The Positive Effects of Gender Diversity in the Workplace

Gender diversity in the workplace is becoming a major factor in many ways; not only does it help new employees determine whether or not they want to work for the organization in question, but there are several other positive effects that organizations can take advantage of if they make gender diversity in the workplace a priority. 

Thinking outside of the box, gender diversity in the workplace can be addressed by unique and interesting tools, like Workplace from Meta, with automated bots, chat, and live video features.

In this blog, you will find: 

👀 What is gender diversity, and why is it necessary?

⭐ 3 ways to be inclusive in the workplace

✨7 benefits of focusing on gender diversity in the workplace

🚀 Workplace from Meta can change with Gender Diversity

Having trouble with gender diversity in your workplace? Not sure how Workplace from Meta can help solve this common problem? Read along to see how and why your organization should put an emphasis on gender diversity in your workplace today and how Workplace from Meta's unique features can help you take the first steps toward a more diverse workforce. 

Let’s Talk About Gender Diversity in the Workplace – What Is It? Why is it Necessary? 

Simply put, gender diversity is the equitable or fair representation of people of different genders within your organization. But gender diversity in the workplace isn’t just about having the right mix of males and females in your organization. You need to look at the bigger picture. 

Below, let’s look at some key questions to ask yourself: 

Simply hiring women, transgender, or non-binary people into your workplace isn’t enough. To reap the many benefits of gender diversity, you need to empower those workers not only to reach but exceed their full potential!  

Related blogs: 

8 Gender Equality Initiatives that Can Make An Impact In Your Organization

5 Great Inclusive Initiatives for Frontline Workers - Blog Series #3

The Importance of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion in the Workplace

Gender Diversity in the Workplace: 3 Ways to Be Inclusive 

So, let’s talk about three ways to ensure that your organization has enough gender diversity in the workplace: 

1. Challenge Gender Stereotypes 

It seems silly to think that men and women still aren’t being treated equally. Yet, there are still stereotypes that are out there regarding how men and women should behave.  For instance, one that we hear quite often is that certain behavior in men is seen as “assertive,” whereas that same behavior in women is seen as “bossy.”  

This gender stereotyping needs to stop. To be a really inclusive organization, you need to take a look at what language could be perpetuating a gender stereotype. Especially consider your corporate literature and your corporate policies – do they encourage inclusiveness?  

2. Find Ways to Amplify A Variety of Voices 

It’s an unfortunate fact that gender stereotyping, as mentioned above, is still happening, but it's also happening in workplace communications, too! Consider this: 

These questions should make you stop and think about how the various voices in your organization are being heard.- and, if necessary, how to change your corporate culture and amplify and ensure those minority voices get their fair share of air time. 

3. Ensure Fair Promotion Practices 

Here are some questions to ask yourself: 

• How are people in your organization selected for promotion?  
• Do you have fair promotion practices?  
• Does everyone in your organization have the same amount of contact with senior leaders and mentors?  

If you find it difficult to answer these questions, it might be time to take a look at how you promote people within your organization. A good place to start is to look at who makes up your hiring committee. Is it diverse enough? If your hiring committee is exclusively dominated by one gender over another, how can you ensure that it’s not biased towards one gender or another?  

Seven Benefits of Focusing on Gender Diversity in the Workplace 

As mentioned before, there are several benefits to your organization when you make gender diversity in the workplace a priority. Below, we’ve briefly outlined seven of them: 

1.- Widen your Talent Pool 

It should be obvious, but organizations still don’t understand that by not placing an emphasis on gender diversity, they are actually limiting how much talent is coming into their organization. By ensuring that you have a healthy mix of women, men, transgender, and non-binary people on your team, you can benefit from these different points of view and increase the level of creativity and innovation of your team.  

2. Multiple Perspectives 

Women, men, trans, and nonbinary people all have different point of view, which comes from different life experiences. For instance, there isn’t a person in the world that could dispute the fact that women experience buying a car differently than men do! By ensuring that you have gender diversity on your team, you can benefit from these different points of view and increase the creativity and innovation of your team. Plus, it helps your organization to challenge gender stereotypes, which can, in turn, promote your corporate brand as gender-inclusive!

3: Enhanced Collaboration 

There isn’t a person out there who hasn’t been in a meeting where they feel like they can’t get a word in edgewise. But research has concluded that groups with more women in it are actually better at taking turns in the conversation, which, in turn, helps them to share knowledge and skills with each other. And collaborating face-to-face on projects becomes much easier when your organization can open such an important line of communication. 
 

4. Improve Your Staff Retention 

What organization doesn’t want to have a significantly lower employee turnover rate? When you can retain your employees, you save big in terms of time and money spent on recruiting new candidates and training them to get up to speed, too! By emphasizing having an inclusive culture and recognition, you can boost morale and increase opportunities for employees, which will, in turn, lead to higher employee retention rates and save your business time and money in the long run.

5. Improve Your Understanding of Customer Needs

Unless you have a product or service aimed at a specific gender, your customers are most likely coming from all backgrounds. So, by ensuring that your employee base reflects your customers, it’s far more likely that you’ll be able to communicate effectively with them and improve your understanding of what your customers need. By diversifying your teams, and bringing together a mix of genders, backgrounds, and ethnicity, think of all the buying power you’re able to tap into! 

6: Improve Your Organization’s Reputation 

As mentioned in point five, having an inclusive culture can be a real hook for employing new people in your organization. Once your organization gains a reputation for having a more diverse workforce, you have a powerful recruiting tool at your disposal.  

7: Greater Profitability 

According to McKinsey, companies that have more gender diversity are 21% more likely to experience above-average profitability, and companies with more culturally and ethnically diverse executive teams were 33% more likely to see better-than-average profits. So, diversity is a great benefit for your organization – it has a positive impact on your bottom line. 

Workplace from meta can help with gender diversity

So, now that you know why gender diversity in the workplace should be a priority for you, and the benefits of making it a priority, let’s talk about a technology that can help you bring it to the forefront of your organization. 

Workplace from Meta is a communication and collaboration platform designed to help organizations build a strong corporate culture. Workplace has many ways to help you build a corporate culture of gender diversity in your workplace. Below are just a few features of Workplace that can help you to address gender diversity in your organization: 

• Workplace Bots: With a little help from a Workplace partner, like LineZero, you can create a survey bot that can take the pulse of your employees and gauge not only how they see gender diversity in your workplace, but identify areas of concern that you may want to address.  
  
  
• Live Video: Show off your diverse workforce and encourage your employees to post live videos to the groups they’re a part of!

• Workplace Chat & Private Groups: To further advance their careers, your female, transgender and non-binary employees need a chance to receive one-on-one mentoring and guidance from your senior managers. Using Workplace Chat and private groups, you can create a private, secure place to share documents, keep track of progress, and address any issues that come up in a safe environment.  
  

Are you ready to take the first steps TOWARD a more diverse and inclusive workplace?

Contact us today to learn how LineZero can help your organization foster a culture of inclusion and equality using Workplace from Meta as your communication and collaboration.