Workplace Diversity Metrics

Entry level: 52% men & 47% women Senior manager level: 64% men & 36% women Senior VP level: 73% men & 28% women Did you see what happened? The number of women in a company immediately drops at the second and third career levels. And this needs attention. The McKinsey & Company and Lean In, Women In Workplace 2023 report highlights the clear bias that is the barrier to women’s entry into leadership. Zoe Chance said it best, “Women feel forced to compete on their record, whilst men can compete on their vision.” ↳ Men apply for a job when they meet only 60% of the qualifications, but women apply only if they meet 100% of them. ↳ A study at a large retail chain in North America (published in Yale) highlights that women are 14% less likely to be promoted at the company each year because they are consistently judged as having lower leadership potential than men. ↳ BBC reports that women are held to higher standards for promotions than men. If this isn’t absolutely appalling, I don’t know what this is. I’ve seen male colleagues bag projects without any experience and female colleagues with much much more experience were asked to explain their rationale. I’ve heard stories of managers pushing women to share reports with male colleagues so they can keep an eye out for red flags. Step 1 is to recognize this internal bias. Our systems are deeply flawed and unless we pinpoint what we’re doing wrong, we can never get close to fixing it. I recommend every leader to run an internal diagnostics on day-to-day bias. The story needs to change. #womenintech #womeninbusiness #womenleaders

"The curriculum was never neutral—it was just never built for us." Black children walk into classrooms and immediately begin the work of code-switching, translating, suppressing, and surviving. White children walk in and see themselves— in the books, in the language, in the heroes, in the holidays, in the classroom norms. They are not just learning content—they are absorbing validation. What Happens in the Brain? The brain latches onto familiarity to process new information. That means: Relevance = retention Cultural connection = cognitive ease Representation = emotional safety Without these, cognitive load skyrockets—and learning stalls. Culture Fuels Comprehension Research shows that culturally responsive pedagogy: Increases reading comprehension Activates prior knowledge more efficiently Enhances motivation and attention Supports metacognition and critical thinking The Real Problem? We keep trying to close the reading gap with instruction, while ignoring the cultural gap baked into the curriculum. “You cannot separate literacy from identity. If students don’t see themselves, they don’t see the point.” —Dr. Gwendolyn Battle Lavert

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 2016, as I was just finding my footing as a #diversity, #equity, and #inclusion practitioner, I read an article titled, "Why Diversity Programs Fail" and learned that DEI work was not as straightforward as I had thought. From hundreds of interviews and 30 years of data from more than 800 US companies, sociologists Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev found that the usual DEI interventions—mandatory diversity training, job tests, and grievance procedures—tended to REDUCE the representation of women, Black, Latine, and Asian managers. They detailed the unintended consequences of companies that deploy these intiatives: resentment and backlash, double standards, retaliation and more. There are many DEI initiatives and programs that work. Dobbin and Kalev found that programs that drive intergroup contact and draw on people's desire to look good meaningfully increase representation. Other research has found that standardizing hiring processes reduces hiring discrimination, developing competency criteria mitigates bias on promotions outcomes and feedback, designing the workday so people spend more time with others different from them lowers prejudice and increases belonging, and so on. But the $9.4-billion dollar DEI industry didn't get as big as it did by focusing on these evidence-based practices. Change management takes time, money, and coordination, and employers are often leery to take this approach unless forced. Instead, companies opt for one-off initiatives that they can breadcrumb their way toward the bare minimum—interventions that, unfortunately, tend to be either wholly ineffective or activate hostility and resentment that turn the clock back. As a solo practitioner in the late 2010s who was offering precisely the one-time trainings and workshops that were in-demand, this was all overwhelming to me. I knew that in my heart this work was important, but I also wanted my tactics to be effective. If I wasn't actually reducing discrimination, increasing retention, supporting thriving, then I wasn't doing my job properly. If the impact lay in adjacent work—coaching leaders to understand the role they had to play, working alongside HR teams to design standardized processes to mitigate bias, supporting employee resource groups to set better boundaries, designing impact measurement and infrastructure to support long-term behavior change, and so on—then I had to go in those directions. DEI is far from dead, but we can't pretend that the performative pre-backlash status quo was the best we had to offer. As I spoke to Vox in a recent article, this is our moment to double down on our impact, not just good intentions. We can't just aspire to design workplaces that are fair, accessible, inclusive, and representative for all; we have to actually demonstrate success, measurably and tangibly. Anti-DEI activists peddle fear. We beat them with hope—and the proof that we're building a better world for everyone than they could imagine.

Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, one of the most prestigious law firms in the world, has some of the lowest Black Associate representation numbers that I have ever seen. These statistics are shocking even for big law. They are drastically falling behind compared to their peer law firms. Out of the roughly 430 Associates (including law clerks) employed by the firm in the U.S., just 11 are Black. That's 2.56%... That's not even half of the industry average (6.15% of all big law Associates identify as Black across the AMLAW top 200 law firms in the U.S. according to NALP). Compare that to some of their industry peers who do a much better job with Black Associate representation like Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP (4x S&C's %), Baker McKenzie (3.6x S&C's %), and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates (3.2x S&C's %). Based on my research thus far, these firms are industry leaders on this front and deserve positive attention for it! As part of an ongoing project, I have been tracking how well each Vault top 30 law firm is doing in terms of minority representation. Not just a broad category of "diverse" but actual breakdowns along the same categorical lines used by NALP. I am combing through every attorney on each firm's website and checking for publicly listed info on each attorney’s: Affinity bar association memberships, firm ERG membership, past membership of law school affinity groups, posts discussing how they identify, surname origin, visual presentation, and direct conversation. It is by no means a perfect system, but it's better than what we have otherwise. All representation data publicly available to our industry has been aggregated, averaged out and effectively anonymized by NALP making it impossible to know each firm's demographics. Diversity Lab's Mansfield Certification program does not share each firm's specific stats publicly or with other certified firms. This data is important because not every minority group experiences growth or shrinkage concurrently. For example, the number of Summer Associates of Color in big law shrank last year for the first time in half a decade. But when you look closer, Asian, Latinx, Native American, and Pacific Islander Summer Associate numbers actually INCREASED while Black and Multiracial Summer Associate numbers declined at such a steep rate that the entire POC demographic numbers were dragged into the red. We wont see change in this industry if this data remains locked away. Transparency is an extremely powerful tool. Even if firms don't make any changes, this is still information all attorney candidates should have when deciding which law firm they'd like to work for. If any law firm feels my data is incorrect, I invite them to share more in-depth data with me, their employees, their target candidates, and the public. To anyone who wants more detail on my research thus far, please reach out! I'm very passionate about this project and am always happy to discuss it!

"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

✋🏽While outputs are important, they don't tell the whole story. True impact is reflected in the changes that occur within your organisation and your broader community. This requires a strategic approach to KPI development and a variety of measurement techniques beyond what is current common practice (see link in the comments for more on this)👇🏽. 📏 What are you currently measuring in your organisation? Be honest! #diversityequityinclusion #measuringimpact #outcomes #KPIs #inclusionmetrics Image description: illustrated graphic on a pink background with blue, white and yellow text boxes displaying the text below. Title: Types of DEI Measurements. 1) Outputs measure activities: Number of leaders participating in inclusive leadership programmes, Number of employees participating in ERGs, Number of DEI-related external comms produced. 2) Outcomes measure results: Increase in engagement rates for employees from marginalised communities Increased retention rates for employees who are part of ERGs Social media engagement on DEI-related posts increases 3) Impact measures progress: e.g. Improved productivity across the organisation, Enhanced innovation metric, e.g., new patents, new products, Increased brand reputation from diverse communities.

How does your organization's DEI initiatives measure up? DEI expert Lee Jourdan highlights seven crucial metrics that span the entire employee life cycle, offering a true gauge of your DEI progress, and whether your organization is truly a meritocracy. From assessing attrition rates and performance to examining pay equity and inclusion, these indicators provide a view into whether your company is living up to its DEI promises. As Jourdan writes, "We know that what gets measured gets done. We also know that transparent data provides one version of the truth and helps organizations determine priorities." Read the full article here: #InclusionMatters #DEIprogress #Diversity #Equity Image alt-text: Bars of various colors and lengths arranged in a half circle.

🟣 Diversity focus on Women and Corporate performance.   𝐖𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞, 𝐢𝐬 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞.   Yet another fresh-of-the-press study for those not convinced, by BlackRock. Data is from MSCI companies as there is more data available.   📌 A 29% outperformance in terms of ROA: Companies closest to parity across key roles, including revenue-producing, engineering and top-paying roles, have outperformed the companies that are furthest away from parity in these roles in terms of RoA over recent years.   📍Companies that promote women tend to show higher returns   📌 Predictive of lower future ROA: The presence of a gap in women’s representation between middle management and the overall workforce is also predictive of lower future RoA.   📌 There is an intermediate ‘sweet spot’ in women’s representation that matters for performance: The companies that sit along the middle of the spectrum outperformed their peers, across time and on a long-term average. Neither those with the lowest (16% on average) nor companies with the highest (60% on average) women’s representation in the workforce yielded top performance over the last decade.   📌On average, women tend to be heavily represented in the Health Care (52%) and Financials (49%) sectors, and much less so in Materials and Utilities. And of course, there are big geographic differences in terms of the % of women in the workforce.   📍Female CEOs are most common in Nordic countries and Singapore   📌 Even when considering the country-and industry-specific differences, the linkages between workforce diversity and corporate performance remain robust.   📍The narrower the women’s underrepresentation at higher ranks, the lower the employee turnover rates   #diversity #business #investing #performance