YOUR BUSINESS SPRING 2019 - 268

Diversity in the
workplace has
been shown
to beneﬁt the
whole economy

Mix it up

Professor Gloria Agyemang
from the Royal Holloway
University School of
Management explains why
diversity is important in
universities and business
Diversity and inclusion in business
and management education
offers the opportunity of bringing
multiple views and voices and
experiences into decision making
in business, as well as allowing
a sharing of diverse talents to
meet the needs of business.
Having a diverse workforce,
particularly for SMEs, makes
a business more successful.
There will be a valuable range
of viewpoints and ideas,
which means agility to react
more creatively to change.
This can only be beneficial.
Diversity is one of the core
values at the Royal Holloway
University School of Management
and enables both staff and
students to learn how to live
communally for the benefit
of all of us and for society.
By respecting, accepting,
and learning from the
differences between us we
can inspire more responsible
leadership in the future.

268

also more likely to engender loyalty
from customers who prefer to spend
their cash with companies whose
practices are socially responsible.
Workplace diversity can also play
an important role in your ability to
reach markets abroad, opening up
opportunities for employees with
language skills and multicultural
understanding, for example.

Wide appeal

In fact, diversity in the workplace
has been shown to beneﬁt the whole
economy. According to the most recent
ﬁgures from the Department of Work
& Pensions, 77% of white people of
working age were employed in 2017,
compared with 65% of people from
all other ethnic groups combined. The
recent McGregor-Smith Review, which
looked at diversity in employment,
suggested that full representation of
BME individuals across the labour
market would add an extra £24bn to
the UK economy after a year. That's
a beneﬁt of around 1.3% of GDP if
BME individuals were immediately

represented across the workforce in the
same proportions as white individuals.
While the beneﬁts of a diverse
workforce are clear, entire industries
are missing out. A report published by
the Policy Exchange Forum found that
ethnic diversity is unevenly distributed
throughout the labour market, with the
most diverse jobs either low skilled and
insecure or highly skilled and requiring
a specialist qualiﬁcation. And while
health, education and hotels have the
highest rate of female employment,
mining and construction have the
lowest proportion of female employees.

Learn from the get-go

Education has a vital role to play as
we move towards a workforce that
reﬂects society in terms of race,
gender, physical and mental ability,
ethnicity, age, class, spiritual practice
and sexual orientation. "Equality
and diversity training is one of many
eﬀorts that employers can make to
demonstrate that they are taking
action to secure a diverse workforce,"
says the Equality and Human Rights
YOUR BUSINESS SPRING 2019

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