“Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging are one of the most significant elements of the social component of ESG. For companies that fall under the scope of the corporate sustainability reporting directive, which entered into force January 2023, It’s not so much a discussion about benefits because these companies need to report with regard to their social impact. But for companies that do not fall under this directive, I think we can talk about the benefits here. We are talking about companies that do not have to report on their social impact, but still decide to take a closer look at diversity, equity and inclusion to see what benefits they could get,” Oana Piticas, Employment and White Collar Crime Practice Coordinator Romania, Noerr said during Belonging at Work conference organized by The Diplomat-Bucharest.

“We can benefit from long-standing statistics which clearly indicate a couple of elementary things. Diversity, equity and inclusion are directly linked to increased performance. Moreover, diversity and inclusion are directly linked to increased innovation. Diversity is a fact, inclusion is a choice. Diversity activated with inclusion lead to disruptive thoughts that lead to innovations.

Talking about talent acquisition, one of the biggest issues we are facing today is that we cannot find enough people, we cannot find talent. Diversity, equity and inclusion principles have been linked to increased talent retention.

You cannot have innovation and creativity if everyone thinks in the same way. You need to make everyone express their point of view, look for obtaining from your team members diverse thinking methods. This is the only way that can lead to increased innovation in a company these days.

If you want to increase or improve your social impact, you need to know what you are doing and how you are doing it.”

Full recording of the conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li9sNvPk-dU&t=8398s