Small diverse firms earn 19% higher revenues, reveals SCORE

Data from SCORE, the largest network of volunteer expert business mentors in the US, has revealed that businesses with diverse management earn 19% higher revenues. In fact, small firms with a diverse workforce not only perform better financially, but they are also more innovative, than their non-diverse companies.

The results reveal that gender-diverse businesses are 21% more likely to outperform homogeneous firms, with ethnically diverse companies outperforming their non-diverse-competitors by 33%. In fact, non-diverse firms are 29% more likely to underperform, confirms the survey.

ABOVE-AVERAGE DIVERSITY BENEFITS

SCORE’s findings also reveal that businesses with above-average diversity earned 45% of their revenue from innovation, compared to just 26% for businesses with below-average diversity. It found that diverse teams also make better and faster decisions. Diverse teams not only make decisions two times faster in just half the number of meetings, but their decisions deliver 60% better results, compared to non-diverse teams.

The research echoes the results of several recent surveys, confirming that employees highly value diversity and inclusion at work. Approximately, 67% of job seekers said a diverse workforce is an important factor when evaluating job offers. In fact, more than 57% employees surveyed think that their employer should be doing more to increase diversity among its workforce, and 72% would consider leaving an organisation for one they think is more inclusive.

CREATIVE EDGE

Commenting on the survey results, SCORE CEO Bridget Weston, stated: “Small businesses with diverse teams have a greater ability to produce creative ideas that catch the attention of consumers, and resonate with a more widespread audience.

“Additionally, with 67% of job seekers saying a diverse workforce is an important factor when evaluating a job, small business owners understand that in order to recruit and maintain the best team, they’ll need to emphasize the importance and value of diversity and inclusion in the workplace.”