Can you afford to ignore diversity?

Let’s start with a quick quiz question. Who is the only British woman to win a Nobel Prize in one of the sciences? Any offers? She remains relatively anonymous and, unless you have a particular interest in crystallography, then you have probably never heard of her. Her name is Dorothy Hodgkin, and she won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1964.

The mere fact that there is only one such woman is surprising, and the fact that you have probably never heard of her is even worse. Google knew about her, however, and she was given her very own ‘google doodle’ (the daily changing design on the search engine’s home page) on what would have been her 104th birthday.

The reason that I mention Dorothy Hodgkin is that diversity in the work place is a subject in which I have long taken a detached interest. Therefore, when Apple, a firm which is at the cutting edge of their industry, recently released figures outlining the diversity in their workplace, I thought that it would be an interesting read.

Apple has 70 per cent male employees and only 30 per cent female employees globally. The figures get steadily worse the higher up the food chain you go. In the area described as ‘leadership’, the split is 72 per cent male and 28 per cent female. ‘Technical’ is even worse, with 80 per cent male and 20 per cent female; perhaps it’s best that I don’t comment on those figures. The figures relating to ethnicity are also concerning, with 55 per cent of US employees being white and the next highest ethnicity being Asian at 15 per cent. It looks very much as though the firm is predominantly male and pale. Quite how stale it is we may find out over the next few years.

Apple has declared its dissatisfaction with these figures and no doubt changes will occur. To be fair to Apple, their figures are broadly the same, if not better, than those that I have personally experienced during my career. So why is it taking so long for everyone to realise the benefit of diversity in the workplace? The workplace has become significantly more globalised over the last 20 years, and London in particular has a hugely diverse population. So why isn’t this reflected in the workplace of larger firms? Are people just not convinced of the benefits?

Diverse benefits

The advantages of diversity are clear. Everyone brings a unique perspective to the table based on their life experiences and influences. The broader that perspective, the more likely you are to collectively come up with an innovative, creative, and ultimately successful idea or solution.

We live in a world of changing demographics. Spanish is now the third most widely spoken language in the world. It is expected that by 2050 there will be more native Spanish speakers than English speakers in the USA. Can your business afford to ignore that? You will need to market to and communicate with Spanish speakers as well as English speakers, so why not start addressing that problem now?

How can a business expect to expand into China, for example, without Cantonese and Mandarin speakers who understand the culture, and the way people do business?

Businesses need to be looking carefully at their diversity policy. I have only mentioned gender and ethnicity here, however, true diversity also covers age, sexual orientation, physical ability etc. If you are running a firm and you want it to be fit to flourish in the 21st century, you need to be able to draw on a wide range of skill sets and also sell to a wide range of people. Your workforce must reflect the diversity of your client base.

Office diversity has ceased to be an option; it is now a necessity. Without a diverse workforce, you will find it difficult to enter new markets, understand new business opportunities and remain creative and innovative.

So, unless we want women like Dorothy Hodgkin to be the exception rather than the rule, we need to nurture and develop diversity within all of our firms, as it is not just the right thing to do, but, ultimately, we all stand to benefit from it.

Geraint Jones is a tax partner at Berg Kaprow Lewis

He writes the regular in-practice article on doing business for Private Client Adviser