A company is only as strong as its people. Without dedicated people who feel appreciated enough to come in day after day and give it their all, failure is imminent. Many of today’s companies are taking a closer look that goes beyond their bottom line and distributable net income to reexamine who they are and how they can better serve the community.
One major way companies are shifting how they present themselves is looking at what they stand for and making that more public. When the racism gave way to rioting in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, Citi group CEO Mike Corbat contemplated if he and the company needed to put out a response at all.
“This was a great example of an instance where the diversity around me and the people at my table said ‘No, no, you have to go out and make a statement here, it’s the right thing and our people want to hear it.” Corbat’s people and the public, in general, do want to hear a company’s stance on issues.
One study found that nearly 90 percent of people think companies have a responsibility to address social issues. “The reality is staying silent, for some brands and for some instances, is not an option,” Andrew Caravella, vice president of social media management company, The Sprout Social said. “To say nothing is worse than saying something and re-establishing your values.”
Companies are not only looking more at how they can act with a purpose, but doing so by bringing in more diverse employees. Simply hiring an employee because they check off certain gender or ethnicity boxes on a form, however, can off as pandering if a company’s not careful. What it is about though is looking for the right people outside of the typical talent pool. Doing so successfully can make all the difference.
A 2018 study that looked at 3,000 publicly traded companies from 2001-2014 and how the measured up in terms of diversity with their employees. What the study found was that companies that had a more diverse workforce were simply more innovative in their fields and more resilient in bad times, like the 2008 financial crisis.
The companies of today that will be around tomorrow are continuously making an effort to expand how they operate and fit into society as a whole. It’s about more than the bottom line, and that’s a refreshing change for the corporate world that we can all benefit from.