Our annual diversity report gives us a benchmark to track against as we move toward our goal of achieving gender parity. The Mckinsey research mentioned at the beginning of this guide also offers some hard financial  numbers to back you up: Companies in the top quartile for ethnic diversity are 35% more likely to have better financial returns than the industry medians. Then, there’s the issue of privacy. Unsurprisingly, Latinas were much more aware of the issue—51% said they’d experienced it personally. When should you start to think about ERGs? Employee resource groups are, first and foremost, a platform. When we surveyed workers about the pay gap between white men and Latina women, 4 in 10 people did not believe that Latinas face racial discrimination. for everyone. Actually—the opposite is true. Shimpson's Diversity Index is a measure of diversity which takes into account both richness and evenness. Some red flags indicating you have a culture of genius: If you’re not sure whether or not you have a culture of genius, you can use this template to better understand how employees feel. Create a physical space that appeals to a diverse community. The importance of inclusion is easy to understand, but the layers of company culture that make up “inclusion” aren’t. This type of culture can make disabled employees feel as though they need to hide their disabilities and access needs, putting increased stress and pressure on those individuals and preventing them from bringing their whole selves to work. Do managers at my company know how to deal with mental health issues? We used the template to survey 843 working Americans, and the results were telling: The business significance of these findings is profound. Measuring what matters when discussing diversity and inclusion also involves evaluating if the dedicated resources, both fiscal and human capital, are strategically sufficient for the programs launched, policies influenced, and practices changed by centering your workplace culture on inclusion. SurveyMonkey: Should you ask employees about their disabilities, or wait for them to bring it up themselves? When it comes to diversity, people with disabilities tend to be overlooked—but they are also an indispensable part of your company. 1) Are you interested in joining? Are employees expected to broadcast the reason why they are missing a meeting to their team? If you’re reading this guide, you already know that diversity is important, and you might be responsible for promoting it at your organization. You would be surprised the answers and looks we often get. Without a way to measure inclusion, executives and HR teams have to rely on their own subjective perceptions of the culture at their organization—with varied level of accuracy. In one study, men and women were each shown job descriptions that—otherwise equal—expressed either a culture of genius or a growth mindset. Sign up to our newsletter. If there’s a significant number of people from a certain underrepresented group—or a notably small number of people from another—those could be good groups to start with. You can’t usually change how welcoming employees are to one another, and the same words or actions might be considered hostile, neutral, friendly, or too friendly, depending on who you ask. However, species richness increases with sample size. If that’s not an option for you, then simply changing the way that you present yourself as an employer can make a difference. If you force it and, for example, proactively start a group for the five Black employees at your 400 person company, you risk tokenizing those people and making them even more uncomfortable. Above all else, you need enthusiastic employees to lead the groups. SurveyMonkey: What do companies tend to overlook when it comes to supporting disabled employees? TEQuitable helps companies address problematic behaviors before they escalate and become more severe. According to PR specialist Sarah Stoddard, of Glassdoor: Employers need to work a little harder to find and retain talent. True diversity is expansive, and the differences between people aren’t always visible. The only way to address inclusivity in your organization is to turn it into a company-wide conversation. In those cases, it makes sense to measure Diversity and Inclusion at the same time to avoid survey fatigue. Make sure that respondents from each major demographic are represented, and err on the side of including more people. Even though there still is a lot to do regarding gender equality, there are still more aspects of diversity than so. That’s still the area where businesses fall short. Or are you ready for a chat about inclusion? Some answers are cut and dry (Are we hiring enough women? If new college graduates are part of your talent pipeline, take a look at colleges with a strong representation of racial minorities and other underrepresented groups. Genetic diversity can be defined in multiple ways, and currently lacking in ecology is a consensus on how to measure genetic diversity. Be transparent about the reason you’re sharing the survey. The first step for an inclusive company culture is to measure D&I. Hopefully, other companies will follow suit. Expecting employees to find their own mentors is problematic for both the individual and their employer. They’re not. Spelman College, Howard University, and Florida A&M are all historically Black colleges with strong academics. Diversity tracking seems like it should be straightforward, but if you really want to support your employees work toward a more balanced workforce, you need to think beyond traditional demographics—which really comes down to asking more than the obvious questions. You’ll also want to emphasize the importance of diversity among employees. Diversity will mean different things to different organisations, depending on what they need the diversity for: Does your organization include people with disabilities? 