Marginalised groups ‘put off ’ by workforce diversity drives

DIVERSITY drives risk alienating underrepresented groups who feel they are hired merely for their skin colour or sexual orientation, a study suggests.

Research by London Business School and Yale University found 80 per cent of Fortune 500 companies made a business case for diversity, saying employing marginalised groups would increase profits and better serve customers.

The team found LGBT+ professionals, female STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) job seekers and black students were repelled by such firms, feeling that their work would be judged in light of their social identity.

Prof Oriane Georgeac, the study’s lead author from the Yale School of Management, said that “business-case justifications confirm to women and underrepresented group members that they must worry about their social identities being a lens through which their contributions will be judged”.

Researchers asked underrepresented groups to read diversity statements from fictional companies and answer questions about how much belonging they anticipated feeling at each.

The team found that even companies using “fairness-case” justifications for diversity – saying it was the right thing to do – still put off participants, though about half as much as “business-case” justifications did.

Dr Aneeta Rattan, of London Business School, said that “the possibility that no justification is the best justification for diversity is incredibly interesting”. The research was published in APA’S Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.