The key to a healthy work culture

The term cultural diversity encourages an environment of inclusion, with people from different backgrounds, different nationalities, abilities and views coming together to work as a team.

Why is cultural diversity important?

Ultimately, workplace diversity and inclusion allow businesses to build teams that bring different viewpoints and talents to the mix, increasing innovation that contributes to higher revenues.

Types of workplace diversity

Let’s break down the kinds of individual diversity that accompany cultural diversity:

• GENDER – while women currently make up a larger portion of the workforce, there is an overwhelming disparity in terms of fair and equal pay.  In fact, according to the World Economic Forum, at the rate that countries are closing the gender pay gap, it would take at least 132 years to reach the status of “full parity” across the world.
• RACE AND ETHNICITY – This is the essence of cultural diversity, but it also falls in the umbrella of workplace diversity as this creates uniqueness but also contributes to a more inclusive environment.
• AGE – both younger and older workers can be discriminated against because they can be seen as either inexperienced or “old-fashioned”. Through opening internship programmes, along with providing cross-generation mentoring initiatives, these prejudices can be addressed.
• PEOPLE OF DETERMINATION– disabilities can cover many differences, from the inability to form social relationships to physical disabilities. Cultivating environments where these types of workers are included can fight against negative stigmas and contribute to creating a sensitive workplace.
• NEURODIVERSITY – recognizing and supporting those with neurological differences that include dyslexia, autism and Tourette’s helps organisations to celebrate differences and the benefits they can offer in well-matched job types.
• THOUGHT STYLE – different personalities and thought styles can enhance creativity if the individual and the role are well matched. In contrast, it can cause stress if ill-matched.

The benefits of cultural Diversity in the Workplace

1. Cultural diversity helps develop and maximize skillsets  

A culturally diverse workplace empowers people to develop their talents and skills, boosts problem-solving capabilities and increases productivity. Bringing together people from different backgrounds will lead to more diverse approaches to projects you might have. These not only allow for other team members to learn new ways of approaching tasks, which they can then recycle in their individual work.

2. Cultural diversity improves the recruitment process help you to retain talent

Developing a strategy for cultural diversity enables you to cast a wider net of prospective employees and attract international talent. At IFZA our employee pool of over 40 nationalities encourages us to expand our diversity, allowing us to always have a wide net of international prospective employees.

Cultural diversity creates an environment where people feel respected and valued. Employees who engage with others about their background feel better connected to a company, feel truly listened to and engage further with their colleagues and the business. This build trust throughout the company and provides benefits such as greater motivation, collaboration and loyalty.

3. Cultural diversity will improve your company’s reputation

Your company’s reputation amongst its customers is one of the most important things. Customer service and reputation can be greatly improved through a diverse workforce, with different employees being able to assist customers in a more personal way thanks to shared experiences and understanding. We capitalize on our cultural and linguistic diversity through our team of multinational, multilingual experts which allows our different target groups to know that they find someone who can relate to them.

At IFZA, we create a community that encourages representation of different ethnicities and believes in valuing the diversity that we have within the organization because of how it influences the way we do business. We strategize our recruitment processes to always find international prospective candidates who can add incredible value to our organization and enhance the way we communicate with our global network of partners and our licensees.

If you want to be part of an organization that is community oriented, built on teamwork, a sense of belonging and is dedicated in creating valuable opportunities for our employees, visit our careers page.

Make this a stronger. We capitalize on our cultural and linguistic diversity… meaning our different target groups know that  they can find someone who can relate to them.