Why organisations should strive for early talent diversity
Guest post from Will Shepherd, CEO, Cohesion
The Early Talent market is changing and becoming increasingly competitive. In fact, in 2017, the number of students planning to go to university fell to its lowest level in 8 years. Companies are having to adapt and evolve to this changing marketplace where competition and demands are high.
When it comes to making changes, increasing Early Talent Diversity represents both a priority and a significant challenge for many businesses. Diversity within an organisation is about encouraging a wholly-inclusive workforce – embracing employees of different backgrounds, ethnicities and cultural beliefs.
Yet, Early Talent Diversity runs much deeper. It’s about recruiting people from different backgrounds and making your application process accessible to all groups who embrace different perspectives, ideologies and beliefs about how and why things work the way they do. Its about bringing different ideas and opinions together within your organisation and allowing them to work cohesively towards common business goals.
Adding value through diversity
Part of the motivation for a company wanting to increase Early Talent Diversity comes in understanding of how it truly adds value to the core business. There a number of concomitant benefits of a diverse Early Talent workforce which many businesses are surprisingly unaware of, including;
- Increased productivity, work rate & efficiency; in fact 72% of private sector companies said there was a direct link between diversity and productivity
- Innovative thinking; through alternative perspectives and ideas on the same issue
- Positive employer branding; once diversity begins to increase, it becomes easier to attract a more diverse pool of candidates
- Giving your business the competitive edge; diversity enhances the competitiveness of your business both within your workforce and as an organisation
- Reduction in employee turnover; when compared to pre-diversity statistics
- Increased employee morale & teamwork
Without a doubt, diversity is and should be an organisational priority. As an employer, it will be necessary to implement recruitment strategies and initiatives to help you achieve your diversity goals. But, given all of the above, it would seem crazy that a company wouldn’t invest resource and time into developing their Early Talent diversity.
