Career and Talent: Diversity is Key for Innovation

On December 3, we hosted Career Day TECH 2024, uniting international master students, PhDs, and post docs with tech companies. Career Day includes a company expo, matchmaking between skilled candidates and companies, and inspiring career-topic break-out sessions.

The event is one of the activities in a series included in the Cross-Border Talent Bridge Project, powered by and funded by Interreg öresund- Kattegat-Skagerrak. 

The project aims to tackle the growing demand for skilled candidates and talent in tech. Ideon Science Park is one of the actors helping to fuel a collaborative environment that can retain and develop top talent in our region. To stay competitive and innovative Skåne needs skilled candidates to work and remain. 

More than 200 international master’s students, post-docs, and PhDs met regional tech companies; startups, scale-ups, and enterprises at Ideon Science Park.

Diversity matters – also in purely business terms.

Research from McKinsey & Company and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) shows that diversity might be a strong competitive edge.

In one study, McKinsey found that diverse companies (with gender, race, and ethnic diversity) have better financial returns than their national industry medians.

Hence, diversity is most likely a competitive advantage.

McKinsey suggests that all kinds of diversity (sex, age, experience, and more) are also likely to bring competitiveness – in terms of higher customer orientation, employee satisfaction, and decision-making.

BCG’s study from 2018 also suggests that you should hire people with diverse backgrounds for senior leadership positions if you wish for higher financial returns and better innovation. According to BCG’s research, there is a clear link between diverse management teams and innovation.

Why? People with different backgrounds tend to look at challenges in different ways.

Further, there is a link between diversity, innovation, and digitalization:

💻 Companies that not only invest in diversity but also invest in digital tech better benefit from diversity and can capitalize more effectively on their investments.

If you hire people from different backgrounds, you will not only be able to improve business results, make better decisions, and boost innovation, but you will also become a more attractive employer, creating better conditions for increased employee performance.

🫱 Diversity pays off.

CAREER DAY TECH is funded by and made possible by Interreg Öresund-Kattegat-Skagerrak through the Cross-border Talent Bridge project.