As companies continue to work on better their diversity and inclusion efforts, they're often turning to data as a means to drive improvement. Governments are beginning to require transparency and reporting on diversity, inclusion, and inequity in the workplace. While this pop definition is memorable, it falls short in telling us what inclusion looks and feels like, or where it comes from. But before companies can leverage these capabilities, they must first define what inclusion means. Here, too, tools are available to train employees, ranging from traditional training sessions to virtual reality-based empathy training. Here’s another business case for inclusion: Teams and companies that are inclusive also innovate better, according to research. Measuring the success of diversity and inclusion training is not a straight-forward as other training topics; it takes long-term tracking, benchmarking, and qualitative measurement. Figure 1 (below) shows a more comprehensive picture of where inclusion “lives” in the workplace. Armed with these kinds of insights, companies can provide coaching and create projects that better level the playing field for men and women. But this tells us nothing about inclusion in any of its manifestations: inside people (their perceptions and feelings); between them (their behavior and relationships); or outside them (the organization or team’s culture, policies, and practices). This book considers both the issues associated with measuring inclusion and provides examples of evidence-based good practices and models of effective measures. Your Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) likely has gender identification and racial identification data from the hiring process. #peopleanalytics #hranalytics #diversity #inclusion. Inclusion, diversity, and belonging are essentially about organizational change. These surveys dive deeper into employee opinions which can help you with your D&I efforts. Copyright Workspace Design Magazine, LLC DBA Work Design Magazine (2010-2021), 2020 Next Work Environment Competition Winners. But organizations are not the only potential beneficiaries. A national conversation about inclusion is happening. Required fields are marked *. Take Starbucks for example: they recently closed all of their 8,000 company-owned stores nationwide to give 175,000 employees racial-bias education in response to a shocking incident at a Philadelphia store in April. By comparing the responses of specific groups of employees—men versus women, managers versus non-managers, newcomers versus veteran employees—companies can identify highly inclusive teams or business units as well as trouble spots. As a result, they designed one with wheels and moved it around strategically, based on which teams had the greatest need for collaboration. This webinar discusses data and approaches that can be used for measuring social inclusion. … Find out more about specific initiatives you should implement in your workplace to focus on measuring D&I. You should be able to easily tell if your organization is diverse, and this is more than an eye test. Similar technologies can help them optimize another critical resource: the people who work there―both how they feel and perform. How is social inclusion measured? How can a company be inclusive if its people do not try to imagine what it might be like in someone else's shoes? They are unlikely to retain that talent or maximize its contributions if the workplace is not one that values differences. Tell me about a time when “being different” from others at work affected your willingness to share an opinion or idea. *Editor’s note: Download our full Diversity and Inclusion Handbook for more than 70 pages of tangible strategies to help you cultivate diversity and inclusion on your team, including diversity goals and objectives. A company culture that doesn't value and reinforce empathy is at high risk of bias - intentional or not - against groups of its employees. Better workplace data and analytics, they believe, will eventually provide keener insights. But what about inclusion? Comment document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "a04b9e38cd45ac220a07c7a70dd5fc60" );document.getElementById("j0f7bc6ff7").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. That is just one example of the way design can bolster inclusiveness. The bad news is that lack of inclusion is a real problem in the workplace. A company’s demographic makeup has never been more relevant. Build on employee experience and baseline demographic information with data on workplace behavior to see where people are getting the same opportunities to thrive, and where they are not. monitor and measure policy impact; Country-level data and diagnostic assessments inform the design and help sequence reforms. Measuring What Matters. Analyzing internal networks can help a company to identify hidden talent so they can leverage it more effectively. Are patterns of behavior consistent with the perceptions of inclusion, or is there hidden bias? Women’s networks, on the other hand, included more people at their own or lower levels. They just need to be transparent and scrupulous about how they do it. Are collaborations with senior management, participation on priority projects, and involvement in important meetings the same for women and men when controlling for other factors like job level or tenure? One way to measure and adjust your D&I initiatives is to ask employees about their experience directly. At another company, ONA revealed that women who had a strong relationship with a senior-level leader were the most likely to be promoted. Inclusion, not so much. How can we measure if inclusion strategies are working, and when we reach an optimal level of full inclusion? For example: What does your direct manager say or do that makes you feel valued and respected? What specific actions would make it better? These differences may have implications for women’s career advancement, says Manish Goel, CEO of Trustsphere, which tracks relationship networks within companies. What the badges don’t capture is anything people say. Companies can also develop original survey questions based on the qualitative data they glean from focus groups. ONA can also help organizations become more inclusive. The paper is aimed at D&I professionals, however, anyone interested about workplace inclusion may find it handy. It includes the many elements of the workplace that serve to acknowledge and value individual