Diversity is not a trend.
It’s part of the fundamental human right to equality.
It accepts, welcomes and celebrates different ages, races, ethnicities, religions, genders, sexual orientations and physical abilities.
It’s a commitment.
And it’s here to stay.
If you want to build greater trust with the socially-conscious Gen Z, your business needs to support workplace diversity.
Our Gen Z & Corporate Activism report found that 54% of young people are more likely to buy from a business if they know it has a diverse workforce. Three quarters of Gen Zs also want businesses to publicise their diversity like how Apple and Google do.
Here they tell why diversity is important:
It improves your reputation – “Social issues such as mental health and diversity is what I believe influences my spending. Businesses should work on increasing workplace diversity as it improves their CSR reputation and consumers will admire this,” a 19-year-old male from Victoria said.
It stops boycotts – “I find myself strongly boycotting companies that don’t exercise diversity. I recently quit my job due to the disgusting criteria they seemed to apply when hiring staff. All of the staff there were attractive, straight, skinny, white women – with the exception of one Asian woman. Their marketing also only consisted of tall skinny blonde women and they showed no advocacy for diversity in race, gender, sexuality, and ability,” a 20-year-old female from Victoria said.
It provides equal opportunity – “It is crucial that immigrants and people of all different backgrounds are able to access the same opportunities. Businesses could improve this by making an effort to recognise and ignore unconscious biases and to work to create alternate pathways for those from disadvantaged backgrounds,” an 18-year-old female from Western Australia said.
It empowers young women – “As a female it’s extremely disheartening when a business from the top down is mostly made up of male figures. I think businesses should tap into this issue by promoting the women within their business to show society that it is not just a ‘man’s world’ but women run the world too,” a 19-year-old female from Victoria said.
It builds brand affinity – “I believe that companies should be more transparent about the development of their products and the diversity of their company. I personally would prioritise their products if I knew that their products were sustainably, ethically sourced, that their business is diverse (without being tokenistic) and if they were actively supporting an issue (e.g. McDonald’s gold coin donation),” a 19-year-old female from NSW said.
It invites more human connection – “I find more diverse companies are a lot more welcoming and humble as it brings workers together rather than makes them see themselves as superior,” a 19-year-old female from Victoria said.
