The Business Case for Diversity. Good Practices in the Workplace

Summary:

An increasing number of European companies are adopting diversity and equality strategies, not only for ethical and legal reasons but also for the business benefits they are expected to deliver. Among the most important of these benefits are enhanced employee recruitment and retention from a wider pool of high quality workers, improved corporate image and reputation, greater innovation and enhanced marketing opportunities.

These are some of the key findings of this report, which examines the business case for diversity on the basis of feedback to two surveys (in total 919 responses) carried out during 2005 among companies in the 25 Member States of the European Union. The first survey used questionnaires and in-depth interviews to identify examples of good practice in workplace diversity in the areas of race and ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, disability, and religion or belief. The second, complementary survey used an online questionnaire to investigate diversity awareness and practices of member companies of the European Business Test Panel (EBTP) across all areas of diversity.