Workforce Diversity Reporting

Why rely solely on surveys when you can uncover the true state of DEI through concrete metrics? This is a question that echoes in my mind each time I embark on a new journey with a client. Surveys can provide valuable opinions, but they often fall short of capturing real facts and the nuanced realities of individuals within an organization. 🔎 Here are 6 key DEI metrics that truly matter: 📍 Attrition Rates: Take a closer look at why employees are leaving, especially among different groups. This will help you understand if there are specific challenges or issues that need to be addressed to improve retention. 📍 Leadership Pipeline Diversity: Evaluate the diversity within your leadership team. Are there opportunities for underrepresented individuals to rise into leadership roles? Are they equally represented on all levels of leadership? 📍 Promotion and Advancement Rates: Assess if all employees, regardless of background, are getting equal opportunities to advance in their careers. By monitoring promotion and advancement rates, you can identify any biases and work towards creating a level playing field. 📍 Pay Equity: Ensure that everyone is paid fairly and equally for their work. Address any discrepancies in pay based on not only gender, but also race, age, ethnicity or other intersectional factors. 📍 Hiring Pipeline Diversity: Examine the diversity of candidates in your hiring process. Are you attracting a wide range of talent from different backgrounds? Tracking this metric helps you gauge the effectiveness of your recruitment efforts in creating a diverse workforce. 📍 Employee Engagement by Demographic: Measure the level of engagement and satisfaction among employees from various groups. Are there any disparities in engagement levels? Run the crossings of identity diversity and organizational one. By focusing on these 6 concrete metrics, you can gain real insights into your organization's DEI progress based on actionable data that drives progress. ________________________________________ Are you looking for more HR tips and DEI content like this?  📨 Join my free DEI Newsletter: https://lnkd.in/dtgdB6XX

In yesterday's post on the FCA's Diversity and Inclusion consultation, I questioned whether their proposals (which largely reduce DEI to demographic diversity statistics) would improve customer welfare. Here I discuss the FCA's second goal of improving the UK's international competitiveness (by increasing talent from underrepresented groups). All of yesterday's concerns continue to apply. 1. The proposals focus on very narrow aspects of diversity - what can be measured, not what's important. Other sources of underrepresentation are: a. Socioeconomic background, given the power of wealth and contacts. b. Regional background. Even a different accent can affect whether you get a job, or how seriously you are taken by colleagues or clients. c. Personality type. How often is someone not hired or promoted because they're said to be not aggressive or assertive enough? 2. What matters is not just diversity but inclusion: whether minorities can thrive rather than just having jobs. A minority could be a bully; a white male could be a mentor. Moreover, additional concerns apply here. 3. Targets undermine merit. If a company has announced a target for (say) senior women, and a woman is promoted out of merit, colleagues and clients may think she was promoted to meet the target. I was once approached to apply for a board position because it needed to increase its “number of non-white faces”. 4. Targets are divisive. They can create divisions in a company and worsen culture because one party benefits at the expense of others. A white male may believe he has limited promotion prospects and thus be less motivated. More broadly, the focus on symptoms, not problems, has missed a real opportunity to address the underlying causes of lack of diversity. Taking gender diversity in fund management as an example, a significant hurdle to women becoming portfolio managers is that the major promotion decision (from analyst to PM) typically occurs when many women have children. Most women take extended parental leave, but men rarely do. If a woman is overlooked for promotion pre-kids, her earnings may have fallen significantly behind her partner’s post-kids. The family dynamic may either dissuade her from returning to work, or require her to bear more childcare responsibilities after returning, hindering promotion. Even if a woman has made PM prior to leave, there are still barriers. When one PM was on leave for more than six weeks, her employer ended her CF30 approval (part of the FCA’s Approved Persons regime at the time) leaving a gap in her track record. Track record is crucial in fund management, affecting her client inflows, ability to launch a new fund, and likelihood of being assigned to a bigger fund. My response to the consultation is below, which I hope is helpful to both the FCA and also companies and investors interested in diversity. https://lnkd.in/eWgkd8qz.