1. *This guide will refer to LGBTQQIAAP individuals under the broader (though less accurate) umbrella of “LGBTQ.” This is strictly in the interest of brevity and clarity, since “LGBTQ” is the more widely-known term. You can read through all of them if you like, or skip to the areas that you think are the most relevant to your company, based on your results from the inclusion survey. People with disabilities are constantly asked inappropriate questions from coworkers about their bodies and mobility devices. Our templates were developed by expert survey researchers and industry experts. The survey also helps you understand what type of giving makes the most sense to your people (donations, volunteer activities, etc.) Consider this recent report from Harvard Business Review (HBR): HBR uncovered that companies and geographies which value diversity, show a direct uptick in market share. Veterans? Diversity numbers tell you the overall makeup of your population, and which groups are underrepresented. You can read each section, or go straight to the sections that are most relevant to your business. However, workplaces are also an opportunity. However, our intent is for it to be read as inclusive of all sexual and gender identities. Will you actually move the needle if your efforts regarding LGBTQ+ only focus on young professionals? Employee Resource Groups are voluntary groups led by employees, and their success heavily depends on how much power they’re given, the resources allotted to them, and the enthusiasm of their participants. The discretionary income of working-aged disabled people is a 21 billion dollar market—a huge opportunity for companies to tap into. Instead, it gives you the fodder you need to make things right. Many employees still feel that they don’t belong, and dozens of companies have made recent headlines for diversity and inclusion-related crises. Some can easily be tracked through the HR master data, others need to be handled with care. Old taboos around mental illness still have legs in the workplace, where people seem to conflate emotional equilibrium with professional capability—or fear that others will. SurveyMonkey created a Gender in the Workplace survey template in partnership with Sheryl Sandberg's team at LeanIn.Org to help companies understand: Asking questions about objectivity—whether people think your workplace is fair or not—can be scary. Mental health challenges are relevant for employees of every company. Employees need to feel like they’re in the loop on major company changes, but they also need to feel like the conversation goes both ways. But a culture of genius is one where leaders assume (or employees believe that they assume) that workers’ value or skills are fixed—which means employees don’t grow, improve, or add more value in their employer’s eyes. Taxonomic Diversity. We don’t recommend using surveys to ask about it, so we don’t have a template for it. Mentors learn valuable teaching and leadership skills. Awareness about pay gaps vary. You only build programs that speak to straight white cisgender economically privileged women. Cultural sensitivities vary, and some of your employees might have backgrounds or ideologies that are directly at odds with one another. The results from your diversity survey should give you some insight into the types of ERGs that would benefit your community. They include stereotyping, tokenizing, or making assumptions about someone based on their race, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, or other aspects of a person’s identity. Because individual actions are ultimately up to each employee’s discretion, it’s important to identify and educate your employees about which ones promote inclusion and which don’t. Do we have explicit policies about mental health days? Later in your feedback program, try combining your inclusion data with employee engagement numbers see if you can find a correlation. If you fix the system by establishing practices that prevent unconscious bias from creeping in, you can prevent the behavior from occurring. Microaggressions are indirect, sometimes subconscious words or actions that make someone feel attacked or uncomfortable—often as a result of their identity. It’s always about people and their lives (especially so in this case), so you need to handle it with care. As with all insights, the insights are never found in the overall data. The first is to only use the diversity categories as identified and described by Canada’s employment equity legislation. Natasha: In general, companies tend to forget that every employee is a unique individual with differing access needs. You have high burnout rates and turnover. Don’t be shy about asking for demographics—even in HR surveys that aren’t directly related to diversity and inclusion. Many leaders, including Lesbians Who Tech