In an age of recruitment/retention challenges, laundry operators may be overlooking the advantages that enhancing diversity—particularly in the management ranks—can bring to companies, especially those that rely on immigrant or minority labor to fill hourly jobs. In essence, diversity can enhance competitiveness and staff morale by mining new talent that otherwise might leave you for a job that pays a quarter-an-hour more somewhere else.

That’s the message we obtained through interviews with three operator human resource (HR) specialists and a management consultant on the topic of diversity. Bruce Hodes, a Chicago-based strategic planning specialist, says his clients in urban areas ...