Build a diverse team to drive better performance, enhance customer satisfaction

America as a multicultural country has seen unprecedented advancements of late. Is your business prepared to capture the purchasing power of this dynamic audience? Are you leveraging the benefits of a multicultural society in the workplace?

Hispanics, African-Americans, Asian-Americans and all other multiculturals already make up 38 percent of the U.S. population, with Census projections showing that multicultural audiences will become a numeric majority by 2044. Already over 120 million strong and increasing by 2.3 million per year, multicultural people are the growth engine of the future in the U.S. 

Historically, the collision repair industry has trailed other industries in diversification.  Many still think of it as a “white guy business.” However, if you look at the future of the consumers of auto body repair, you’ll see why we — as an entire industry — need to embrace a diverse group of corporate team members, franchise owners and store employees.

As someone who moved to America from Venezuela, learned English and became a citizen, I have a personal connection to the impact a multicultural workforce makes on a workplace. Here are four ways Driven Brands has successfully created a dynamic team and franchise network.

Building diversity begins at the home office

When you are a fast-growing company, you look for talented team members everywhere. When you’re hiring, consider applicants from a wide variety of backgrounds, cultures and ages. Reach out to local universities and technical schools and participate in hiring fairs. Offer internships to expose students to the collision repair industry. Work with local military groups to hire former military members. Consider candidates who have moved to America from other countries. A diverse team will offer broad perspective and bring new levels of experience and multicultural understanding.

Provide a mentor program

Changing the corporate culture can be daunting, but a mentorship program that pairs experienced leaders with new employees can have a tremendous impact. Look for opportunities to cross genders, ages and backgrounds, as well as different disciplines within the company to create lasting impact.

Expand your network with new leadership

Multicultural Americans are some of the most successful entrepreneurs. According to the Kauffman Foundation, immigrants were almost twice as likely to start businesses as native-born Americans. As you are looking for potential franchisees, consider a wider audience of investors. Offer incentives for women-led or minority-led businesses, as well as military members. Many times these entrepreneurs bring experience from other franchise operations and industries that can be a great benefit to your company.

Help students start their collision repair careers

Technical schools provide a great, affordable education and valuable skills to a wide variety of students. With the shortage of technicians in our industry, your local school is a great resource for staffing. Partner with your schools to create an internship program for multicultural students. Work with your industry vendors to leverage their training programs in multiple languages to help continue these students’ education.

Not only will building a diverse business drive your long-term success corporately and at the customer level, it will create a robust, dynamic team for future leadership. We’ve seen the positive impact it has had at Driven Brands as we have experienced extensive growth in the past few years, managed the integration of a number of business acquisitions and found new synergies across our portfolio of brands that deliver improved efficiency and profitability.