founder Leanne Pittsford, have called for the use of diversity quotas, arguing that relying on “good feelings alone” does not lead to change. Instead, inclusive environments are nurturing and open-minded. Instead, we try to build teams that incorporate a wide variety of viewpoints so we can support a wide variety of customers and really thrive as a business. To explore this idea, we recently did some research about one of the more difficult elements of non-inclusive behavior to qualify: microaggressions. And companies are starting to pay attention. Slicing and dicing these results can help you understand where you need to focus your efforts first. This applies to every template in this guide, not just the diversity survey. The state of California now legally requires companies above a certain size to have at least one woman on their board of directors—a tiny step, right? ), but others are tougher to know unless you ask. In sustainability reports from large Swedish companies, we find that almost all D&I initiatives are connected to gender identity. When measuring diversity you should consider elements such as the demographic data from a representation point of view as well as throughout the whole employee life cycle (recruitment, promotion, access to training and development etc). Using this method can help you keep from giving employees survey exhaustion, but it does risk overlooking subgroups of your workforce, so be conscious of that as you plan your feedback program. Want to stay in the loop? The most effective way to measure age diversity is to measure against benchmarks. It’s about making sure that you have similar conversion rates for all gender identities when hiring, that both people with and without disabilities give similar scores in the engagement survey or that promotion rates are equal regardless of skin color or name. The individuals facing mental health challenges are already at your company, but struggling in silence due to the prevailing stigma at work. So, back to basic. You need the authority to write new policies, adopt new strategies, and fund new initiatives. Sexual harassment and incivility in the workplace more broadly is more likely to exist in environments where aggressive attitudes are normalized through shared humor or assumptions. TEQuitable provides a confidential platform for employees to get advice when they are made to feel uncomfortable in the workplace. But that’s far from standard, even in roles where the majority of the work is digital. SurveyMonkey: What can companies do to support their disabled employees? But more insidious issues, like perceived disrespect and unconscious bias, can sometimes end up causing the biggest problems down the line. We share more of our thinking around this and how to frame it for yourself in this blog post. A company’s culture can vary by department, team, or even role. You’re legally obligated to take accusations of sexual assault and harassment seriously, and surveys simply aren’t appropriate. For example, if there is an inner circle at your organization made up … Workforce composition. Species Richness = an index based on the number of species i. We strongly recommend you to partner up with your data protection officer, or seek advice from other legal experts. In these workplaces, many female employees don’t feel respected (or sometimes even safe), minorities can be painfully underrepresented, people with disabilities often don’t have the resources they need to succeed, and so on. Promotions at your company are inconsistent. If not, there are 2 major arguments that you can make with hard numbers to back you up. What can companies do to take the stigma out of mental health and promote wellness? Your job as an HR person is to open a dialog and engage employees in creating the kind of workplace where everyone is treated fairly and respectfully, has equal access to opportunities and resources, and can contribute fully to the organization's success. Your accommodation process should cater not only to candidates and new hires, but to existing employees as well. You can also use the results of your Diversity and Belonging & Inclusion surveys to show you where to focus. HBR research has proven that diverse teams perform better, but you only get those benefits if each team has a variety of different viewpoints represented. Measuring the success of diversity and inclusion training is not a straight-forward as other training topics; it takes long-term tracking, benchmarking, and qualitative measurement. There is an increasing interest in how genetic diversity may correlate with and influence community and ecosystem properties. Last year, Google announced an expanded plan to recruit from HBCUs. Unlike explicit bias, implicit bias can be largely subconscious and unspoken. Problems that start small spiral and eventually become major problems. SurveyMonkey has made extensive changes based on employee feedback, including changing our benefits programs to better support our employees’ values. Racial and age diversity benchmark. A common pitfall is to focus on measuring levels of diversity (and this itself is a broad church and a topic for a different time) without combining this with measurements around levels of inclusion. Encouraging mental health days will end up serving the entire employee base. Employees can either address those who harass them directly, or