Measure the progress of your EDI initiatives

The issue of EDI is still very much an issue for organizations wishing to improve and make their workplaces more inclusive and equitable. There has also been an influx of human resources positions with EDI expertise. But how do you measure the success of your efforts? How do you know where to start? Where does your organization start on the inclusion ladder? You have to know how to set up relevant metrics for your organization. What is also important to remember is that the EDI aspiration must highlight the results that the organization wants to achieve and not just the means to get there[1].

So, it’s important in your EDI efforts to be able to track the progress of your initiatives and see what’s working for your business, as well as what improvements need to be made.

Important indicators in EDI

Several EDI metrics exist, but your choice must be relevant to your context, and also to your initiatives. The goal is to chart your current situation and see your progress towards the desired situation. EDI indicators allow you to monitor your EDI efforts, but also to assign organizational objectives, develop accountability and ensure transparency.

Here is an example of 3 EDI indicators that could apply to your organization:

1. Representation rate

It is indeed important to attract diverse candidates, but it is equally important to have a diverse workforce, including at the management level. Improving your rate of representation, especially for historically underrepresented groups, requires an assessment of your current situation and the elaboration of an action plan. A clue: if your workforce persists and is still not diverse and your recruiting pool is rather diverse, your process is heavily biased.

2. Retention rate

It would be very counterproductive to make efforts to increase your representation rate, through recruitment and at the same time, not make efforts to retain your talents, from diversity. The two goals go hand in hand; it is essential to measure your attrition as well as your turnover, in a segmented way. It is a way to assess whether your organization provides a sense of inclusiveness and belonging to targeted employees. A clue; if your historically underrepresented employees in the workplace are leaving at a higher rate than others, then your company is not as inclusive as you thought.

3. The Internal Talent Mobility Index

Your leadership positions should reflect the demographics of your entire organization. Diversity must affect all your positions, as well as high-level positions, because it is what creates the feeling of accessibility and motivation in the youngest talents. A clue ; if you notice that only one category of employees is being promoted, it’s time to examine the reasons, probably culture-related.

In short, and according to a common expression in management: you cannot manage what you cannot measure. The same goes for your EDI initiatives. If you are not able to know what works, has worked or what your employees are reacting to, your initiatives can quickly forgotten, or worse, have the opposite effect.

[1] It’s (past) time to get strategic about DEI by by Jan Shelly Brown, Diana Ellsworth, Alex Katen-Narvell, and Dana Maor.