This collective input and involvement from your team is critical to ensuring you have a holistic, inclusive approach that hasn't left out any underrepresented groups or critical steps of your process.
Assess Your Current Diversity Representation
Before you can set your diversity goals, it's important to understand what diversity looks like at your organization. If you don't yet have this data, you can capture it through an anonymous survey. We recommend including diversity questions alongside any other engagement or culture surveys you might be doing so they are naturally included. The survey should be voluntary and anonymous, and it should use that treats your employees with dignity, respect, and fairness. As you are sharing the survey with your team, you can emphasize that the diversity questions are included to better understand the current representation of the team and more accurately set goals for improvement. It's helpful to remind the team that results will remain anonymous and not be used for any purpose other than DEI initiatives.
When writing your survey—or, for that matter, any time you talk about diversity—it's important to use inclusive terms. When asking about specific disabilities, use affirmative terms such as visually impaired, neurodiverse individuals, or people who use a wheelchair, instead of negative terms such as blind, autistic, or wheelchair-bound. This is known as person-first language: terminology that puts the human being before the disability or condition. It emphasizes the value and worth of the individual by recognizing each as a person instead of a condition. When asking about gender, the default demographic options have long been male and female, but today, the biological implications of those terms are increasingly considered exclusionary. Instead, use women or men, which is more inclusive of transgender people. You should also provide additional response options like nonbinary or gender nonconforming. This will give you a more holistic view of your organization and where you stand in terms of gender diversity. It also sends a signal to candidates that the organization knows how to adapt to changing times and wants to be an inclusive workplace for all. For a fuller discussion of these terms, see Chapter 3.
To get the fullest possible picture of your organization, be sure to go beyond the usual questions about gender, disability, veteran status, and race. First-generation immigrants, refugees, formerly incarcerated individuals, and LGBTQ+ are among the communities that continue to face discrimination in the workforce. Including them in your survey will empower individuals from these communities to participate and feel included. It's important to remember that some people may not identify with a particular group or may not be comfortable responding, so offering individuals the opportunity not to respond or to select “other” is key.
Example diversity survey
| Survey questions | Response options |
| What is your gender identity? | Man Woman Nonbinary Gender nonconforming I prefer not to respond Other (please specify) |
| Which of the following best describes your sexual orientation? | Heterosexual or Straight Queer Asexual I prefer not to respond Other (please specify) |
| What is your racial or ethnic identification? (select all that apply) | American Indian or Alaska Native Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander Asian Black or African American Hispanic or Latino White or Caucasian Two or more races Other (please specify) Prefer not to respond |
| Here we loosely define disability as having been diagnosed with one or more of the following: sensory impairment (e.g., vision or hearing), mobility impairment, learning impairment (e.g., ADHD, dyslexia), mental health disorder, or other impairment. | I am a person with disability Other (please specify) Prefer not to respond |
| Please check one of the answers: If applicable, please indicate your veteran status: | I am not a Veteran Disabled Veteran Special Disabled Veteran Armed Forces Services Medal Veteran Other (please specify) Prefer not to respond |
| Are you a parent? | Yes No Prefer not to respond |
| What is your age? | <18 18–25 26–33 34–41 42–49 50-5960-6970+ Prefer not to respond |
| What is the highest level of education you have completed? | High school diploma 1–3 years of college, no degree obtained Bachelor's degree Some graduate school Graduate degree PhD Prefer not to respond |
| Do you identify with any of the following communities? | Refugee or immigrant First generation Formerly incarcerated community Neurodiverse community Older, experienced worker community Other (Please specify) |
Uncover Where Your Real Diversity Needs Exist and What Is Possible
As you are drawing insights from your existing diversity representation data, try to look beyond organization-level insights to gain a more detailed understanding of your diversity profile. Matt Sigelman, CEO of job market analytics company Burning Glass Technologies, has observed that many employers get fixated on organization-wide averages that don't always give a useful picture of where the needs exist. “Employers need to focus on specific contours of diversity that enable them to gauge representation by function, level, and region,” he says. “If Amazon only looked at its company-wide diversity average, they wouldn't realize that the representation in its distribution centers is far greater than in its corporate functions. In some high-tech roles, the representation of Black and Hispanic talent is less than one-twentieth of Amazon's company-wide average.” Sigelman says that this detailed analysis needs to extend to levels of seniority as well. “A lot of organizations have great representation at the entry level, but the more senior the position, the less diverse they become,”.
To set realistic targets for diversity, you also need to understand what representation looks like in your market, industry, and location. This better helps you determine the diversity of the total candidate pool you are trying to recruit from. For example, if an organization is trying to set representation goals for data scientists in its Chicago office, it's important to first consider the diversity of the total market of the city's data scientists, which may be low to begin with. You can use U.S. Census data or private, real-time job market data to get an understanding of these baselines.
Ultimately, understanding your existing diversity profile by function, level, and location will give you a clearer picture of where you need to focus your energy. Considering the diversity of the market and talent pool you're recruiting from will give you a realistic sense of what is possible. The two insights combined will help you form focused and realistic goals.
Identify Where You Have Gaps and Opportunities in Your Hiring Process
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