The business benefits of gender diversity

Gender diversity is vital to any workplace. Not just because it’s a laudable goal; it simply makes bottom-line business sense. If you need proof, look no further than a recent Gallup study, which finds that hiring a demographically diverse workforce can improve a company’s financial performance.

The study of more than 800 business units from two companies representing two different industries — retail and hospitality — finds that gender-diverse business units have better financial outcomes than those dominated by one gender:

• Gender-diverse business units in the retail company have 14 percent higher average comparable revenue than less-diverse business units (5.24 percent vs. 4.58 percent).
• Gender-diverse business units in the hospitality company show 19 percent higher average quarterly net profit ($16,296 vs. $13,702) than less-diverse business units.

And if the gender-diverse business units are also highly engaged, financial performance improves dramatically. Retail units that are diverse and engaged have a 46 percent higher increase in comparable revenue. Similarly, diverse and engaged units in the hospitality company have a 58 percent higher net profit than single-gender and less-engaged units. These results show the additive effect of gender diversity and engagement on a company’s bottom line.