Organizations seeking to improve their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) often get stuck when it comes to measuring these discrete constructs. While there are a variety of approaches to assessing DEI, there are sources of data in your organization that you can turn to today to determine how your workplace is stacking up. I will provide six for you today:
Application & selection rates
Retention data
Exit interviews
Feedback on leaders
Post-training assessments and feedback
Employee engagement & pulse surveys
1. Application & selection rates
One important source of HR data is the rates at which your organization is receiving applications from historically disadvantaged populations as well as the rates at which you are selecting under-represented candidates from those applicant pools. If your organization has DEI goals that include increasing diversity, a good first step is to see how representative both your applicant pool and selected candidates are of your overall population (whether geographically or by industry).
2. Retention data
Relatedly, an important goal in tandem with recruiting and selecting a diverse candidate pool is keeping that talent in your organization. Retention data can provide important insights into who is leaving, who is staying, and who is advancing at your company.
3. Exit interviews
Once you have insight into who is leaving, a question might arise as to “Why?” especially if there is a difference across demographic groups. For these questions, exit interviews are a valuable source of information. An important note here is that your exit interviews should include a question about where your organization’s DEI efforts could be improved. Departing employees can provide feedback on where the organization is falling short with DEI and this data is essential for improving over time.
4. Feedback on leaders
Success and failure in DEI often fall on the shoulders of our organizational leaders. Therefore, feedback from employees on their supervisors and higher-level managers can be a key source of data on where your organization should seek to provide DEI training and development opportunities.
5. Post-training assessments and feedback
If your organization has utilized DEI training in the past, a key source of data can be employee responses to these trainings. Individuals may voice a desire to learn more or feedback on where future training could be targeted. This information can provide a roadmap to DEI leaders seeking to continue developing DEI learning in their organization.
6. Employee engagement & pulse surveys
Lastly, using data that exists from non-DEI-specific surveys of your employee population can be essential. If you have demographic data for your respondents, you can determine if specific identity groups in your organization feel less engaged at work or less satisfied. This information can further be used to target interventions to make your organization more diverse, equitable, and inclusive.
Looking to take the next step in measuring DEI at your organization? Contact Mattingly Solutions today to learn more partnering with us to diagnose, build, implement, & assess the impact of your DEI strategy and programming on metric-based outcomes.