Promote diversity and we’ll get the innovation boom we want

We want an innovation boom, but the Australian political climate is one based on “Australia first”.

We live in an age of contradiction. And it is holding Australia back.

At present, we are living in the most connected age in history. With millennials fully grown and in the workforce, we are seeing our connected age forcing significant change.

Music, sport, news, conversation and anything related to services are just a click or swipe away. We want it now, and we get it now. The fact we have Wi-Fi on aircraft is nothing short of a necessity — the last bastion of ­silence and disconnectedness has now been brought into the information age. We are truly a 24/7 audience. But that connectedness comes at a price.

Think about any time you have had to connect to a call centre overseas. Or speak to a web ­customer service agent based in another country.

Have you ever felt slightly ­annoyed that you have had to connect to someone who lives halfway across the world? Ever made a comment about how more jobs are going overseas?

It’s OK, we all get a little frustrated sometimes. But if we want to live in a truly interconnected world, where communication happens when we want it and how we want it, we have to be willing to understand geographical borders are going to matter less. We are going to need to be more diverse.

If you look around Australia, we are not quite accepting of that reality just yet. We want an innovation boom, but the Australian political climate is one based on “Australia first”.

Our mindset about this has to change — not just for business, but for the country as a whole.

Take some advice from millennials. Their generation is less homogenous than ever before, and politically they are ushering in changes as never before. The unexpected success of the Bernie Sanders campaign of 2016 shows millennials are eager for change.

This is a generation with friends halfway across the world who have never met. And they are happy to do business with those people as well.

When younger people apply at my business for quick personal loans, they can do so without talking to anyone at all. So why do they care who works here?

This is not just about call centres. As our world becomes more open and connected, ensuring our workplaces reflect that world becomes more important.

So what can businesses do about this? Think about ways to promote diversity. The best way to facilitate major change is to start with your own company culture and workforce. Be the change you want to see in the wider business community and communicate this commitment to inclusivity and diversity clearly across all available channels.

Microsoft recently tied diverse hiring goals to executive bonuses to encourage the type of workforce it wants to see in future.

And, of course, set expectations both within and outside your business. Make known to employees and customers the standards you want to promote — and similarly, what will not be acceptable with regard to discrimination or ­homogeneity.

If we want an innovation boom, we will need a cultural boom, too — we need to hire across age, gender, and national lines. We should not be scared; it can bring us more prosperity than we have ever imagined.

Clayton Howes is the chief executive of MoneyMe