Benefits of diversity: Panelists talk about how a diverse workforce drives economic development

A panel of community leaders analyzed how diversity could bring more economic development to Columbus.

Six panelists represents health care, higher education and the business community were featured at “Lead by Design: An Inspirational Initiative” Thursday morning at Mill Race Center in downtown Columbus. More than 100 people attended the panel discussion.

The discussion, the first in a series, centered around what panelists said were the many benefits of diversity in the community and workplace. The event was organized by the IUPUC Center for Business and Economic Development and the IUPUC Office for Women and was moderated by Nicole Pence Becker, owner of Pence Media Group and niece of Vice President Mike Pence.

Panelist Julie Abedian, vice president of community partnerships and corporate responsibility at Columbus Regional Health, said diversity allows companies to pull from larger applicant pools, potentially maximizing the talent on staff.

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Panelists Chatney Gelfius, independent senior sales director at Mary Kay, and Ryan Brewer, associate professor of finance at IUPUC, said diversity can help businesses boost their performance.

“When we get as much variation (in employees) as we can handle and still have anger, hate, sadness minimized, then we’re going to get better results because the ideas that we generate are going to be more varied,” Brewer said. “And if people genuinely listen to one another, we’re going to have a better portfolio of ideas for the business to choose from. Therefore, the returns on their investments can be optimized more easily.”

Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop, who opened the discussion with a proclamation expressing the commitment of IUPUC and his administration to encouraging diversity, said diversity is a key part of the city’s efforts to woo businesses here.

“One of the things that we sell when we sell Columbus to prospective companies is diversity,” he said. “We explain to them that they come here to a place in southern Indiana where diversity is valued, where it is promoted in a purposeful manner. It’s been very successful. You can drive around and see the fruits of that.”

Several studies have shown a direct relationship between the performance of a company and the diversity of its employees.

A 2015 study by McKinsey & Company, a New York City-based consulting firm that analyzes the management decisions of businesses, found that gender-diverse companies are 15 percent more likely to outperform those that are not.

Additionally, ethnically diverse companies were 35 percent more likely to outperform non-diverse competitors.

In the U.S., a company’s earnings before taxes typically rose 0.8 percent for every 10 percent increase in racial and ethnic diversity on its senior-executive team, the study’s authors reported. The study analyzed data from 366 public companies in a wide range of industries in the U.S., United Kingdom, Canada and Latin America.

Though Columbus is more diverse than some nearby communities such as Seymour and Greensburg, the city still has room to improve, according to some of the panelists.

Panelist Hanna Omar, a member of the Columbus Board of Zoning Appeals, said many of the challenges that, in her view, Columbus is facing — “income disparities, class-ism, bigotry and racism” — are, in large part, the same challenges facing the rest of the country.

“The problem with Columbus is not that we’re not diverse,” she said. “We definitely are diverse. We’re not inclusive. There’s a difference between diversity and inclusion. The story I once heard is that ‘diversity is inviting someone of color to the prom, but inclusion is asking them to dance.’ …When we look at people who are making decisions or when there’s a task force going on and we’re trying to make a new whatever in the city, it’s the same people who are invited time and time again — those who are privileged, mainly white, mainly male, mainly Christian. You can go down the line. The people who are privileged in this country are the same people who are privileged in this community.”

Several of the panelists, for their part, emphasized that our basic perceptions of other people can affect the development of a diverse and inclusive community. Panelist Kevin Jones, associate professor of management at IUPUC, said people need to “reflect on their own biases.”

“What we all have to do is an assessment of ourselves,” he said. “We have to look at what our biases are because if you say you don’t have any biases, you have a problem … At the end of the day, be honest with yourselves and then step back and say, ‘Is this how I can get the best employees, by being biased?’”

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The Lead by Design: An Inspirational Initiative panel included:

  • Julie Abedian, vice president of community partnerships and corporate responsibility at Columbus Regional Health
  • Ryan Brewer, MBA director and associate professor of finance at IUPUC
  • Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick, professor of English, affiliate faculty in women’s gender, and sexuality studies at IUPUC
  • Chatney Gelfius, independent senior sales director at Mary Kay
  • Kevin Jones, associate professor of management at IUPUC
  • Hanna Omar, member of Columbus Board of Zoning Appeals and commercial banker at JP Morgan Chase Bank

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Lesley Bradley, coordinator of the Office for Women at IUPUC, which helped organized the event along with the IUPUC Center for Business and Economic Development, said there will be more Learn By Design events in the future. No dates have been set for future sessions yet.

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