It’s been proven that more diverse and inclusive companies are more successful businesses. So how can you effectively build a more diverse and inclusive organization? One key when it comes to prioritizing D&I is measuring diversity metrics. This can help you track improvements—and identify the areas that are in need of improvement.
Why You Should Measure Diversity and Inclusion
The most obvious answer to this question is to keep track of the diversity at your company overtime to, hopefully, monitor improvement. But there are other reasons that measuring diversity is important. For one, measuring data can help strip the emotion out of assessing this topic, which can be a tricky one.
Additionally, by measuring data, you can hold your organization accountable. A company saying that it’s committed to diversity and inclusion is only as good as the actions it takes that support that commitment. There’s a reason that there’s such a focus on unconscious bias in D&I—precisely because it is unconscious. Therefore, committing to building a diverse and inclusive workforce cannot be a passive endeavor built on platitudes. Instead, it must be an active one. And one of those actions? Measuring diversity metrics.
What Metrics Are Used For Diversity and Inclusion?
Now that we’ve covered the importance of measuring diversity and inclusion, let’s take a look at some of the metrics that can help you do so effectively. Broadly, there are two categories of metrics that are helpful for measuring D&I within your current workforce.
- Metrics of representation: This category of metrics will often be breakdowns of your workforce by percentage of the total (such as by gender, race, age, sexual orientation, etc.). It’s important to note that sometimes, taking a company-wide look won’t give you the clearest picture. For example, a company that is 50% men and 50% women but with no women in leadership positions is not one that is effectively championing diversity.
- Metrics of retention: Inclusion is a difficult thing to measure—and one of the more effective ways to do so is by keeping an eye on retention. Retention is a good proxy for determining how happy—or unhappy—employees are. When you’re focused specifically on inclusion, you may want to consider the retention rates of certain groups. For example, do people of color within your organization turn over more quickly than white employees?
Other metrics that can help you understand the way your organization stacks up for D&I include pay rates and/or disparities across groups as well as promotions across groups. Is there a pay gap? Are certain groups consistently promoted and given career growth opportunities over others?
Since diversity starts at the recruitment stage, you’ll also want to consider metrics that include potential employees—not just the ones you’ve already hired. One important metric is the diversity of your applicant pool (which is also helpful to compare against the diversity of your current employees).
How Modern Technology Can Help You Meet Your Recruiting Goals
As mentioned above, building a diverse and inclusive organization is an active endeavor and one not without its challenges—from unconscious biases to problems in the pipeline. The good news is there are plenty of tools to help you overcome these obstacles so you can continue to prioritize diversity and inclusion in your hiring.
Modern technology can help you meet your recruiting goals related to diversity and inclusion in a variety of ways. For one, they help mitigate bias. There are several tools that can contribute to this. Screening tools using artificial intelligence can take the initial pass of a candidate’s resume and/or cover letter and determine whether that candidate should be moved forward. Additionally, AI chatbots, like PandoLogic’s Wade and Wendy, can be the first touchpoint for candidates, initiating engagement and determining fit without letting factors that might bias a person affect its assessment. These tools help to standardize the hiring process at the outset so that all candidates receive fair initial assessments.
Additionally, using programmatic recruitment software, such as PandoLogic’s pandoIQ, can help with the pipeline problem. pandoIQ can post job ads across a variety of online job boards—not just the most popular ones. That means that your job ad will reach a broader group of potential candidates than in the past, increasing the diversity of your applicant pool.
At the end of the day, you’re not going to build a D&I program overnight. However, knowing the metrics to begin measuring diversity is a powerful place to start. The sooner you know where you currently stand, the sooner you can take steps to improve and effectively hit your goals.