Written by Hannah Wilson
Founder of Diverse Educators
We are data rich when it comes to the students in our schools, but we are data poor when it comes to our staff.
Any organisation leaning into a DEI strategy and action plan needs to consider the data that they have, and the data that they need to have, to inform the why, the how and the what of their approach.
I find that the CQ framework helps us to think about the cyclical steps we need to take to gather, interpret and act on our DEI data:
- CQ Drive: Why do we need to gather DEI data? Are our intentions clearly being communicated?
- CQ Knowledge: What do we need to know about our workforce and workplace? How psychologically safe do employees feel?
- CQ Strategy: How will we gather meaningful data? How will this data be handled and shared?
- CQ Action: How will this data be used to inform our next steps? How will this data make our workplace more inclusive?
DEI Metrics in a school / trust thus need to include:
- Baseline data
- Benchmarking data
- Progress data
- Qualitative data
- Quantitative data
- Stakeholder engagement data
- Stakeholder feedback data
- Recruitment, retention and promotion data
- Salary data
We need to remember that this data is about human beings.I once heard a school leader say, we need to focus on the ‘names not the numbers’ in our data trackers in schools. Each piece of data is thus a story, a story about a person.
So this data needs to be handled with care. DEI data is asking people to share their identity, their lived experience and to disclose personal details. This can only happen in a culture of intentional trust and psychological safety.
Moreover, the data needs to be handled in an intersectional way. We need to look at trends within groups but also across groups, for example, pay progression for men v women, pay progression for white v black employees, pay progression for white men v white women v black men v black women.
Recruitment and retention data is a great place to start:
- Who are we attracting?
- Who are we longlisting?
- Who are we shortlisting?
- Who are we interviewing?
- Who are we recruiting?
- Who are we promoting?
- Who are we retaining?
- Who are we losing?
Some other questions for us to discuss before we create and send out a staff survey.
How do we measure diversity?
Conventional measurements rely on counting the number of people within an organisation who belong to each of the protected characteristic groups, as identified by them.
How do we gauge how people feel about the culture of their workplace?
Employee feedback is one of the most useful data sources for measuring inclusion, especially when leaders can use a “pulse,” a quick survey, to check in with employees without adding to distractions. The challenge, however, is in first establishing the right metrics and then asking the right questions.
How do we frame a DEI survey?
To create a DEI survey that captures employee attention and gets engagement, there are a number of factors to consider:
- Creating Inclusive Demographic Questions
- Making the DEI Survey Anonymous
- Making Questions Non-Required
- Being Forthcoming With Intent
- Using Expert Resources
What is a DEI dashboard?
A diversity, equity, and inclusion dashboard is an interface that provides companies with a visual representation of their current diversity, equity, and inclusion practices.
How do you create goals for DEI initiatives?
- Define goals using benchmarking data
- Measure outcomes, not just output
- Focus on retention, not just recruitment
- Review inclusion, not just diversity
- Use surveys to measure inclusion
How do you measure DEI effectiveness?
- Resources/ funds allocated to DEI strategy
- Number of diverse employees across the organisation
- Percentage of diverse employees in leadership positions
- Investment into development programmes for diverse employees
- Gap in pay between different demographic groups
- Length of time diverse employees stay with the organisation
- Feedback in exit interviews from diverse workforce
- Number of incident reports e.g. microaggressions
To help you think about the data you are, and could be, using we are hosting a series of free DEI Metrics webinars with some of our collaborative partners, so that you can find out more about their tools to help you measure DEI in your school/ trust.
3 teams, 3 platforms, 3 solutions:
- On Fri 21st October 12.00-1.00pm we will be joined by the Edurio team
- On Mon 7th November 12.00-1.00pm we will be joined by The GEC team
- On Thu 24th November 12.00-1.00pm we will be joined the Flair Impact team
Register to attend but also to receive a link to the recording of each session.