Diversity in the future of work
Research shows that companies that prioritise diversity are more productive, more efficient and give better returns to shareholders. eolas examines the benefits of the workplace of the future becoming more equitable.
The relationship between diversity and business performance is an enduring one, with research published in 2015 showing that “companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on their executive teams were 15 per cent more likely to experience above-average profitability than companies in the fourth quartile”, a figure that rose to 21 per cent in updated and expanded research published in 2018 that surveyed 12 countries.
In terms of ethnic/cultural diversity, the 2014 finding was a 35 per cent likelihood of outperformance, comparable to the finding of a 33 per cent likelihood found in the 2018 research. Companies with the most ethnically/culturally diverse boards in the 12 countries surveyed were found to be 43 per cent more likely to experience higher profits and a positive correlation between ethnic/cultural diversity and value creation at both the executive team and board levels was also found. Companies in the bottom quartile for both gender and ethnic/ cultural diversity were found to be 29 per cent less likely to achieve above-average profitability than were all other companies.
In the case of gender, some companies lead the way in both absolute average diversity and representation in top-quartile. with Australian, UK, and US companies making up over 70 per cent of this group. In terms of ethnic diversity, there is less progress evident, although South African and Singaporean companies have a higher representation in the top-quartile versus overall representation in data set, suggesting material progress on ethnic diversity.
A contemporaneous ESRI report, published in 2018, found that in Ireland, people from Black non-Irish backgrounds are less than half (0.4 times) as likely to be employed than people from White Irish backgrounds and “five times as likely to experience discrimination when seeking work”. Black Irish people are twice as likely to experience discrimination seeking work and just under three and a half times (3.4 times) as likely to experience discrimination in the workplace as White Irish people, while both the Black non-Irish and Black Irish groups are much less likely to hold a managerial or professional job.
Eastern European nationals were found to be much less likely to hold a managerial or professional job but showed no differences in their employment rates, and Asian Irish people were found to have no difference in employment rates and to be more likely to hold professional or managerial jobs, but were also almost twice (1.9 times) as likely to experience workplace discrimination
Overall, the report showed that the disadvantage experienced by some groups in relation to securing employment in managerial and professional level jobs appeared to be narrowing when compared with research conducted in 2004.
A 2020 World Economic Forum report stated it will take 99.5 years to close gender gaps in health, education, work and politics. In relation to the gender income gap, they found that women are heavily under-represented in technology (just 12 per cent of the workforce), engineering (15 per cent) and data and artificial intelligence (26 per cent). These are sectors which have experienced substantial wage increases in the last decade and three sectors that are both prominent in the Irish economy and key to the future of work. While the ESRI report showed that progress has been made, further diversification is required if Ireland and the companies within are to maximise their potential.