Why headline #diversity #equity and #inclusion #data is not always showing what you think it is. Today I’m sharing one of my favourite paradoxical examples, and how to be sure you don’t fall for it. First a personal note. It’s been a hard month for many. I’ve been finding the Israel-Gaza conflict and the rise in Islamophobia and antisemitism especially challenging these past few weeks. I’m making today’s #FindingYourStride video unapologetically on a different subject, mostly to get my own head out of it. I’m retreating to data geek (my happy place). I’ve been thinking about Simpson’s Paradox. Hands up if you’ve heard of it before ✋. This happens when trends 📈 seen in different groups of data reverse when those groups are combined 📉. Mind boggling, right? Well, this can happen with diversity stats in organisations pretty easily. Here’s how. Let’s imagine we have an organisation that has only 2 departments - for the sake of a simple example. Our imaginary engineering department of 100 people has 20% women. The marketing department has 50% women. It’s a small team of 10. The company realises it needs to increase its marketing power, and in the next year quadruples the size of the marketing team. In doing so, they end the year with 40 people. But unfortunately the percentage of women fell to 45%. The engineering team stays the same size, but they also see the percentage of women fall, to 18%. So both departments have a smaller percentage of women than they did last year. 📉 But if we look at the company overall, because of the growth of the marketing department, the overall percentage of women has *risen* from 23% to 26%. 📈😮 ❗️Without looking at the individual departments this organisation may conclude their diversity and inclusion efforts are a great success, rather than spotting concerning trends in #recruitment and #retention at the department level. When working with diversity data we need to take great care when combining across distinct populations that our conclusions are valid and justified. Don’t just look at the headline figures, but dig deeper to understand why you see the results you have. 🧐 How are you using diversity data in your organisation? — 💡I am an #Inclusive #Innovation consultant, and Founder and Director of Inclusioneering Limited, engineering a fairer future. 🔔 Follow me to learn about: ✔️Data-led culture transformation for #diversity, #equity and #inclusion ✔️Integrally connected into the innovation process ✔️For equitable outcomes by design of products, services, and operations

"This report developed by UNESCO and in collaboration with the Women for Ethical AI (W4EAI) platform, is based on and inspired by the gender chapter of UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence. This concrete commitment, adopted by 194 Member States, is the first and only recommendation to incorporate provisions to advance gender equality within the AI ecosystem. The primary motivation for this study lies in the realization that, despite progress in technology and AI, women remain significantly underrepresented in its development and leadership, particularly in the field of AI. For instance, currently, women reportedly make up only 29% of researchers in the field of science and development (R&D),1 while this drops to 12% in specific AI research positions.2 Additionally, only 16% of the faculty in universities conducting AI research are women, reflecting a significant lack of diversity in academic and research spaces.3 Moreover, only 30% of professionals in the AI sector are women,4 and the gender gap increases further in leadership roles, with only 18% of in C-Suite positions at AI startups being held by women.5 Another crucial finding of the study is the lack of inclusion of gender perspectives in regulatory frameworks and AI-related policies. Of the 138 countries assessed by the Global Index for Responsible AI, only 24 have frameworks that mention gender aspects, and of these, only 18 make any significant reference to gender issues in relation to AI. Even in these cases, mentions of gender equality are often superficial and do not include concrete plans or resources to address existing inequalities. The study also reveals a concerning lack of genderdisaggregated data in the fields of technology and AI, which hinders accurate measurement of progress and persistent inequalities. It highlights that in many countries, statistics on female participation are based on general STEM or ICT data, which may mask broader disparities in specific fields like AI. For example, there is a reported 44% gender gap in software development roles,6 in contrast to a 15% gap in general ICT professions.7 Furthermore, the report identifies significant risks for women due to bias in, and misuse of, AI systems. Recruitment algorithms, for instance, have shown a tendency to favor male candidates. Additionally, voice and facial recognition systems perform poorly when dealing with female voices and faces, increasing the risk of exclusion and discrimination in accessing services and technologies. Women are also disproportionately likely to be the victims of AI-enabled online harassment. The document also highlights the intersectionality of these issues, pointing out that women with additional marginalized identities (such as race, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, or disability) face even greater barriers to accessing and participating in the AI field."