differences and encourage people to express their unique views. If, indeed, inclusion is a root-level need, why are organizations not measuring it, or at least not measuring it well? One of the most promising applications is in measuring inclusion and tracking its progress over time. The technology for analyzing workplace behavior is getting more powerful all the time. These insights can then shape future priorities for further research, training, and intervention. Inclusion means having an environment where all employees have equal access to resources and opportunities. Prioritize data that truly drives diversity and inclusion You might be thinking, “I have no idea where to start measuring diversity.” Just as with any data in business, start with what you have. Inclusion, belonging and being held in significance are longings that all human beings have. Here are some examples of tools that can help companies track inclusion and direct their efforts in a more targeted way: Organizational network analysis (ONA) enables companies to understand the web of connections between one or more individuals, between one or more groups, or between the organization and its external environment. Do they have to suppress or “cover” certain aspects of their identities to fit in, or do they feel seen, heard, and valued for bringing a unique perspective? Is everyone ‘all in’? Caveat: In its most limited form, ONA can be just another way to measure diversity. In fact, they are quite different. What is Digital Transformation and What Does it Mean for Workplace Design? “It’s like a Fitbit for your career,” says Waber. “Diversity is being invited to the party. Some call it psychological safety. Don’t just measure diversity, measure inclusion too. Caveat: Doing this well requires reaching out to many different types of employees—not just members of employee resource groups. How can one know when social inclusion is achieved? We asked a panel of experts who brought together multiple perspectives on the topic of what inclusion means, and here's what they had to say: Together, these capture key elements of inclusion in the workplace, and the panel raised some important themes, like empathy and psychological safety. The answer: There are a variety of measures across three broad categories of data that reflect dimensions of inclusion: These dimensions can be measured using a variety of approaches, ranging from the old-fashioned methods to cutting-edge tech tools. Digital platforms will enable employers to mine real-time data from Slack, TeamRoom, Yammer, and other communication and collaboration platforms to identify strengths and diagnose issues before they manifest into bigger problems. To gather more information about a topic, like diversity and inclusion, you can use a pulse survey. breakthroughs. Now, more sophisticated tools, like Slack-based chatbots, are available that allow real-time feedback to raise issues that might otherwise go undetected, provide tips on how to modify behavior, and aggregate data to monitor company performance. In fact, cognitive research suggests that our brains are hard-wired to belong. In other cases, leaders say that inclusion’s simply too soft, or subjective, to be measured—let alone to be held accountable for. From a financial point of view, inclusion is important because it can help organizations recoup their investments in building a more diverse workforce. An organization may establish quantitative measures based on: Representation: What is the workforce profileof the organization? Using BCG’s Diversity and Inclusion Assessment for Leadership tool, we are able to benchmark data against industry and geography, leveraging our existing database of more than 25,000 responses from across the globe. Inclusiveness spawns diversity of thought. Establish a sense of belonging for everyone. They have also educated their workforce, from top to bottom, about what makes for an inclusive workplace and why that matters. If you want to know whether your employees’ experience aligns with your company’s ideals—at scale—you can just ask. In fact, the analysis reveals a spike in women who leave between Levels 5 and 6. People need to feel safe and trust that they can express themselves without fear of negative consequences to their status or career. Companies that want to create a scorecard for inclusion, or use those measures to assess and reward leaders, must be extremely careful not to conflate inclusion with diversity—that is, the dancing with the party. Our panel offered a broad consensus that there is a typical hierarchy of analyses: The best analyses tie the results to financial and business outcomes to underscore the value of devoting time and resources to creating a more inclusive workplace. Where does it fall short? By taking their own emotional pulse on a regular basis—there are apps for that, too—they can see if these changes affect their sense of belonging, trust, or psychological safety. If inclusion is an outcome, employee feeling, bias and sentiment are all inputs that we must measure to assess the level and depth of inclusion within organisations. Based on our research with companies and inclusion experts in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, here is a comprehensive definition that goes farther than being asked to dance: In an inclusive workplace, everyone feels respected and valued for being who they are; people trust that they can speak up and be fairly treated; and they share a sense of belonging. Combining traditional HR data and performance metrics with these newer data sources reveals workplace dynamics that were invisible to them even just a few years ago. Humanzye protects the identity of individual employees; client companies receive reports based on anonymized, aggregated data. On the upside, many companies have developed a clear understanding of what inclusiveness means in their culture. How do we know if there is a problem around workplace inclusion? Your email address will not be published. They can do the same with survey data about inclusion. Diversity and inclusion are often treated as synonyms or strung together like a hyphenated last name. Companies have access to an increasingly sophisticated tool kit. We must become conscious of the unconscious in order to help make an environment which is inclusive for all employees. Gender pay gap thought sparks new ideas, creative thinking, and when we reach an optimal level of inclusion! 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