What Is Diversity Analytics?

Diversity analytics refers to collecting and analyzing information that describes where companies are in terms of different diversity metrics, which can include everything from recruitment to hiring to retention to attrition. Having this information is an integral part of executing a successful diversity recruitment plan because it gives organizations a clear picture of their hiring, and the areas they need to improve to ensure workers from different underserved communities are represented in the business. Data analytics can also help determine how inclusive a company is because factors like employee satisfaction and the reasons people choose to leave may reveal how workers feel about the company culture and the treatment they receive.

How Diversity Analytics Can Help Teams Meet Their Diversity Goals

Diversity analytics can help teams meet their diversity goals because when companies track diversity hiring metrics, they have the information needed to make sound decisions about the types of candidates they should focus on, the recruitment channels they should continue to use, and the changes they should make to the hiring process itself. Do certain job boards yield better results for receiving applications from diverse groups of people? Do candidates from diverse populations fall out of the hiring funnel at a certain point? Measuring recruiting analytics can answer these questions and tell companies what needs to be changed to make diversity hiring efforts more effective.

What Are Diversity Metrics Examples?

There are several diversity metrics that recruiters can track to get the full picture of how successful their diversity, equity, and inclusion work has been. The following are examples of these diversity hiring metrics.

‍

‍

Applicant pool

Keeping track of applicant demographics can help recruiters determine whether or not the channels they’re using to attract candidates are working. Maybe a lot of candidates from diverse populations are coming in from one job board, but not so much from another. Maybe the applicants companies want come in after recruiters attend a specific event. Whatever the case, tracking the applicant pool will let recruiters know who is applying for positions, and where this talent is coming from.

Hiring

The hiring metric lets recruiters know how successful they've been in meeting their diversity hiring goals, and where they perhaps missed the mark. Whether companies want to increase representation of workers from different racial and cultural groups, genders, or sexual orientations, hiring metrics need to be regularly captured and analyzed in order to achieve these objectives.

Leadership makeup

People from diverse communities want to know they can succeed and grow at an organization, and one indicator is whether people who share their backgrounds are in leadership positions. By tracking data on the makeup of leadership at a company—from supervisors to the C-suite to the Board—and then making that information public, recruiters can demonstrate to applicants that there are people just like them thriving at the company, which will make them more likely to want to work there.

‍Job satisfaction

Measuring job satisfaction is not as cut and dry as measuring things like applicant pool and new hire demographics, but it's worthwhile because this metric gives companies an idea of whether or not they’ve fostered an inclusive work environment. In order to do this, companies can conduct job satisfaction surveys and pay attention to trends that occur. Are people from certain backgrounds happier than others? It may be an indication that different diverse groups of workers feel less included in the workplace and changes need to be made to the company culture.

Pay

One of the big reasons people may not be satisfied with their jobs is the pay they’re receiving—especially if they're from an underrepresented community and know they're earning less than others at the organization. Tracking pay is a good way to avoid this problem and ensure everyone is being compensated fairly. Businesses should consider whether unconscious bias is precluding workers from diverse groups from getting the compensation they deserve. If there are pay disparities between different groups, it needs to be addressed and corrected.

ERG participation

‍ Employee resource groups allow people from diverse backgrounds to get together at work and share their experiences and concerns. This is a place where employees should feel safe and comfortable, however, if an ERG doesn't have a lot of members, it may mean it's not as effective as it could be. Companies can monitor how many employees participate in ERGs, and if they're not, find out why. This information will not only improve the ERG, but can ultimately make the workplace more inclusive.

Retention

‍The hard work of hiring talent from underrepresented backgrounds doesn't mean much if companies can't keep the employees they attracted. Paying attention to retention can help businesses understand what they need to improve to keep employees from diverse demographics. Also, it's important to track when employees leave. If a certain group of workers leave early on after being hired, it may mean something goes awry during the onboarding process that makes them uncomfortable. If they leave after a long period of time, it may indicate frustration with how they're being treated by colleagues—whether they’re subjected to constant microaggressions or denied opportunities for advancement.

How to Collect Diversity Data

Diversity data is only as good as how well it's collected. Understanding best practices for recruiting analytics can help ensure that companies have the accurate information they need to make the best choices—which is critical when it’s time to refine the hiring process or DEI policies. The following are tips on how organizations can collect this vital data.

Define goals

Recruiters can choose from a wealth of diversity hiring analytics, but tracking anything and everything just to have those numbers isn’t going to be effective. In order to make the most of their time and effort, it's best for companies to approach recruiting analytics with specific goals in mind so recruiters know what they should be focusing on. For example, if a company receives applications from a good mix of candidates in different demographics, then tracking the applicant pool may not be a great use of recruiters’ time. On the other hand, if a company is not hiring a lot of people from certain diverse groups, then tracking the hiring data makes sense.

Determine what metrics can be measured

Just because people want to measure certain recruiting analytics doesn't mean they're going to be able to. Companies need to have systems in place to collect the data they're looking for, so if they want information on the pay increases people from diverse populations are receiving, there has to be a mechanism in place to accomplish this. If there isn’t, recruiters need to adopt practices, and find tools, to make this data collection possible.

Be transparent

For certain recruiting analytics, companies may need to conduct surveys. Whether they need information from candidates or current staff, it's important to be transparent about what data they’re collecting and why they need this information. Recruiters should be open about the information they’re asking for to increase the chances of actually getting the answers they want.

Assure privacy

People don't want to feel like they’re being monitored, so when recruiters collect data, they should let survey respondents know that all the information provided will be handled with the utmost care and their privacy will be protected. This will increase the chances of people answering questions for a company’s diversity hiring metrics.

Ask the least sensitive questions first

Some of the questions asked on surveys may be on the personal side, so respondents shouldn’t be bombard with a slew of highly-personal questions right away. Starting a survey with something like how an employee identifies racially or culturally may be better than starting with whether or not they feel like they've experienced discrimination on the job. Surveys should ease into the tougher questions so respondents aren't alarmed and defensive right off the bat.

Keep surveys brief

Part of being transparent is letting people know how long the survey will take to complete. However, that doesn't mean that companies have leeway to take up a lot of respondents’ time. Recruiters should ask the most relevant questions that yield specific information related to established goals.

Analyze data

‍After the data has been collected, it's time to determine what it all means. Recruiters need to analyze the information they've received, and figure out how it fits into the bigger picture. If candidates of a certain diverse group aren't making it past the interview stage of the hiring process, and therefore the diversity hiring numbers aren’t where they should be, recruiters can look at how they handle interviews and discover ways to tweak the process to make it more fair.