HP Innovation Issue 19: Fall 2021 | Page 55

WHY DIVERSITY

is

GOOD BUSINESS

Workforces with a greater mix of experience and demographics can create better outcomes for companies and employees alike .

by jessen o ’ brien illustration by matt chase

“ WHEN YOU HAVE DIVERSE PERSPECTIVES at the table , you generate greater creativity and innovation , which can ultimately translate into profitability ,” says Leslie Slaton Brown , HP ’ s Chief Diversity Officer .

This is just one of the lessons that Slaton Brown has brought to the table at HP , where she ’ s spearheading the company ’ s efforts to achieve greater racial equity and gender parity by 2030 . While that ’ s the right thing to do , of course , having a meaningful variety of perspectives is just one way that diverse teams help to elevate business and improve their performance over the long haul . As long as diversity is accompanied by investment in leveraging all types of backgrounds and minimizing status differences among groups , diverse companies are more profitable for three main reasons : They ’ re more innovative , more resilient , and better at retaining talent than their counterparts . Companies whose executive teams were in the top quartile for gender diversity and for ethnic and cultural diversity were 25 % and 36 % more likely , respectively , to have above-average profitability than companies in the bottom quartile . J

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