Does your organization measure key business goals, such as financial return, revenue, profits, return on investments?
Does your organization measure diversity metrics?
Measure Diversity Statistics and Identify Focus Areas
Why is it Important?
The main goal is inclusion: of different types of people, background and skills, and ways of approaching work. Diversity stats can be an important measurement of an organization’s execution of inclusion.
Measurable and visible data is important in business goals, and this includes DEI.
We can’t improve what we cannot see.
Understanding current diversity statistics is critical to understand where your organization currently stands and identify areas for improvement to focus efforts.
Track Progress. Compiling stats on a regular basis helps quantify trends and progress.
Step 1: Gather Statistics
Collect and organize current diversity statistics.
Gender and race/ethnicity are statistics most organizations collect or can collect. While diversity is broader than those two metrics, they are good starting points as an indication of organizational diversity.
Measure diversity by level in organization, such as top leadership (c-suite, investment committee), senior level, mid-level, junior level, and administrative.
Depending on size of organization, consider dividing out different business units, especially if some functions are more common pipelines to senior levels.
Track diversity with more detail than just diverse/non-diverse.
Gender:
Female
Male
Non-binary/other
Race/Ethnicity:
Black &/or American Indian
Hispanic &/or Latino
Asian &/or Pacific Islander
White, non-Hispanic
Note Multiracial. Allow people to select more than one option, but track it to interpret when the total is greater than 100%)
Suggest a matrix of genders and racial/ethnic groups to also track crossover. This will allow the organization to identify subsets, such as white women and black women.
Measure Diversity by Level in Organization. Examples:
Top Leaders / Equity Partners / Investment Committee / C-Suite
Leadership Level
Mid-Level- 6-15 years of experience
Junior Level - 1-5 years of experience
Administrative - not typically on track to leadership levels.
You can consider other diversity cohorts either now or to incorporate or add in later iterations:
Socio-economic, example first generation college grad
LGBTQ
People with Disabilities
Veterans
Geographic background
Step 2: Analyze Statistics
Compare your organization’s numbers to either US population or US college grads
Women ~56% of college grads
Black & American Indian/Native Alaskan: ~11% of college grads
Latinx or Hispanic: ~9% of college grads
Asian & Pacific Islander: ~11% of college grads
Where are the biggest gaps in your organization?
Are certain groups most underweight?
Are there levels in organization with the least diversity? If it is senior levels, what roles are the most common pipeline for senior roles?
Retention and advancement of underrepresented groups:
What are the retention rates? It can be an indication of the organization’s inclusive culture.
How diverse are the candidates through the hiring process, which can be an indication of hiring practices?
For promotions, are some demographics moving up at higher rates?
Step 3: Identify Areas of Focus and Transparency
Choose an area or two to focus on so you don’t dilute your organization’s efforts.
Share stats and key takeaways with everyone at your organization. Clearly communicate the diversity focus area(s) with everyone at your organization.
Step 4: Follow Through with Accountability
What gets measured and required gets done.
“What gets measured gets done. Putting a target in place allows you to analyze the process end to end and truly assess the impact using real data and not ‘gut feel.’ We’ve really deepened our understanding of the systemic barriers in place and have been able to address them more effectively by tracking and setting numerical goals and targets.” SENIOR HR LEADER
FAQs
Why does this feel uncomfortable for me?
Many people were taught to be race or gender blind, especially at work. That meant encouraging us to see a colleague as that, a colleague, and not your female colleague or your Asian-American colleague. In fact, building inclusive diversity is not only seeing the differences, but encouraging you to notice the differences and welcome them.
Additionally looking at statistics and making goals, gives some people the impression that you are seeking to lower the standards for some groups. The perceived reduction in meritocracy feels unfair. This is where education on bias statistics is helpful to provide perspective that our organizations may not be as meritocratic as we hope.
It can also feel uncomfortable to see stark lack of diversity in organizations. What we may know instinctively becomes more overt in statistics.
Can we just track white / non-white to track our progress of people of color?
We recommend tracking race and ethnicity with more specific groups. While no group is a monolith, many organizations find they have much more representation from some groups than others, so measuring different categories allows for that identification.
You can always combine groups of data but if you don’t track smaller cohorts you don’t have the ability to analyze it.
For Goals, you can combine subcategories. For example, if you only have 5 people in the c-suite, it may be too granular to have targets in smaller groups.
Resources - Measuring Diversity Statistics
ILPA Diversity Metrics Template -ILPA (Institutional Limited Partners Association) distributes a diversity metrics template that your organization could use as a basis for measuring diversity statistics.
Video: Diversity’s Missing Ingredient with Melody Hobson. Highlights the importance of measuring and accountability to make progress on diversity.
“Start counting. Just count. I love the saying that math has no opinion.”
-Mellody Hobson