Equality, diversity, and inclusion are becoming essential components of business success. Although these concepts are often viewed through the lens of social justice and morality, a wealth of research shows that creating a culture of diversity and inclusion has significant and clear benefits for successful business development.
What is it?
We often look at equality, diversity and inclusion as one, because all these components are interrelated, but each of them has its own challenges and opportunities, which reveal the complexity of the task being pursued – to create a conscious and equal opportunity society.
Equality means that all people should have equal rights and equal opportunities to live a fulfilling life and achieve equal results (opportunity to study, receive equal remuneration, receive necessary services, etc.). The pursuit of equal rights recognizes that historically such opportunities were not provided, people faced and still face discrimination and inequality due to such things as race, gender, or sexual preferences.
Meanwhile, we understand diversity through respect for different cultures and different sociodemographic characteristics of people. The concept of diversity includes age, ethnic origin, gender, religion, social and economic status, nationality. Understanding the concept of multifaceted diversity is critical to creating inclusive community and work environments that respect human existence as it is and foster collective growth.
This trinity helps to raise awareness and act as a catalyst in the context of the development of attitudes, behaviors and operational methodologies, as well as promoting the development of a diverse and inclusive society.
Why is equality, diversity and inclusion valuable to businesses?
All of these components can create significant added value to an organization’s financial and non-financial results. A series of three McKinsey reports (2015, 2018 and 2020) covering 15 countries and over 1,000 large companies, as well as surveys of employee attitudes, reveal the correlation between diversity and business performance.
An analysis of 2019 data showed that companies in the top quartile for gender equality and diversity at the top management level were 25% more likely to achieve above-average corporate profitability compared to companies in the bottom fourth quartile for gender equality and diversity indicators. This analysis suggests that the greater the gender equality and diversity in organizations, the greater the likelihood of better results. Another example supporting this, based on the analyzed research, it was found that companies in which more than 30% of managers are women tended to show better company performance results than companies in which this percentage fluctuated between 10-30%. Extremely clear advantages were felt through the company’s profitability indicators and taking into account the support of ethnic and cultural diversity in organizations. Companies in the top quartile were 36% more profitable than companies in the bottom quartile.
In addition to the financial value, research allows us to identify equally significant additional values of equality, diversity and inclusion for organizations:
Attracting and retaining talent. The best talent is not governed by a single set of physical characteristics and other qualities, so in order to attract the best of the best, a strong organizational orientation towards openness to diversity is essential. Diversity can encourage the attraction of exceptional employees who are able to significantly contribute to the growth of the organization, and the formation of a positive and open culture based on the value principles of equality and diversity contributes to the retention of an experienced team of employees and the formation of a network of high morale and strong connections.
Improving the quality of decision-making. Diversity brings more and more diverse perspectives when it comes to the emerging need for problem-solving skills and vision.
Promoting employee motivation and satisfaction. Promoting diversity and equality increases job and life satisfaction, which in turn creates a positive culture and contributes to employee motivation. Research in Latin America has shown that companies with a strong commitment to diversity are 75% more likely to develop a culture of successful teamwork.
Better understanding of clients needs and innovation. Teams with high diversity have been found to be generally more innovative and better at anticipating change and the need for it.
Corporate image formation and brand trust. A McKinsey study (2020) shows that organizations’ ability to maintain a focus on inclusion and diversity during crises helps avoid the consequences of difficulty attracting talent or the potential loss of clients and government support.
How do we ensure the implementation of equality, diversity and inclusion in our operations?
In the Integre Trans group of companies, we understand the value and meaning of creating a work culture based on the principles of equality, diversity and inclusion, thus promoting a positive work environment. Every day, we make great efforts to ensure the comprehensive well-being of our employees, and we also communicate our value and strategic approach to other relevant stakeholders.
Equal opportunities coordinator Agnė Šulcienė shares about the measures we take to ensure the implementation of these areas in the organization: “Our goal is a working environment where everyone feels valued and understood, therefore ensuring equality and diversity is one of the highly important areas of social responsibility of the Integre Trans group of companies.”
One of the organization’s strategic sustainability goals is to contribute to the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Currently, at the level of the company group, we have integrated 11 UN goals, two of which are related to the promotion of equal opportunities: Goal 5 addresses the issue of Gender equality, and Goal 10 talks about the need to reduce inequalities.”
According to Agnė, in response to our strategic goals and the goals of the UN Sustainable Development, a number of measures aimed at ensuring equality and diversity have been implemented: “The Group of Companies has an “Equal Opportunities, Non-Discrimination, Violence and Harassment Prevention Policy”, which establishes equal opportunities, fostering diversity and overseeing its implementation principles and the means and conditions of their implementation. The group of companies also has a complaint and reporting system. The organization also has an “Ensuring equal opportunities” group, which is responsible for implementing and ensuring equal opportunities.
With the help of Agnė, the company prepares and implements an annual as well as long-term strategic plan for ensuring equal opportunities and implements various inclusion programs, e.g. advanced solutions are promoted in order to ensure the balance of work and personal life, the annual month of equality and tolerance and other initiatives are implemented, not bypassing distant branches of the company group and company drivers. In the organization, we also promote awareness raising through training, communication tools, inclusion through social projects, and annual employee satisfaction and inclusion surveys.
In our „Equal Opportunities, Non-Discrimination, Violence and Harassment Prevention Policy“ we emphasize that “every employee has the right to work in an environment that promotes respect for the dignity of every person, every employee feels respected and can fully use their abilities”, so every day we work and we will continue to work consistently in order to maintain the currently developed social policy model and value-strategic approach to employee well-being.