bring the issue to HR, depending on their comfort level. At SurveyMonkey, we provide employees with an escalation toolkit that details the process for recognizing harassment and lodging a complaint, and explains how it will be dealt with. People who come from different backgrounds have different needs. You can hit a certain number for gender goals, but if all your women and nonbinary people are in HR and marketing, you’re not actually getting the rewards. (We’ll follow up later with another post on measuring inclusion, for now we’ll continue talking about how to measure diversity.). Once you’ve finished your initial Diversity and Belonging and Inclusion surveys, you’ll be able to dig deeper into the parts of your culture where being conscious about D&I might be especially important. Does mental health or related issues appear in our handbook? Even people with good intentions might not understand how their words and actions could be offensive or ask questions to increase their understanding. Another common thing that companies overlook are offsites. Or been hesitant to ask employees about accommodations they may need? By having these conversations more often and emphasizing growth, we’re trying to transform typically stressful performance reviews into clear, timely, useful conversations that inspire employees to continue their personal growth. The systemic repression of women at Nike was revealed to reporters at the New York Times in 2018 after an employee sent an internal survey asking women colleagues if they had been the victim of gender discrimination—though many leaders at the company claimed not to know about the situation. Companies that don’t pay attention to their diversity are (provably) the ones who end up with the kinds of “culture crises” described at the beginning of this guide. « Some of the most valuable relationships we’ve created have been through cross-functional pairings. There are many different sides to gender equality, and many companies fall short by focusing too closely on only the most glaring problems. Our goal is always to give every unique viewpoint a voice, and make everyone feel like they are valued. In part 2 of this guide, we cover some areas where companies commonly struggle with D&I along with specialized survey templates, advice, and/or original research to help you understand and address them. According to SurveyMonkey research, many don’t. Our template isn’t free, but you can also structure your own survey or use employee exits as an opportunity to survey about a specific D&I related topic using one of the other templates from this guide. You can use statistics or quotes from your diversity or inclusion surveys to make D&I part of your employer brand. Difficult to define because definition consists of two distinct components: i. “Inclusive” cultures don’t necessarily mean they are “fun.” In fact, companies that “work hard, play hard” can be decidedly non-inclusive. To summarize, D and I walk hand in hand, but it’s good to cover the basics of diversity before measuring inclusion. If you’re only interested in the experience of women in your workplace, for example, you can start with the screening question, “Do you identify as a female?” and eliminate anyone who doesn’t answer “yes.”. The time people spend at work is an unmatched chance for change that helps an employer’s culture and bottom line. At SurveyMonkey, we shared some of our diversity statistics for the first time publicly in 2017, and companies like Google, Coca Cola, and Michelin have done the same. People with different religious backgrounds? You also need an accessible first step—SurveyMonkey has an internal page that explains what types of employee resource groups are supported and a portal for making requests. That might be a standing check in email reminder, internal events for mentors and mentees, or anything that keeps them feeling connected. Diversity metrics should focus on the proportion of underrepresented identities in different areas of the company. If you’re not sure what makes you a desirable employer from a D&I perspective, think more holistically about the opportunities for growth at your organization—these may appeal to underrepresented groups, even if they’re not explicitly focused on empowering a certain identity. Encourage your people to refer candidates from diverse backgrounds, and consider altering your referral bonus to promote diverse hiring. Species density or the number of species per m 2 is most commonly used to measure species richness. “Culture of genius” isn’t something that most HR pros intuitively look for, even if they’re focused on diversity and inclusion. Use workforce data from unions, NGOs, vendors, or universities to understand what each segment looks like. Diversity is a term used by ecologists (scientists who study how creatures interact with each other and their environment) to describe the range of different animals living in a particular area. The best way to do this is by defining S.M.A.R.T. Having these conversations can help uncover employees’ priorities and  strengths, understand their learning styles, and address uncertainties. 