Small businesses with a diverse workforce are more innovative and financially successful, according to data gathered by SCORE, the nation's largest network of volunteer, expert business mentors. Data shows that businesses with more diverse management have 19% higher revenue and are more likely to outperform non-diverse businesses.

Diverse teams are more innovative, and therefore, perform better financially:

Gender-diverse businesses are 21% more likely to outperform homogeneous businesses.

Ethnically-diverse businesses are 33% more likely to outperform.

Non-diverse-businesses are 29% more likely to underperform.

Businesses with below-average diversity earned 26% of their revenue from innovation.

Businesses with above-average diversity earned 45% of their revenue from innovation.

Diverse teams make better and faster decisions:

Diverse teams make decisions two times faster with half the number of meetings.

Decisions from diverse teams deliver 60% better results.

Employees heavily value diversity and inclusion at work:

67% of job seekers said a diverse workforce is an important factor when evaluating job offers.

57% think the business they work for should be doing more to increase diversity among its workforce.

72% would consider leaving an organization for one they think is more inclusive.

"Small businesses with diverse teams have a greater ability to produce creative ideas that catch the attention of consumers, and resonate with a more widespread audience," said SCORE CEO Bridget Weston. "Additionally, with 67% of job seekers saying a diverse workforce is an important factor when evaluating a job, small business owners understand that in order to recruit and maintain the best team, they'll need to emphasize the importance and value of diversity and inclusion in the workplace."