How can you evaluate the level of diversity, equity, and inclusion in your organization?

The biggest mistake I see happening in DEIB program's not conducting a DEIB audit to determine the current state. This should come first. Then define the goals, where you want to be (end state), in light of the current state. The delta between the current and end states represents the target program space. For example, an audit might uncover that your recruitment and hiring processes are solid but professional development is non-existent or very week. In this case, nurture hiring and recruiting (solid DEIB) and focus on infusing DEIB in professional development.

Assess organization's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) by comparing workforce demographics to industry standards. Use employee surveys to measure perceptions of inclusivity and equal opportunities. Scrutinize hiring and promotion practices, particularly in leadership roles, to identify potential disparities. Review policies for inclusivity and accessibility of professional development opportunities. Engage with employee resource groups to understand their perspectives. Keep an eye on turnover rates, as high turnover may indicate inclusivity issues. This comprehensive approach offers insights into my organization's DEI landscape.

DEI goals required primarily to organisations which are doing their balance sheet healthy y-o-y and minimum hopping of stakeholders. Diversification in work culture to match present trends. Level teams to make or build to verify the value addition to the business. Any glitches are to be identified without timeloss and negotiate it immediately. Training,Participation and review is a part of equity in the business growth. Matching the current trends in order to grow with time is possible only by inclusiveness of the company by definite policies and pin it without second thought. In overall a separate DEI goal chart is made, reviewed on defined timelines. These three parameters form a triangular relationship in an organization.

Diverty, Equity and Inclusion must be faced as an Organizational Politics. In this way, we have to assure that every avaluation process is taking this issue as an performance indicator. In large companies, where most processes are already defined, it is important to set up a working group to review and implement this policy together with each Department.

Defining Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) goals is a critical step in fostering a workplace culture that values and embraces diversity. Begin by conducting a comprehensive assessment of your organization's current state of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Involve key stakeholders, including employees, leadership, and representatives from different groups within the organization, in the goal-setting process. This ensures that a variety of perspectives are considered.Make (SMART). For example, instead of a vague goal like "increase diversity," a SMART goal could be "increase the representation of underrepresented groups in leadership positions by 20% in next two years ."

How can you know if your DEI is doing well? Look at things like your ENPS (employee net promoter score) look at leavers feedback, check whether there is any patterns in those that are leaving, what are your employees forums saying, external benchmarking like getting ‘A Great Place To Work’ awarded. What is all of this data telling you? Are you seeing some patterns or trends that need to be reviewed and focused on.

After implementing DEI as a politics, and including this indicator in our evaluation, we can collect data. This data in mandatory to provide an overview of how DEI is in the organization from different points of view: workers, job candidates, customers, etc. This way we can plan changes to internal policies, products and services, aiming for continuous improvement.

Collecting data and feedback is crucial for assessing the progress of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) goals. Conduct regular DEI surveys to gather feedback from employees. Include questions related to their perceptions of the workplace culture, experiences with inclusion, and opinions on the effectiveness of DEI initiatives. Track the promotion and advancement rates of employees from different demographic groups. Assess whether DEI initiatives are leading to increased opportunities for career growth and leadership roles. If your organization has Employee Resource Groups, seek feedback from these groups. ERGs can provide valuable perspectives on the effectiveness of DEI initiatives and suggest improvements.

Examine demographic data to understand the composition of your workforce across various dimensions such as race, gender, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, ability, and other relevant factors. Use diversity indices to quantify the level of diversity in your organization. Common indices include the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) or the Simpson Diversity Index. These indices provide a numerical representation of diversity, considering both the number of groups and their proportional representation. Evaluate promotion and advancement rates for employees from different demographic groups. Assess whether there are disparities in career progression and if DEI initiatives have led to increased opportunities for underrepresented groups.

In order to assess DEI initiatives, outcomes and progress, following are the useful DEI metrics covering mainly all Talent functions from onboarding to Offboarding. 📏Candidate demographics 📏DEI Net Promoter Score (NPS) 📏Demographics across different organization levels 📏Retention rate across employee groups 📏Employee career progression / Promotion rate 📏Equal pay and pay equity 📏Employee resource group- ERG participation 📏Employees turnover Moreover, in order to build sustainable DEI program, need based, DEI related SMART KPIs must be assigned to critical leadership positions as mandatory part of their PMS Appraisal.

DEI is not an action, it's a system. Continous reviews supports improvement. Constantly evaluate what has worked and what needs to change. Do not neglect to include your stakeholders in decision making.