Having a concerted, coordinated strategy in place to ensure your company makes steady, ongoing progress in regard to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is great.
Having a robust analytics solution that makes it easy for your business to assess its DEI efforts with and take action on related DEI initiatives, though, is equally important.
In other words? You can build an inclusive organization that offers equal pay for equal work and hires individuals of different races, genders, identities, and sexual orientations.
But, if analytics doesn’t help gauge the effectiveness of your diversity hiring process and help you build an increasingly inclusive culture, you can’t capably monitor and improve upon your DEI progress made to date — well, at least in a way that’s “trackable.”
8 DEI metrics your HR team must monitor monthly — and work with leadership to improve
“Without a framework for measuring and evaluating their [DEI] efforts, the resolve that many leaders and organizations have shown around improving DEI in recent years will falter when challenges arise,” social psychologist Evelyn R. Carter, PhD, wrote for Harvard Business Review.
Educating employees on the “why” behind DEI initiatives, listening to workers to learn their desires regarding DEI improvement, and recognizing relevant stakeholders for progress they make with DEI programs is vital to success with related programs, Evelyn said.
As milestones are achieved with a given initiative, though, there must also be accountability. That means evaluating data to ensure your goals were met.
More to the point, it means analyzing your critical DEI metrics, including (but not limited to) the eight below to identify recent “wins” and your areas for improvement.
1) Quarterly Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)
A premier way many orgs hold themselves accountable for their DEI-related goals is by asking their employees for their thoughts through quarterly eNPS surveys.
Simply asking questions about your company culture, learning and development opportunities, executives’ transparency, and other facets of your org can lead to eye-opening responses — ones that can help your e-staff and managers become more thoughtful and inclusive leaders.
2) Workforce demographics (overall and by team)
Of all the DEI metrics listed, this may be the most “universal” one companies across industries and of all sizes track (and even share publicly via DEI-centric site pages) most often.
Your HR team can (or at least should be able to) break down your demographic data for specific roles and business units as well as your org at large.
This reporting can provide C-suite members with a regular at-a-glance view of how the company is tracking against diversity hiring KPIs.
Stagnancy with or declines in the total number and percentage of diverse workforce members can lead to chats with talent leaders and hiring managers about what recruiting process changes could be made to ensure more diverse prospects are extended offers and hired.
For example, HR leaders could suggest modifying interview panel structures to feature more diverse staff members and altering the sourcing avenues for certain roles and teams.
3) Candidate demographics (overall and by team)
Just as you inspect the demographic makeup of your employee base, you must also do the same with candidates added to your talent pool and advanced in your pipeline.
While federal contractors need to comply with OFCCP regulations by mandatorily keeping track of candidates’ race, gender, veteran status, and disabilities, other employers would be wise to leverage Equal Employment Opportunity surveys in job postings (like ones Lever customers use) to ensure they can get details regarding the demographics of all applicants.
For proactively sourced candidates, LeverTRM users can similarly send diversity surveys to prospects during or after the recruitment cycle to better understand the progress (or lack thereof) they’ve made with their diversity recruiting efforts.
4) Lead engagement (by demographic group)
Applications submitted. Nurture emails replied to. Total number of interviews conducted.There are many ways you can assess the engagement (and enthusiasm) level of diverse job seekers.
Arguably the best way to evaluate diverse candidates’ engagement, though, is by sending post-recruiting cycle surveys to diverse talent to learn about their interview experience.
(That is to say, different ones than the diversity surveys mentioned above).
Questions around whether a lead believed the hiring process was unbiased, felt comfortable speaking with interview panelists, and thought they were evaluated fairly/on the merits of their skills and expertise can shed light on whether recruiting adjustments are needed.
The answers to these questions from diverse groups of prospects you engage, in particular, can help you identify (and rectify) potential unconscious bias in your hiring process.
5) Employee turnover and retention figures
Exit interviews aren’t just helpful for people managers who want to learn where they can improve as a business leader. They can also inform where TA and HR can stand to improve.
Let’s say a dozen employees from underrepresented groups who quit in the last quarter all cited related issues and concerns with internal mobility options at the company.
If you hear this from individuals across demographics, not just those in underrepresented groups, that’s emblematic of systemic issues with your career mobility program at large.
If you hear this solely or mostly from those in marginalized groups, that means there is likely a collective bias (conscious or unconscious) among team and departmental leaders in their decision-making of who merits a promotion or advancement in their business units.
6) Number/percent of diverse business leaders
“Diversity in the leadership team means more lived experiences and backgrounds being reflected in how the organization and its culture are shaped,” executive leadership coach Ruchi Shah-Mehta shared with the Forbes Coaches Council.
Let’s say your DEI metrics show a lack of women and BIPOC individuals on your executive team, leading your business units, and getting opportunities to advance into those roles.
Your human resources team must identify and address the (data-backed) reasons they believe led to this lack of diversity in leadership.
This diversity metric can be analyzed for all leadership positions and broken down by role (C-suite, departmental heads, people managers) and demographics (gender, race, age, etc.).
7) Employee resource group (ERG) participation
Creating ERGs for different groups within your business (e.g., ones for members/allies of the LGBTQIA+ community, women in technical roles, and those in other underrepresented groups) is a fantastic way to build safe, inclusive, and welcoming communities at your org.
If analysis of this DEI metric shows few employees participate in ERGs and/or ERG growth (i.e., the number of staff members joining them each month/quarter) is low, work with group leaders to discuss what events or initiatives could spark more engagement and involvement.
8) Diversity goals set by DEI committee achieved
Many DEI committees work with stakeholders across their orgs to develop dedicated goals at the start of a calendar year. Some are quarterly objectives. Others are annual “targets.”
Your DEI goals will likely be unique to your org. Whatever they are, though, ensure you and other DEI council members are able to scrutinize your demographic data with ease.
Consider Lever customer Loopio.
Yeniffer Pang-Chung, Sr. Manager of Talent Experience at the company, said the org constantly analyzes its diversity recruiting and hiring data in LeverTRM to ensure it’s meeting its targets.
“We’re constantly looking at the source of hires [in LeverTRM] and how it intersects with our goals around representation,” said Yennifer. “When we see that we’re not meeting our goals, it’s a call for us to start sourcing [differently].”
Find out how our native talent acquisition suite and built-in analytics can help you track and take action on your DEI metrics. Schedule a chat with the Lever team today.