Racial representation becomes increasingly homogeneous at more senior levels We recently posted about gender representation and how it varies by job level. In short, the more senior the level, the higher percentage of the employees who self-identify as men. More here: https://lnkd.in/gsBEvNGT Today, let’s look at the same pattern but around the dimension of racial diversity by job level. ___________ Perhaps unsurprisingly (but unfortunately), a very similar pattern exists today with race as the one with gender. 𝗜𝗻 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁, 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝟵𝟱𝗸 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗣𝗮𝘃𝗲’𝘀 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳-𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿 𝗽𝗼𝗼𝗹 𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗹𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗪𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝘀𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹. For instance, 74% of P1s analyzed self-report as White or Asian whereas 88% of P6s and 92% of CXOs self-report as White or Asian. ___________ The next question thus becomes, why? What is the underlying cause of this pattern? It is likely a combination of one, some, or all of the following: [A] Promotion rate disparities between races [B] Hiring rate disparities between races, especially at the more senior levels [C] Turnover/attrition rate disparities between races as you advance on the career ladder We will take a look at all three of these hypotheses soon to best empirically identify the underlying cause today in the labor market of the increasing racial homogeneity at senior IC and Management levels. ___________ Methodology: Ethnicity classifications made using US census classification guidelines. Only incumbent datapoints in the USA with self-reported ethnicity data were included. This made the analysis sample size 95k incumbents. Also, as a general disclaimer, Pave’s dataset today skews largely towards technology companies. #pave #race #benchmarks

Really no surprises here, I'm sorry to say. PWC's latest Women in Work Index confirms that gender equity has well and truly moved out of the fast lane. A few key takeaways: 🔹 The UK’s female full-time employment rate is just 68.9%, far below the OECD average of 78.1%. 🔹 The gender pay gap is closing too slowly—at this pace, it could take more than 30 years to achieve pay equity. 🔹 Countries like Canada and Ireland are outpacing the UK in post-pandemic recovery, showing that faster progress is possible with the right policies. This isn’t just a social issue—it’s an economic one. The data shows that higher female workforce participation directly correlates with productivity and GDP growth. Gender equity isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s a smart investment in economic resilience. So, what needs to change? ✅ Workplace policies that prioritise flexibility, parental leave, and career progression for women. ✅ Stronger pay transparency laws to accelerate closing the gender pay gap. ✅ Government and corporate accountability—metrics and targets that go beyond lip service. ✅ Access to affordable childcare. The UK risks falling further behind if we continue at this sluggish pace. The good news? We know the solutions. Now we need the will to implement them. Would love to hear from others—what policies or initiatives have you seen drive real change in workplace gender equality? Let’s learn from what’s working globally. #GenderEquity #EqualPay #WomenInWork #WomenAtWork #ThreeBarriers https://lnkd.in/dK_gS6iJ

International Women's Day is about celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. It also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity – including in the workplace.   LinkedIn data shows that despite decades of progress for women at work, they are still underrepresented at the highest levels of companies. Women may hold 42% of jobs globally, but they occupy less than a third of leadership positions.   In the Middle East, women remain largely underrepresented in leadership positions. The trend for women in leadership in the UAE, for example, is 22%, lagging behind the global average. Since 2016, however, there has been progress in the country, with an increase of two percentage points. Globally, there's also been progress, with more women being appointed to senior roles, accounting for 37% of all leadership hires in 2023, up from 33% in 2016. However, LinkedIn's Economic Graph suggests that women fare worse during economic uncertainty, with fewer women hired for senior roles when job market conditions deteriorate. In 2020, at the height of the Covid pandemic, the data shows that the share of hiring women into leadership roles in the UAE stagnated (24%) before continuing on an upward trajectory reaching 27% in 2023. Despite progress, there’s still a long way to go to close the gender gap, with overall women representation across almost all sectors in the UAE falling under the 50% mark. Even industries where women either make up the majority of the workforce or nearly half of it, they are underrepresented in leadership. In education, for example, women account for 52% of the workforce but 41% of leadership positions. Similarly, in the hospitals and healthcare industry, women represent 49% of the workforce but only 31% of leaders.   The data clearly illustrates the 'broken rung' phenomenon, where we see a diminishing number of women as we move up each level of the hierarchy. In many countries, including the UAE, the first significant drop in women's representation occurs between the senior contributor and manager levels. While in the UAE there is a marginal three-percent increase in women’s representation between manager and director levels, it consistently then declines, culminating in a sharp decrease in the number of women in the C-suite.    To accelerate positive change, employers can boost women’s representation through a skills-first hiring approach. LinkedIn's 2023 Skills First report found embracing such a policy significantly increases the number of workers in talent pools, particularly for women. Measures like flexible schedules and parental leave can also enhance inclusivity. What other strategies can be employed to strengthen women's representation in leadership? Join the conversation. #LinkedInNewsMiddleEast #IWD24 #InternationalWomensDay   Reported by Dana Moukhallati Insights by Silvia Lara (LinkedIn's Economic Graph)    Sources https://lnkd.in/gtPZ_T2X https://lnkd.in/gW4sRyqE 📷 Getty

