Collecting and using inclusion & diversity metrics
The equality, diversity and inclusion landscape is rapidly evolving. What used to be very much a ‘tick-box’ exercise for HR departments, is now becoming a strategic priority for many organisations, with evidence-based approaches towards inclusion being adopted. With this shift towards data-led people strategies, it has never been more important to establish high quality data-collection frameworks.
Whilst cultivating workplace inclusivity is driven by inclusion and not by diversity, collecting both inclusion and diversity metrics can help inform your journey towards inclusion and provide key indicators of success.
Understanding the diversity of your workforce, and the diversity metrics (statistics) across the entire employee lifecycle, will help you identify areas of inequality (e.g. in recruitment, retention, progression, performance ratings, and pay).
Understanding the lived experience of your workforce will help you understand the inequalities you observe (i.e. the issues, gaps and biases), and inform your actions and solutions.
Considerations before collecting data
Collecting data
Using an evidence-based approach to understanding your organisation’s current climate in terms of inclusion and demographic representation, and the impact of inclusion intervention / action, needs the analysis of two different types of data:
Diversity data
These are the personal characteristics of your employees and stakeholders and are used to determine representation. These may include gender, sex, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion/belief, socio-economic background, caring responsibilities.
Lived experience data
These are the feelings, experience and perceptions of your employees and stakeholders against a series of indicators. For example, organisational climate, sense of belonging, psychological safety, and perceptions of bullying and harassment.
Demographic data collection
Demographic information can help you identify trends and patterns within your organisation. You can use this information to identify gaps in representation, to identify potential bias in practices and processes, to enable the development of data-led strategies and interventions, and to improve the employee experience.
Download the PDF for a set of example demographic data-collecting questions.
Using data
Using diversity and inclusion data will support you in creating accountability and governance on how inclusion and equity is managed in your organisation and provide you with the evidence to inform your decisions, actions and strategy on your journey to inclusion.
Diversity metrics - the employee lifecycle
Analysis of your diversity data across the entire employee lifecycle will give you a snap-shot of your current position and help you identify trends, inequalities, and areas for improvement, develop data-led people strategies, and establish a base-line from which to measure progress on your journey to inclusion:
Recruitment
Consider the diversity of your new appointees to determine how you are recruiting in the context of your talent pool and geography
Check for biases in your recruitment process, by analysing the diversity at each stage: applications received, those short-listed, those interviewed, and offers made.
Retention
Analysing the diversity of your leavers, their grades, departments, and the rate at which they leave, will highlight any systemic bias.diversity of your new appointees to determine how you are recruiting in the context of your talent pool and geography
Performance
Many organisations rate performance of employees through an annual review. Use diversity data to ensure equal distribution of high and low ratings across all demographic groups. Persistent low performance ratings for a specific group over time could be indicative of bias, not just in the annual review process, but also in access to support and development opportunities.
Promotions
Assess your promotion rates by pay grade for balance between different demographic groups. Are promotion rates balanced at both lower grades and higher grades? In leadership positions? Be transparent about your promotion rates to build trust and accountability.
Leadership pipeline
Use diversity data to analyse your succession plans, future leader programme, and career fast tracks. Your leadership pipeline should reflect, at the very least, the diversity of your workforce, but also reflect your ambitions for a future diverse senior leadership team. Use diversity data to ensure that people from all backgrounds are able to succeed.
Pay equity & pay gap
‘Pay equity’ and ‘pay gap’ are two different analyses. Pay equity refers to employees receiving the same pay for the same job regardless of how individuals identify. Pay gap is the difference in mean salary between two demographic groups regardless of the jobs they do. Whilst the pay gap can be influenced by many external factors (e.g. education, traditional stereotypes, personal career decisions, attraction to certain industries, and regional impact), and not necessarily under the control of the employer, pay equity reflects organisational culture and is very much under the control of the employer (e.g. starting salary, pay adjustment policies, and pay reviews). Use diversity data to test for pay equity and share the results with your workforce, outlining actions to address any identified shortfalls. This will build trust and credibility and support claims of fair and equitable treatment of employees.
Inclusion metrics - the employee experience
Understanding the lived experience of your workforce will give you deeper insights, and better understanding, of the inequalities identified in your culture and working environment (i.e. the issues, gaps and biases), enable you to assess the impact of your policies, practices, and processes, and inform your actions and solutions.
Analysing key evidence from your inclusivity efforts, will guide your strategic decisions, and ensure your actions address real challenges and have a lasting impact. From reshaping policies to enhancing employee experiences, you can use inclusion metrics to turn employee insights into practical solutions that drive inclusion.
Monitoring progress and measuring impact
Both inclusion and diversity metrics can be used to measure progress of your actions and capture the impact of your initiatives on employee experience, representation, and organisational culture.
There are a number of indicators you can use for determining impact, for example:
