I’m often asked by small and large charities alike, “If we can do just one thing about diversity and inclusion, what should it be?” My answer is invariably, collect diversity data! And if I can have 3 things then collect, analyse and make decisions on the basis of your diversity data.
It sounds simple right? But of course there’s much more to it than that; you need a culture where people are willing to share their diversity data and trust what you’ll do with it. That means you can’t just ask people for their diversity data out of the blue. You need make your people believe that you really care about not just diversity but inclusion. This takes continuous effort and communication, and it doesn’t happen overnight. As with any culture change, it’s a journey.
You also need to be really clear about what you’ll do with the data and how you’ll look after it. Would you want to disclose your personal sensitive data without knowing who’s going to see it and what they’ll do with it? I’m not sure I would, even as a D&I professional. Many people feel cautious about giving any personal sensitive data, perhaps because they simply feel it’s personal information and it’s nobody else’s business and others may be hesitant because they have been disadvantaged by declaring their personal information in the past or been on the receiving end of discrimination just because of who they are. So you need to be clear what you will do but also what you won’t do with people’s data.
And of course there’s GDPR. I know just hearing the term can send shudders down some people’s spines! But it’s not as scary as you may think and as it’s there for a good reason. We have a responsibility to securely collect and store people’s data, protect it from being used against them and know what we’re going to do with it. Of course this would be simple if you just anonymously collect the data using a stand-alone survey. And yes that will allow you to understand the overall diversity of your organisation. But in isolation, it doesn’t tell you what’s driving the data.
So ideally you want to be able to either collect the data using your People System or collect identifiable data that you can then pseudo anonymise for example using people’s employee, volunteer or service user number. Only then will you be able to cross reference the data with other data like recruitment, promotion, service use and any other people data you can get your hands on!
Then you can understand what’s driving your diversity data and what you can do about it. You can create a meaningful and targeted action plan that addresses your unique barriers to diversity. For example, if there is a problem with the way you assess and promote talent, your marketing approach not appealing to or reaching diverse service users or is there something in your services themselves that is turning people away. You’ll also have a way to measure whether those actions are working.
You can also stop wasting valuable resources on solutions to problems that you don’t have. For example, many of the organisations (private and non-profit) I work with have read about the need for anonymising their recruitment process and have made this a priority. And don’t get me wrong I do believe this is important and is a great way of reducing bias in your process. However, it is often a resource heavy activity that shouldn’t necessarily be a priority unless your diversity data is clearly showing that you have a problem.
By collecting diversity data in your recruitment process you can understand if you do have a problem of diverse applicants not getting through your sifting to interview, or actually you’re just not seeing a diversity of applications in the first place. In which case, those valuable resources can be spent on changing where you advertise, and ensuring you have inclusive adverts and job descriptions.
I know it seems like a lot, but trust me it is worth it. There are so many more benefits to collecting data than you realise. Yes, you will understand how diverse you are, and what’s driving it but it also gives the power of persuasion.
Too many of us during the wake of George Floyd’s murder heard the doubt that exists in the UK as to the extent of the on-going discrimination against people of colour in our society and in our organisations. In my experience, many of these doubts come from a place not of negative intent, but from an inability to see. Those who are not on the receiving end of discrimination, have the luxury of not being able to recognise it. But when faced with evidence, numbers and facts that clearly demonstrate that injustice exists in our culture and our systems, it can’t be denied. And only then can we create a culture where people recognise that the problem does exist, and what our parts may be in both the problem and the solution.