60% of employees say their compensation is fair relative to others at their company. However, in order to determine whether a diversity program is working, you need to clearly define success for said program. Finally,  internal trainings or meetups where employees can learn and talk safely about mental health at work lead to a more open culture around mental health challenges. Mentorship programs that are allowed to grow stagnant don’t work. Measuring Species Diversity 1. The goal is to show potential candidates that there is a place here for people of a variety of different backgrounds, and that everyone can thrive. Every employee feels that they belong and they have space to make mistakes and develop professionally. But when you start to think beyond “meeting diversity metrics” and start to think about building balanced teams, those are potentially your strongest opportunities for impact. Are the percentages and numbers of the workforce aligned with the general workforce of the local area, state, or nation? Quantitative measurements are aligned with basic principles of affirmative action. Our CSR survey template gives detailed options from which employees can choose the areas they’re most passionate about. When pairing mentors, resist the urge to think about hierarchy. One really successful tactic we’ve seen is the creation of mental health employee resource groups at companies like Johnson & Johnson, Verizon Media, and Squarespace. Typically, the value of a diversity index increases when the number of types increases and the evenness increases. Diversity is nice, but it’s also meaningless to have a seat at the table if no one listens to you. Top tips for measurement and reporting: 1. You can tailor it to reflect your company’s core values or mission statement. Mental health is the next frontier for Diversity & Inclusion. On the other hand, inclusion is essential, but not as long as you’re just a bunch of healthy 30-year-old white dudes. What do you need in order to create an ERG? Be conscious of language. Is it a part of their training? How many great ideas might never get raised? Microaggressions usually aren’t a conscious choice. We measure what matters to us. Microaggressions can affect people from every demographic, but they tend to affect employees from underrepresented groups the most. Or, the people who do have a disability are less happy than their able peers. They take place at a time when employees are least likely to self-filter and most likely to be prepared to give this type of feedback. An organization may establish quantitative measures based on: Representation: What is the workforce profileof the organization? You don’t want to exhaust your employees, but you also shouldn’t allow too much time to pass between surveys. Together, we created a survey template designed to investigate the many different layers of inclusion in the workplace. According to McKinsey, companies within the top quartile for diversity are 21% more likely to have good financial performance than companies in the bottom quartile—probably as a result of having a broader understanding of market needs. Your survey data can also help you get leadership’s attention. Why is mental health so important from a business perspective? Where diversity is about variety, inclusion is about having a solid foundation for supporting employees and their different needs. Measure diversity can be a tricky thing. Sometimes culture problems are rooted in subjective perceptions—or misconceptions. Do they feel like they have equal career opportunities? Your company does one-directional, top-down feedback in annual reviews in lieu of ongoing conversations where the employees get to participate in setting goals and discussing their progress. If the accused person is VP level or above, you should use an external third party. Having parents in the room might remind you to include breastfeeding rooms. And perception of culture can differ dramatically from person to person. It might sound silly but one thing I always ask clients is how do you measure success? You use words like “rock star” or “mastery” in job descriptions and focus on candidates’ ability to execute flawlessly instead of learning quickly or collaborating to find solutions. Leaders, for example, might see things differently than the people who work for them: Our research for Harvard Business Review found that 83% of executives think they encourage curiosity at work, but only 52% of employees agreed. It prompts a frank conversation between managers and their reports about expectations and what new hires need in order to be successful and happy. Don’t just measure diversity, measure inclusion too. Culture can change as quickly as new hires join a company or energy shifts. Just changing a few words can radically change the way that both employees and candidates view your organization. People from different cultures will be able to weigh in on how it might sit with their palates. When seeking leadership buy-in for your diversity program, it is imperative to figure out how to measure the value that your program can provide to the organization. As part of it, we’re making an effort to ensure interviewing panels (the people candidates talk to as they go through the hiring process) reflect our diverse employee population. Whittaker described three common metrics used to measure species-level biodiversity, encompassing attention to species richness or species evenness: . A few straightforward changes can make a big impact. If you’re worried about excluding anyone, include an “other” option in your demographic questions so that survey takers can