As we wrap up 2024, I’m excited to share Windō’s final DEI Insights Report! For this one, we crunched the DEI data for 100 companies across 4 key industries: finance, consulting, law and tech. Here are 3 standout insights from the report: 1️⃣ Disability workforce representation is on the rise 🚀 Reporting increased by an impressive 14% year-on-year, with Finance leading the way at an average of 6% representation. 2️⃣ Improving Black workforce representation remains a challenge 📉 Year on Year Averages declined in Finance, Law, and Tech, and stayed flat in Consulting. However, companies like eBay and Intuit are showing what’s possible—doubling their U.S. Black workforce since 2020, while Google, Microsoft, and Salesforce have all increased theirs by ~50%. 3️⃣ Tech leads on gender pay gaps 💻 The sector recorded the lowest average gender pay gap at 15.5%, outperforming Consulting (17%), Finance (25.2%), and Law (33.3%). Our report celebrates progress but also highlights areas where industries must do better. 👉 Explore the full report here: https://lnkd.in/eh7ssn_h HSBC, St. James’s Place, Barclays, Virgin Money, M&G plc, Accenture, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Booz Allen Hamilton, KPMG, EY, Mazars, Freshfields, Pinsent Masons, Clifford Chance, BCLP, Clyde & Co, DLA Piper, A&O Shearman, SAP, Uber, Microsoft, Experian, Mastercard, LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group), BlackRock, Standard Chartered, Jack Guest, Carolanne Minashi, Beck Bailey, Jenny Baskerville, Kushal Khandhar, CFA (कुशल खन्धार), Tiernan Brady, Justin Farrance, Daisy Reeves, Miguel A. Castro #DEI #DiversityEquityInclusion #WorkplaceTrends #Leadership #Windō

„Companies spend millions on antibias training each year in hopes of creating more-inclusive—and thereby innovative and effective—workforces. Studies show that well-managed diverse groups perform better and are more committed, have higher collective intelligence, and excel at making decisions and solving problems. But research also shows that bias-prevention programs rarely deliver“, schreiben Joan C. Williams und Sky Mihaylo in der Harvard Business Review. Statt auf ineffiziente Programme fokussieren die Autorinnen auf Möglichkeiten, die einzelne Führungskräfte in der Praxis haben, um Vorurteilen entgegenzuwirken und Diversität zu verwirklichen. Es beginnt für sie damit, zu verstehen, wie sich Voreingenommenheit im Arbeitsalltag auswirkt, wann und wo ihre verschiedenen Formen tagtäglich auftreten. Das Motto: „You can’t be a great manager without becoming a ‚bias interrupter‘.“  Ihre Empfehlungen gliedern Williams und Mihaylo in drei Hauptpunkte. ▶️ Fairness in hiring: 1. Insist on a diverse pool.  2. Establish objective criteria, define “culture fit” (to clarify objective criteria for any open role and to rate all applicants using the same rubric), and demand accountability.  3. Limit referral hiring.  4. Structure interviews with skills-based questions.    ▶️ Managing Day-to-Day:  Day to day, they should ensure that high- and low-value work is assigned evenly and run meetings in a way that guarantees all voices are heard. 1. Set up a rotation for office housework, and don’t ask for volunteers.  2. Mindfully design and assign people to high-value projects.  3. Acknowledge the importance of lower-profile contributions.  4. Respond to double standards, stereotyping, “manterruption,” “bropriating,” and “whipeating (e.g., majority-group members taking or being given credit for ideas that women and people of color originally offered). 5. Ask people to weigh in. 6. Schedule meetings inclusively (they should take place in the office and within working hours). 7. Equalize access proactively (e.g., if bosses meet with employees, this should be driven by business demands or team needs).   ▶️ Developing your team: Your job as a manager is not only to get the best performance out of your team but also to encourage the development of each member. That means giving fair performance reviews, equal access to high-potential assignments, and promotions and pay increases to those who have earned them. 1. Clarify evaluation criteria and focus on performance, not potential.  2. Separate performance from potential and personality from skill sets.  3. Level the playing field with respect to self-promotion (by giving everyone you manage the tools to evaluate their own performance).  4. Explain how training, promotion, and pay decisions will be made, and follow those rules. „Conclusion: Organizational change is crucial, but it doesn’t happen overnight. Fortunately, you can begin with all these recommendations today.“ #genderequality #herCAREER