Today
in Australia, about 28% of the population is born overseas, 20% of the parents
were born abroad, and about 20% speak languages other than English at home.
Therefore, in the Australian workplace, accepting cultural diversity is part of
everyday life for Australian employees. More importantly, we need to learn more
about cultural diversity and how to better accept it. In this blog, I have
listed the five benefits of cultural diversity to help better understand why
Australia needs to accept cultural diversity in the workplace.
1.
Cultural diversity encourages wider range of skills
When companies hire a more diverse
workforce from all backgrounds, these employees inevitably bring their own
specific skills, that can be often just as diverse.
Having a wider range of skills and
knowledge available to them, these companies often enjoy a more diverse and
adaptable range of products and services that they can offer to their
respective markets.
2.
Cultural diversity can increase creativity
Another benefit
of cultural diversity in the workplace is the increase in creativity among
teams, and the ability to have a more diverse set of solutions to specific
problems.
With so many
different and diverse minds coming and working together, many more solutions
will arise as every individual brings in their personal way of thinking,
operating and solving problems and making decisions. Companies that encourage
diversity in the workplace inspire all of their employees to perform to their
highest ability.
3.
Cultural diversity reflects positively on reputation
Cultural diversity in the workplace can bring
positive reputation to the company would. Companies who recruit and encourage
individuals from a wide range of backgrounds generally gain a reputation for
being a good employer.
Potential clients often feel more valued
and thus give more business to these organizations.
A diverse collection of skills and
experiences allows a company to provide service to customers on a global basis
because the company is able to relate and understand their clients better, and
some even on a personal level.
4.
Greater opportunity for personal and professional growth
Working
across cultures can be a truly enriching experiencing, allowing others to learn
about perspectives and traditions from around the world. Bonding over
similarities and differences can help you to become a global citizen,
abandoning prejudices or an ethnocentric world view—something that is
increasingly valuable.
A
diverse set of colleagues can be professionally enriching too exposing you to
new skills and approaches to work and developing an international network that can
take your career in exciting new directions or abroad.
5.
Cultural diversity can reduce employee turnover
A company that embraces cultural
diversity in the workplace would immediately entices a wider pool of candidates
for its job vacancies. Higher-educated candidates who experienced diversity
while at university may feel that a diverse company is more progressive and
therefore will want to work there.
The more candidates that applied for a
job with a company, the company would generally enjoy a larger pool of
candidates.
References:
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