Every private company, governmental agency, or non-profit organization I work with to develop a culture of inclusion and equity agrees that integrating regular measure of key performance indicators is a critical piece of the strategic plan. Now, new research from Glassdoor sheds new light on the importance of not only making sure to gather the right data, but to also be certain that you are collecting the data from a diverse group and correlating data with social identity indicators.
Measuring gaps in inclusion and equity satisfaction surveys by correlating data points with employee race and ethnicity showed a very different climate than generalized data synthesis did. Not shocking, but easy to overlook, were data showing that “even within the same workplaces, employees from different backgrounds routinely report different views of how equitably (or not) employers are acting toward underrepresented groups.” An aggregate of all data points may incorrectly imply that an organization has a healthy culture of workplace diversity and inclusion. This limited approach may obscure the reality of possibly large gaps in opinions among similarly situated employees from different demographic groups. Glassdoor discovered that in fact, on the question of how inclusive and equitable the culture is within a variety of different organizations, “Black or African American employees in particular are experiencing or perceiving a stark diversity and inclusiveness crisis [with] little evidence, in their view, that the situation is improving.”
The research looked at 12,435 ratings collected between early 2020 and the present and found that the average individual employee rating of their company’s culture was 3.73 out of 5 stars. Black or African American employees’ ratings were nearly 8 percent lower, at 3.49, while Hispanic/Latinx employees’ ratings were above average at 3.80 and Asian employees’ ratings were even higher, at 3.98. These data makes demonstrate the likelihood of a blind spot in climate surveys that report only aggregated data from all employees.
The Glassdoor data suggest another area of concern regarding traditional DEI training programs. The gap uncovered has been growing since 2019, “expanding from 0.2 to 0.6 stars (on a 1 to 5 star satisfaction scale) despite many employers increasing investments in D&I programs in the last two years.” Too often training begins and ends with developing awareness of unconscious bias. This is necessary, but far from sufficient to develop a sustainable inclusive and equitable culture.
DEI programs should focus on the broader skill set of developing culturally competent individuals in addition to making structural and process changes to the organization itself. Cultural competence requires awareness of unconscious bias and more. Training and development also should focus on awareness and sensitivity to one’s own cultural heritage, curiosity, acceptance, and respect for cultural differences, a variety of conversation skills, relationship-building skills, and advocacy skills.
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