Data, Data, Data…Measuring Your Blind Spots.
by Dr. Jeremiah Fernandez Johnson
April 21, 2021
Businesses in our contemporary global market are struggling to define what successful diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts look like, and what their outcomes are. It is more crucial than ever to know and understand your blind spots. The world is watching, and with businesses at the ready to start hiring back employees, potential workers are watching too. Developing metrics, and understanding where your company stands on critical issues surrounding DEI are not only a moral imperative but also contribute to the bottom line of your company. This post will cover the reasons why DEI data is so important, give you tips to developing a DEI data strategy, and how to use the data once you have it.
Why DEI DATA?
Let’s explore a slice of the pie to glean an understanding of national trends set out by Fortune 500 companies. This past year, 2020, reflected that a majority of white male CEOs served on Fortune 500 companies. This amounted to 96.4% of all CEO positions in this group. Women had a slight increase of 6.8%. African American CEOs held steady at 1%, Asians at 2.4%, and LatinX at 3.4% (Labor Force, 2021).
To better understand the implications of this data, let’s look more closely at women CEOs. Recent research suggests that of the 6.8% of female CEOs, the majority were white, very well educated, from privileged backgrounds, almost all were married with children, and most were or are athletes, (Zweigenhaft, 2020). Understanding the minutia of a portion of this data can inform us on implicit bias for hiring women CEOs. So, why does this matter?
Another recent study showed gains in the diversification of Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 boards, (Women and Minorities, 2019). Although gains have been made there is still ongoing underrepresentation. The millennial generation is the most diverse generation to exist in the history of the United States. Having diverse boards would reflect the next level of consumer. It makes business sense.
So, why the data? In order to make change, change must be measured. Before you measure, you must have a plan.
Tips for DEI data strategy.
1. Create a strategic plan that outlines and reflects the values of your company towards DEI. What does your company value in this domain? What do you want to achieve? How can you prioritize your goals?
2. Figure out what you want to know before you start creating questionnaires for your staff. The data you get is valuable. The tool you design must be intentional to your goals. If you are looking at internal culture and the feeling of inclusivity at your workplace, you will ask different questions than if you were looking at demographic data and hiring strategies.
3. Once you have come up with a plan and have created your tool (Survey Monkey, Qualtrics, Google Forms), send it out and collect the data.
4. Also, think about focus groups. Focus groups can provide rich narrative about what is going on inside the work place. Organize with a lunch to incentivize people. Figure out how you will pick your groups (random sample, departments, demographics). Again, this goes back to what you are trying to get from the data.
5. Once you have the data, now you need to analyze. This is a critical step towards the implementation process. The data can be organized in a variety of ways. Keep in mind your intent and what goals you want to achieve from your strategic plan.
How to use the data.
So, you have gone and mined this valuable ore, data. What do you do with it? Always stay focused on your strategic plan. This is the guiding light to your company’s DEI initiatives. Analyze the data, organize it, write about what you observed from the data, internalize it. Try and recognize trends in the data. Look for correlations to things. Once you have analyzed the data, relate it to your strategic plan and scaffold initiatives. These could be in the form of policy, workplace incentives, performance evaluations, recruiting strategies, or anything else that you learned from your data and would be pertinent to your progress.
Data is used to get as close to the capital “T” truth as possible. Using qualitative data like focus groups and surveys, along with quantitative data such as demographics of your company, salary ranges, board of trustee demographics, can help you see your blind spots. Measure and seek out the gaps. Once you have identified what you need to do, do it. The time is now. I think it is time you asked yourself an important question. Are you diversity ready?
References
Labor Force Statistics for The Current Population Survey. (2021, January 1). In US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/cps/demographics.htm
Women and Minorities on Fortune 500 Boards: More Room to Grow. (2019, March 12). In Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from https://deloitte.wsj.com/riskandcompliance/2019/03/12/women-and-minorities-on-fortune-500-boards-more-room-to-grow/
Zweigenhaft, R. (2020, October 28). Fortune 500 CEOs, 2000-2020: Still Male, Still White. In The Society Pages. Retrieved from https://thesocietypages.org/specials/fortune-500-ceos-2000-2020-still-male-still-white/