When you think about diversity, what comes to mind? Are you thinking about gender, ethnicity, culture or age? While these areas are definitely part of it, diversity encompasses so much more. The topic of diversity is on the tip of every HR professional and Manager’s tongue. Companies are becoming increasingly dedicated to building diverse teams with strong synergies in order to build their brand and gain a competitive edge. In order to accomplish this, I recommend focusing on bringing people together with different skill sets, knowledge and personalities. In order to drive creativity, innovation and productivity, you want to have unique individuals who are willing to challenge each other in order to meet objectives and reach a common goal. I believe a strong synergistic team should include people from different backgrounds, ethnicity, religion, socio economic status, demographics, gender, education, professions, personalities, political perspectives and opinions. Embracing diversity will drive team performance, benefiting your company by increasing overall efficiencies, giving your company that competitive edge in the marketplace and more. Here are a few interesting statistics from Forbes that illustrate the value of team diversity:

  • Teams outperform individual decision makers 66% of the time
  • Decision making improves as team diversity increases
  • Gender diverse teams make better decisions 73% of the time
  • Teams that also include a wide range of ages and different geographic locations make better business decisions 87% of the time

Some of the benefits of diverse teams include; creativity, innovation, increased talent pool, retention, improved employee performance, boosts morale, increased productivity and can even strengthen your brand. If you are unsure on how to build a diverse team, here is a great article to help get you started. In my opinion, building a diverse team requires senior management to lead by example and starts at the recruitment phase. 


Carrie Deon
Human Resources Generalist