HR data
Utilising the power of data and making informed decisions is crucial to ensure that you are using tried and tested methods in embedding greater equality, diversity and inclusion. Anecdotally, we are hearing in HR Groups that ethnicity pay gaps will be trickier to assess than gender pay gaps, as employees do not have to provide this information and the range of definitions posed to employees at the data gathering stage can be inconsistent between organisations. A lot of people are trying to collect this and understand their picture on pay for each demographic, with 79 per cent examining their ethnicity pay gap. Some are using August to promote the initiatives they have run over the past year on diversity, leading with the story around why they are collecting more data.
Championed by leadership
The Institute of Directors has said that boardroom diversity is shown to bring wider and more varied perspectives, resulting in more creative outputs. Leadership needs to both communicate equality, diversity and inclusion measures to show top-level support and build the piece around inclusion, making employees feel more comfortable in bringing their whole selves to work and calling out microaggressions or any other form of discrimination in the workplace. Support from leadership also drives up attendance levels and participation of employees in key initiatives designed to create an inclusive culture. Employees understand the emphasis placed on diversity that goes beyond lip-service, helping to embed this into the culture of the workplace. Outreach groups, networking and mentoring are all key initiatives that leadership can encourage employees to join in with. Making this a C-Suite agenda item signals the long-term commitment that goes beyond media interest in the issue that ebbs and flows.
Continuous monitoring
Equality, diversity and inclusion is not something that will be instantly ‘fixed’ in organisations. Ensuring that data is accurate and up to date is a continuous process. Metrics such as socio-economic background and sexual preference are increasingly emerging as further nuances to organisational demographics that employers are monitoring, to ensure that their culture is inclusive. It is important to ensure that employees are treated as individuals and that measures go beyond the data and translate insights into actionable intelligence. Companies should assess what initiatives they have in place that make the most impact. Some are stepping up their diversity training to ensure obstacles to recruitment and progression are overcome. Asking employees what matters to them can help identify what works best – there is no ‘one size fits all’ template for this.
Get in touch
Call us today to discuss how we’re helping customers define their next steps when it comes to their approach on equality, diversity and inclusion. We can help your company cultivate a greater sense of belonging through the employee opinion surveys and design reward strategies that champion a fair system of pay throughout your organisation.
