Proof That Diversity in a Company Increases Sales, Profit and More - Building Gender Balanced Business

• An American Sociological Review article not only buttresses the body of evidence that workplace diversity increases sales and profit but also notes a relationship between diversity and the number of customers.

• Diversity directly pays off in sales and especially expanding the customer base, Cedric Herring, the interim head of the sociology department at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a professor of sociology and public policy at the University of Illinois’ Institute of Government and Public Affairs, found.

• For every percentage increase in the rate of racial or gender diversity up to the rate represented in the relevant population, there was an increase in sales revenues of approximately 9% and 3%, respectively, Herring wrote in the article.

• The more diverse the company the larger the customer base, he also found. Here, gender diversity was even more critical than racial diversity, with companies that were the most gender diverse having an average of 15,000 more customers than the least diverse.

• Herring’s analysis of National Organizations Survey data for 506 US-based businesses also found that diversity levels and profits relative to peer companies rose in tandem.

The American Sociological Review summary of the article