Business leaders are embracing the importance of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEI&B) initiatives. Promoting equity and diversity is a powerful way to foster inclusivity and show employees that they’re valued. An added bonus? It's also good for business.

In fact, McKinsey and Company has published four detailed surveys showing that companies with greater diversity in their executive ranks regularly outperform their competitors. But success needs to be measured, that’s why the best organizations are implementing people analytics solutions to track and forecast against their DEI&B goals.

A people analytics solution allows organizations to aggregate data from all their people data sources to visualize metrics and trends that determine the health of the workforce. This starts from an overall organizational view, but more importantly from a DEI&B perspective, allow for the drill down on any metric or analytics trend to show the progress or representation of different groups in standalone mode or in relationship to others. Progress is relative as it is also absolute, if one group is progressing at a two percent growth rate while all the others are doing so at a 10 percent rate, this would likely indicate some sort of problem. This type of measurement needs to be done in all phases of the employee lifecycle, especially from a DEI&B point of view. Consider the following:

1. Widening the Candidate Pipeline. When a company sets its diversity targets, often growth needs to be achieved in certain ethnicities and genders. This would involve recruiting disproportionate numbers of new hires within historically underrepresented groups. A people analytics solution will allow viewing of candidate pipelines to ensure that recruiters and hiring managers are all moving in the same direction. Biases are often unconscious, and people tend to associate with what is familiar to them, so pursuing a data-driven approach and pointing out to humans in the various stages of recruiting the patterns in their behavior and methodology can be essential in noting if corrective actions are needed.
2. Pay Equity. In both attracting and retaining high performing employees, compensation constantly ranks as a top attribute of favored places to work.  Although it is important to stay current with market rates, before that, an organization needs to ensure that they are paying their own people the same for equal work. In 2022, women earned 82 cents for every dollar earned by men, which was barely up from 80 cents in 2002. The rate across demographics also varies. In any instance, having current metrics and analytics on compensation will allow an organization to get its own house in order before looking to the market.
3. More Representative Advancement. It’s one thing to have a diverse workforce from a company-wide perspective, but for there to be equity and inclusion there needs to be sufficient representation throughout departments – especially in management and executive ranks.  Women currently make up 57 percent of the US workforce but only 32 percent of senior management positions. Organizations must be able to monitor performance, compensation and promotion rates at a sufficient level of granularity to ensure what is earned is sufficiently recognized and rewarded. A people analytics system can clearly show not only where inequities are, but where they broke down along the way. Where do the changes in representation take place in escalating job levels? Allowing for the best to succeed and elevate is always good for the bottom line.
4. Talent Leaving and Being Pushed Out. There are some very important insights that can be gleaned from both voluntary and involuntary turnover. Voluntary turnover is often thought to be the type that costs organizations the most. These are employees that are leaving of their own volition and are likely contributing a high return on investment (ROI) in their positions and will be difficult and costly to replace. Among the top five reasons people leave their job, the one least connected to monetary means is a feeling of being disrespected at work. Providing an inclusive culture and engaged environment where employees have a sense of belonging can go a long way toward attaining DEI&B goals and making an organization feel as one. Tracking reasons for flight through a people analytics system can greatly help to implement the correct remedies.

Involuntary turnover on the other hand is thought to be employees who are not performing, but again many of these calls are manager decisions with human biases possibly weighing in. Being able to break out and see if there are anomalies in who is being let go and if certain managers or departments are more inclined to come down on certain populations can help identify if the organization may have a legal problem as well as an ethical one.

Demographic metrics such as the ones mentioned above tell how things are going at that moment in time but trending them into analytics provides the necessary context as to whether a strategy is working. Having 32 percent of females in executive positions may seem disproportionately low at the current time, but if the analytical trend showed it was ten points lower last month and 15 points the month before, that might indicate that the strategy is working and should possibly be accelerated. 

Implementing a strategy with no way to measure the results is a recipe for failure. Supporting DEI&B plans with a robust people analytics system is the equitable way to beat competitors and enrich all of your employees.

Discover how Predictive People Analytics can support your business by scheduling a demo today.

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