Why diversity makes companies stronger

Given a choice, we want a future that works for everyone, according to Ipsos data. For the future of work, that means creating workplaces and conditions that work for the entire employed population. Rohit Bhargava is a former advertising executive who now runs his own consultancy called the Non-Obvious Co. among other projects. One could argue that making workplaces great for everyone is the right thing to do. But there are other reasons as well.

Matt Carmichael: Nearly 80% of workers think their workplace is diverse enough. Is that a problem?

Rohit Bhargava: I guess it depends on what they think is diverse. In different industries, diversity means something different. In banking and finance, diversity has to mean bringing more women into the workplace. But gender diversity also means hiring more male elementary school teachers. What's interesting is sometimes people don't exactly know what someone else means by diversity so they put their own lens on it.

Carmichael: Age diversity is part of it, too, right?

Bhargava: I think it absolutely needs to, and I think that some industries have a terrible reputation of doing it very badly. I come from marketing and advertising, and it would be almost impossible for you to find a significant number of people over 40 who are at any level except for maybe the top.

Carmichael: What does a diversifying customer base mean for how we hire for customer service?

Bhargava: For people who interact with customers on a frequent basis, the training that they really need is in empathy. No matter how diverse or evolved we consider ourselves, it's hard to imagine someone else's situation when you've never experienced it. What people who are great at customer service do is put their own experiences aside and empathize with someone else's experience, not by saying, “I understand what it's like to be a black female consumer going into a retail environment and being followed by a gaze of someone who's working in that environment.” No, I don't understand that. So, to appreciate that and empathize with it and say, “Look, we’re going to try and do what we can to speak up when we see it because now you've spotlighted it for us.” That's big.”

Carmichael: In the future more customer experiences will likely be through AI. If the AI knows that you are a Hispanic female and then takes on a Hispanic female persona what issues does that create?

Bhargava: The first place that needs to shift is indicating to someone that they are dealing with something that is artificial. That doesn't mean it can't help you. It could be a better experience, but only if the development included Hispanic females. You could create an experience that would be culturally appropriate and relevant and not minimizing, but you'd have to involve people from that culture in order to do it.

Carmichael: What happens if we improve diversity and inclusion in future workplaces?

Bhargava: First, innovation serves more people and so your market becomes bigger. Who doesn't want that? That's a real business benefit. Second, your products become better. A team at P&G added tactile bumps or dots to shampoo bottles so people who had visual impairment could tell the difference between shampoo and conditioner by the bumps. It ended up being useful for anyone else who had their eyes closed in the shower, which is everybody. Sometimes we create things that seem like they're only useful for a small subset, and they become useful for everybody.

Carmichael: And what if companies fail to create better workplaces in the future?

Bhargava: Those companies tend to miss the next big market opportunity. They leave out large groups of consumers, so they limit their own growth. They are places that people don’t want to work at long-term, so they have a major talent crisis. Eventually all those things combine, and they die.

Carmichael: How should we think about this for the insights teams of the future?

Bhargava: I talk all the time about non-obvious thinking, and what I mean by that is seeing what other people don't see. The only way to do that is by either asking people that other people don't ask or by building your ability to empathize with and see things from a perspective that isn't your own. Doing that is really difficult, but possible. The way that it's possible is by not shutting down the one thing that we were born with and have had for our whole lives, but could become really good at burying, which is our own curiosity.