There are several key ways that organizations can measure the success of their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. It is important to develop meaningful metrics and track both qualitative and quantitative data over time to assess progress and the impact of DEI efforts.
Retention and representation metrics: Tracking retention rates and representation data across different demographic groups can help measure success. Organizations should look at things like retention of minority employees, women, people with disabilities, and other underrepresented groups compared to overall retention rates. They can also track representation rates in leadership, different levels of management, overall workforce composition, recruiting pipelines, and retention from recruiting to hiring. Increasing retention and improving representation over time across all groups would indicate positive impact from DEI initiatives.
Employee experience through surveys: Conducting anonymous surveys that measure employee experience related to DEI can provide valuable insight. Questions can assess how included and welcomed different groups feel, their sense of belonging, fair treatment, and whether the culture is improving. Benchmarking survey data over multiple years shows trends. Response rates from underrepresented groups are also important to track, as are actions taken in response to survey findings. Continuous improvement in employee feedback would suggest DEI efforts are enhancing workplace experiences and culture.
Engagement and satisfaction metrics: Tracking metrics like employee engagement scores, satisfaction rates, “likelihood to recommend employer” scores, broken down by demographic group, can gauge impact. DEI initiatives aim to enhance all employee experiences, so engagement and satisfaction rates improving or remaining high among all groups is a sign of progress. Surveying people who recently left the company on their experiences can also highlight areas for improvement.
Progress on DEI goals: Setting public, measurable DEI goals is important for accountability. Tracking progress made on specific, time-bound goals shows if initiatives are effective. For example, goals may include doubling the number of women or minorities in leadership by a certain date, mandating DEI training completion rates, increasing spending with minority-owned vendors, etc. Evaluating progress on concrete, transparent goals holds an organization responsible for following through on its commitments.
Diversity of opportunities: Tracking the diversity of employees accessing high-potential opportunities, like leadership training programs, coveted assignments, promotions, mentorship opportunities, can demonstrate impact. DEI aims to foster an inclusive environment with equal access to career-boosting opportunities. Seeing more equal representation of diverse groups accessing high-potential opportunities indicates the organization is culturally evolving.
Reduced bias complaints: Tracking formal and informal complaints related to bias, discrimination, unfair treatment based on personal attributes can provide useful metrics. A decreasing trend in such complaints over time suggests cultural shifts are occurring and DEI efforts are having positive effects. This also protects the organization by reducing legal risks.
Volunteerism and resource group participation: Tracking volunteer rates and involvement in employee resource groups (ERGs) by different employee demographic categories shows engagement. Representation in ERGs and rates of participation in volunteering suggests employees feel invested and supported enough to actively contribute back to DEI initiatives.
Supplier and vendor diversity: Tracking spending statistics with minority-owned, women-owned, veteran-owned businesses, etc. and increases over time demonstrate initiative follow through. DEI aims to promote inclusive and equitable hiring, sourcing, and procurement practices throughout business ecosystems.
Qualitative testimony: Soliciting individual employee stories of how the culture and their experiences have positively changed thanks to DEI efforts provides meaningful, credible qualitative metrics. Hearing diverse voices brings data to life and highlights the true impact initiatives have on workplace inclusion, sense of belonging, and empowerment.
By comprehensively tracking both quantitative and qualitative metrics across these and other impact areas, organizations can holistically gauge success, continuously improve efforts, and ensure accountability. Seeing steady, sustained progress in DEI metrics over multiple years indicates initiatives are driving meaningful, long-term cultural evolution.