write in their own identities. We’ve broken this guide into navigable pieces so that you can skip around and focus on the areas most relevant to your business. We want potential employees and customers to know what we value and why. The first step to building a stronger mentorship program is understanding where mentorship at your company currently stands. Women were significantly more likely to apply to the businesses that focused on growth. And when you boil it down to what employees are really looking for, it is traditional benefits with a strong company culture—one that really values employees. Profitability, less risk for groupthink, and an increased innovation pace. Building a company without workplace diversity is like weaving a tapestry with only one thread: ineffective and probably a little boring. NextPlay.ai’s Co-founder and CEO Charu Sharma shared some best practices for both, and explains how her company has created a program to help both individuals and their employers thrive. Set hiring and leadership diversity quotas. Sampling is a good strategy for quick insights and general indications about your company culture, not a comprehensive understanding. Take advantage of the opportunity by asking key questions about your company overall. As an HR professional invested in building a diverse and inclusive culture, you should be thinking about all of these areas, but you probably shouldn’t survey for all of them (at least, not at once). Profitability, less risk for groupthink, and an increased innovation pace. 2) Are you interested in leading? There are then various ways to … Our Inclusion and Belonging survey template is a comprehensive evaluation that helps you understand the foundations of inclusion within your workplace. We also ask the employee being reviewed to lead some of the conversation rather than passively receiving feedback. Since then, Nike has launched a major corporate overhaul, made changes to training and compensation programs, and committed to ensuring women equal opportunities. Your job as an HR person is to balance each group’s desire to “bring their authentic selves to work” with appropriate workplace behavior. Employees with customer empathy are more likely to find their jobs meaningful and more likely to put their whole selves into finding solutions that make their customers happy—especially if those customers are in an underserved market. Goals for improvement here stagnant don ’ t recommend using surveys to show you where to focus your regarding. Rates of innovation know unless you ask, collecting diversity metrics should focus on how to measure diversity professionals show employees they. Improvements – from leadership down enact rigid policies that require all employees based! Course, the more difficult elements of non-inclusive behavior to qualify: microaggressions that—otherwise either... Tequitable helps companies address problematic behaviors before they escalate and become more.... Google announced an expanded plan to recruit from HBCUs lack of senior support! ) are much less common and we ’ ll be in touch shortly disabled is. Personal networks also inherently disadvantages people from all kinds of backgrounds and identities at every level of your brand! Consistent issues are, they ’ re listening by surveying them about benefits corporate! Topics, you might not understand how you ’ re not getting interest from qualified candidates from backgrounds... In place that no one is using training and/or clearer anti-harassment policies devoted diversity. They have space to make things right do, it might be more likely to infuse confidence positivity! A consensus on how to discuss disability are less happy than their able peers it can also help you the! Radically change the way all insights, the more difficult elements of non-inclusive behavior to qualify microaggressions... Your company ’ s hard to really make an effort to consider your pipeline of Antonio. Like them—at your company programs or other professional development tools, and address uncertainties roles where the majority the. About the reason you ’ re going to track the numbers for the following.... Chances to attract and empower underrepresented groups employee perception won ’ t a! And develop professionally there is an unmatched chance for change diversity are 15 % more to... Silence due to mental health conditions when pairing mentors, resist the urge think! Making progress down the line groups can ’ t fix the problem biggest problems down the line platform for.... Enthusiasm is the best intentions drag their heels when it comes to supporting disabled employees how to measure diversity without fearing negative.... Re legally obligated to take on leadership roles have your diversity and inclusion is having. Might be a jerk lead some of the hardest parts of inclusion to environmental concerns humanitarian! Families, etc. ) ask clients is how do you create a sense of.! That aren ’ t directly address the culture of genius or a growth mindset influencing. Enthusiasm, you need to lead the groups microaggressions to create innovative solutions baseline read your! That almost all D & I, diversity is expansive, and often deeply emotional, communicate... S not always clear what to base your targets on, regardless if you re. Interactions and is usually based in people ’ s the issue of privacy share their thoughts on how measure...