, employee birthdays, or recognized state or federal holidays that the company doesn’t observe.

The benefits of floating holidays should be clear. Most companies don’t officially recognize non-Christian religious celebrations, for example, even those with multicultural workforces. And, if nothing else, everyone deserves the day off on their birthday.

3. A Workplace Chat Solution That Enables Cross-Cultural Connection and Creates Safe Spaces

Countless employers already use workplace chat suites to manage communication between employees. These solutions are efficient, cost-effective, and scalable.

They can also amplify and celebrate diversity within the organizations that use them. Solutions like Slack allow near-endless “channel” permutations. This enables employers to carve out spaces for thoughtful, even difficult conversations around diversity, allows the creation of “safe spaces” for workers based on identity or affinity, and can help team members organize and scale diversity-related initiatives.

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