Diversity: Beyond the Visible

Perhaps one of the biggest barriers to increasing diversity in the workplace is locking ourselves into the idea that diversity is only about the factors we can immediately visually recognize. In most cases, this means gender and race or ethnicity; less frequently, a visible disabling condition. Diversity, and what it means, is so much more expansive than merely the factors of identity that we can see and that our brains immediately process and categorize.

At ABA, we recognize that many of our banks are located in communities that appear fairly homogenous, with gender offering the only apparent diversity. However, even small communities tend to have people who belong to different generations; have varying levels of able-bodiedness and neurodiversity; are affiliated with different religious faiths; are one-term or career veterans; have varying status as parents, non-parents, caregivers or live in non-nuclear-family households; have different gender expression or sexual orientation; come from different economic circumstances with varying access to opportunities; or otherwise offer different perspectives based on some facet of identity that is not readily apparent to the human eye.

Research supports the premise that diverse teams are more innovative, productive and financially lucrative. A bank’s goal, therefore, should be to bring the diversity of its community—visible or not—into the workplace and into the process of tailoring products for the communities it serves, both the smaller niches and the large.

So when building your bank’s team, consider these three points:

• Think culture add—not culture fit. “Culture fit” is how homogenous teams, and stale ideas, perpetuate themselves. When hiring, the question should be, “How would this person add to our workplace culture?”
• Be intentional. What sector of the marketplace is my bank not addressing? What perspectives does our team need to incorporate to reach that sector?
• What’s your institutional brand? Does my bank treat people from all walks of life with the same respect and dignity? Who needs to be on the team to ensure our bank practices this value?

Diversity goes far beyond the visible. The different perspectives offered by people of different backgrounds, life experiences and mindsets constitute a valuable and powerful resource. Bankers are wise to leverage that resource for the good of their businesses and the customers they serve.