How the Ward Hadaway Yorkshire Fastest 50 is promoting diversity in the workplace

CREATING a diverse workforce can help your company stay ahead of the competition, according to a leading lawyer at Ward Hadaway, the law firm behind the Yorkshire Fastest 50.
Harmajinder HayreHarmajinder Hayre
Harmajinder Hayre

Harmajinder Hayre, the head of employment at law firm Ward Hadaway and Sharon Jandu, of the Yorkshire Asian Business Association, believe firms of all sizes and across all sectors should employ a workforce that reflects modern society.

They made their comments as excitement mounts ahead of a major event which acts as a showcase for the Yorkshire Fastest 50.

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The awards ceremony takes place on Friday 20 March at Aspire in Leeds by invitation only and will be streamed live on LinkedIn. The keynote speaker will be revealed soon.

The Ward Hadaway Yorkshire Fastest 50 celebrates the rising stars of the corporate world.The Ward Hadaway Yorkshire Fastest 50 celebrates the rising stars of the corporate world.
The Ward Hadaway Yorkshire Fastest 50 celebrates the rising stars of the corporate world.

Mr Hayre said: “What businesses need to focus on is social diversity rather than any particular characteristic.

“It’s about having a mix of different genders, ages, races, nationalities, abilities and ethnicities within your workforce.

“If you examine the population of Yorkshire, 5m people are living here, and around 15 per cent of them are non-white British. That’s just under 1m people from a multi-cultural background.

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Mr Hayre said: “Tapping into that socially diverse workforce has huge benefits for any business, but that’s only really being understood and harnessed at the moment by some of the larger employers in the area.”

According to research by McKinsey & Co, a business is more likely to perform better financially if its workforce is more diverse.

A study - Delivering Through Diversity - examined more than 1,000 companies across 12 countries, concluding that firms in the top quartile for gender diversity are 21 per cent more likely to enjoy above-average profitability than companies in the bottom quartile.

Companies in the top quartile for ethnic diversity, are 33 per cent more likely to see higher-than-average profits than companies in the lowest quartile.

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Ms Jandu added: “Embrace and encourage diversity. You need to own it in your head and your heart if you want to see and feel the difference – it has to be genuine. Be bold with it and have a vertical slice of the population on your board, you’ll be truly reflecting your customers and your employees if you do.”

Mr Hayre believes that SMEs and businesses of all sizes can benefit in many ways from harnessing a socially diverse workforce.

He says; “Firstly, you’ll have a competitive advantage. That’s because you’ll be able to tap into a range of viewpoints and opinions. This allows you to innovate at pace, building new products and services more rapidly that meet the needs of all your customers.

“Secondly, you’ll have a much better understanding of your customer base. You want your workforce to reflect your customers in the broadest sense. You’ll have a much deeper understanding of their needs if you employ people like them.

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“Thirdly, you’ll strengthen your employer brand and attract the very best talent. Embracing social diversity and representing it through your policies, your marketing and your actions shows you are inclusive, and employees are attracted to that.”

The 2020 Ward Hadaway Yorkshire Fastest 50 has been compiled and verified using publicly available information from Companies House.

Here are Harmajinder Hayre’s top tips for creating a diverse workforce:

1. Get genuine buy-in from the top.

2. Set up a diversity task force. The task force should be made up of people from across the business.

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3. Meet regularly. You need to keep driving things forward, this needs to be a constantly evolving process, with agreed objectives and actions.

4. Create a mentoring scheme. scheme. Creating schemes where senior and junior members of your team from different backgrounds can share views is a great way to transfer knowledge.