Two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s become abundantly clear that flexible schedules and remote work are the way of the future. Since the first work-from-home mandates cropped up in March 2020, on-the-job productivity has gone up, costs have gone down and—perhaps most important—employees are happier, healthier and more motivated than ever.
But while the advantages of hybrid and flexible workplaces have been well documented when it comes to performance, morale and work-life balance, a recent New York Times article brought to my attention one additional, absolutely critical benefit: diversity.
The article, published earlier this month, noted that remote work and flexible arrangements could be particularly helpful for those who often feel marginalized—or, worse, alienated—by traditional cube life. For example, the flexibility of remote work affords caretakers, who are predominantly women, the opportunity to attend to children and other dependents without feeling like they are failing to meet professional demands. Meanwhile, the lack of in-office face time and water-cooler conversations shift the focus more to the work at hand, dampening the dynamics of office politics and, particularly for people of color, reducing exposure to exclusionary microaggressions while highlighting and promoting based on achievements.
“There are people of color whose colleagues wouldn’t stop asking them how to work the copy machine. There are the introverts who never wanted to chat about fantasy football leagues,” the New York Times writes. It’s no surprise, then, that “some of the companies now attempting to call their staff back are facing a wave of resistance from workers emboldened to question the way things always were — which is to say, difficult for many people.”
According to a survey of 10,000 office workers conducted last year by Future Forum, 86% of Hispanic and 81% of black knowledge workers in the United States said they prefer hybrid or remote work (compared with 75% of white knowledge workers), while 50% of worker mothers globally reported wanting to work from home most or all of the time (compared with 43% of fathers). Perhaps most telling, since last May, a sense of “belonging” at work has shot up for 24% of black knowledge workers, compared with just 5% for white workers.
The New York Times article goes on to tell the story of Kristen Egziabher, a project manager in Texas, who felt she was passed over for a promotion pre-pandemic because colleagues felt they only knew her work, and not her personally. “No matter her productivity, her colleagues seemed to care primarily about the chitchat—what’d you do last weekend, where’d you get that purse?” the New York Times reported. Egziabher, who is black, “felt that her white co-workers were fixated on who was jostling for entry to their in-group.”
Just a few months after the shift to remote work, however, Egziabher got a promotion and an 11% raise: “If I had continued going into the office,” she told the paper, “there might have been some excuse around likability.”
Perhaps the real kicker to the story is this, though: Egziabher eventually left that company for another one that offered her a full-time remote position, with the newspaper noting that she says “a little prayer of thanks for what remote work has allowed”: a focus on the work.
The benefits of diversity in the workplace have been researched and proven countless times, from generating greater innovation and creativity to producing better business results: Companies with diverse workforces are 35% likelier to experience greater financial returns, in fact. And that doesn’t even take into account the positive impact of corporate diversity from a racial and social-justice standpoint. It’s the right thing to do.
As business leaders, our job is to bring out the best in our people, day in and day out. That includes creating an environment that makes them feel seen, supported and inspired. To that end, hybrid and flexible work arrangements are no longer simply a “nice to have.” They’re an essential tool for attracting, retaining, motivating and championing the greatest talent from every corner of the globe.
