How to Use Diversity Data to Meet Your DEI Goals

To create a successful diversity recruitment plan, you should have specific goals in mind to ensure that you’re actually hiring workers from the underserved groups that are not represented in your organization. Beyond hiring, your larger DEI goals can only be achieved by fostering a welcoming and comfortable environment so people from untapped backgrounds can thrive.

In order to meet all of your DEI goals—from hiring to retention to employee satisfaction—you need to know where you stand. The best way to do this is to leverage diversity data to measure your results, reassess your recruiting and employee relations approaches, and change course as needed. The following five areas can help you get the most out of your diversity data so you can attain your DEI goals.

5 Areas To Focus on To Hit Your DEI Goals

Comprehensive Information

It’s not enough to note that you’ve hired more underrepresented workers. For your diversity data collection to be effective, you need to keep track of the demographics of people you’re hiring. For example, the diversity analytics solutions offered by our platform allow you to track and visualize how candidates from different backgrounds progress through the hiring funnel. That way, you have detailed information about disparities in specific parts of the hiring process, which allows you to make adjustments to better attract the untapped workers you’re looking for.

Hiring Trends

How many Black women do you have in your marketing department? How many software engineers at your company come from the LGBTQIA+ community? By tracking hiring trends throughout your organization, you can answer these questions and find out how equitable your hiring practices have actually been. Armed with this information, you can amend your recruiting goals and approaches so your organization can address shortfalls in staffing.

Employee Experience

Once you hire historically excluded workers, you have to make sure they’re satisfied at your organization so they’ll stay. One important aspect of data collection you shouldn't ignore is employee experience, which will let you know if your workplace is inclusive enough to retain untapped workers. If the data indicates that it isn't, you can find out from workers what needs to be changed. Whether your underrepresented populations would benefit from employee resource groups, mentoring programs, or policies that improve their experience, you should find out their suggestions and take them seriously.

Pay Rates and Advancement

Data on pay rates and advancement will let you know whether or not there is an imbalance in compensation that needs to be addressed. To ensure that there is equity in the compensation your organization offers, track pay rates and raises, as well as employee promotions. If there is a discrepancy between groups, the data will indicate that your compensation model may not be as equitable as it should be.

Turnover

If there is a high turnover rate among your workers from underrepresented backgrounds, you need to rethink the way you’re recruiting new hires, and how they're being treated from the onboarding process and beyond. That's why it's important to keep track of turnover rates so you know which groups of people are leaving your company and at what point they decide to move on. This information can help you give underserved employees the support they need to retain them.

Although creating a diversity recruitment plan is the first step in making your organization more diverse and inclusive, your efforts will be in vain if you don't have the diversity data you need to track your progress and make changes to your plan as needed. By collecting and analyzing the data that is most relevant to your company, you can reach your DEI goals for attracting and retaining untapped talent.