Embracing cultural diversity

Diversity is fast becoming an organisational priority, writes Melanie Burgess

From relating to broader customer bases to introducing new viewpoints, cultural diversity brings many benefits to the workplace.

FROM relating to broader customer bases to introducing new perspectives, cultural diversity brings many benefits to the workplace – and Australian employers are taking note.

Deloitte’s 2017 Global Human Capital Trends report, Rewriting the rules for the digital age, reveals Aus- tralia is one of the leading countries in the world in making diversity an organisational priority.

77 per cent of business and human resources leaders say it is an important or very important issue, making it their fourth biggest human capital trend. Globally, it is ranked ninth.

Juliet Bourke, of Deloitte Australia’s Diversity and Inclusion Consulting practice, says relatively small, economically stable and innovative countries like Australia can more easily respond to trends such as work- place diversity.

“Embracing diverse backgrounds, ideas, and points of view is helping the business community harness innovative thinking that is so important to achieve the organisation of the future,” she says.

For global remittance service WorldRemit, cultural diversity “isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s an essential”.

Regional director for Asia-Pacific Michael Liu says the company has almost 350 employees of 35 different nationalities and without that mix they wouldn’t have an understanding of their broad customer base.

“Our customers love that we can literally speak their language so diversity is critical to the company’s success and our commitment to multiculturalism stems from the top down,” Liu says.

“WorldRemit’s founder and chief executive Ismail Ahmed is a migrant himself, now based in London but originally from Somaliland.”

He says diversity has also been key in attracting top millennial talent.