Diversity and inclusion in the workplace are broadly acknowledged as catalysts for doing better business. As Arusha Gupta, Head of HR – Europe at Larsen & Toubro Infotech, explained to HR News, “It’s clear the benefits of a diverse and inclusive workforce are significant: cognitively diverse teams solve problems faster, according to the Harvard Business Review, and they’re also more productive, creative, and innovative.”
Nobody is arguing with that. But, like many best intentions, they can fall short when the will isn’t propped up by the ways. This can especially be the case with legacy systems that aren’t capable of producing much more than vanity metrics.
In fact, even in the case of formidable ATS that’s integrated with your HCM and HRIS, you can only produce a finite amount of data. And truthfully, the data you can generate tends to be transactional. It’s not fluid and it doesn’t tell an unfolding story that empowers you to shape diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
Gupta went on to draw attention to this very dilemma. “In a small organisation, it’s relatively easy for an HR professional to know each of their employees individually and keep track of DEI targets,” she said. “However, for larger organisations, it becomes impossible without a dependable way of gathering information and data.”
But doesn’t that leave you stuck between a rock and a hard place, if your ATS, HCM and/or HRIS can’t be relied upon to fulfil this role in a flexible and meaningful way?
The great news is that no, it doesn’t. And the answer is authoritative analytics around diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
The difference between dime a dozen vanity metrics and living, breathing analytics is colossal. This is because powerful analytics paint a constantly evolving picture of where you’re at with your DEI efforts in –
- Recruitment
- Retention
- Progression
And it all comes down to a whole set of effortless and engaging dashboards to help you with this.
Dashboards with Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace Baked in
Naomi Benjamin specifically referenced dashboards recently, for HR recruitment professionals to manage diversity and inclusion in the workplace with ease and dexterity. She told Forbes, “Analytics reveal meaningful data that we might not otherwise detect. For example, it’s not enough to understand the composition of your workforce. A dashboard that brings together analytics can help managers visualize and forecast diversity trends, highlighting critical diversity metrics and the impact of leadership programs.”
The next level analytics you get from a Diversity Dashboard are the result of a different way of combining and interpreting data from other places and systems. It’s called data warehousing. And it provides you with awe-inspiring means of getting a comprehensive handle on where you’re at right now – and where you want to be over time.
For example, a Diversity Dashboard shows how you’re doing in key areas such as –
- Workforce Distribution – By ethnicity, by gender, etc
- Hiring Statistics – Year on year, by ethnicity, by gender, etc
- Voluntary and Involuntary Staff Churn – Year on year, by ethnicity, by gender, etc
This is a snapshot that’s by no means inexhaustible. In other words, you can realistically look forward to drilling down into whatever characteristic or employee segment you want to get to the bottom of.
Previously untapped insights show you what’s happening in real time, and equip you with all the information you need to confidently strategize and implement changes for future fitness.
And unsurprisingly, businesses are harnessing analytics more and more, in creative and thought-provoking ways, to consolidate and control diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
Getting the Most out of a Diversity Dashboards
The ability to customize a Diversity Dashboard is a gigantic box tick, especially if you’ve made past ‘dream’ purchases and wound up saddled with heaps of features you’ve never used. On the contrary, your imagination will run riot when you see the endless possibilities that are available to you, at the push of a button.
To give you an idea, here’s a selection of the most wildly popular questions for which businesses are turning to a Diversity Dashboard for answers –
- Is our organization and our job ads attracting diverse candidates? And are we hiring diverse talent? – Leading edge analytics provide a deep dive in to how you’re instigating diversity and inclusion in the workplacevia your recruitment practices. This goes beyond the number of diverse hires per se, to number of hires by diversity category, recruitment channel, and across all levels of your business.
- Are we paying and promoting equitably? – Analyze pay by diversity category.
- Do we offer equal opportunities for development? – Examine training and also promotional opportunities by diversity category.
- How good are we at retaining employees from underrepresented groups? – Scrutinize retention rates against multiple different criteria, including diversity category, department, duration of tenure, line manager, etc
- Are we baking diversity into our succession plans? – Audit your promotion record, learning and development opportunities and leadership training against multiple different criteria, (as above).
Now, imagine trying to generate this superior level of in-depth insights, across multiple horizontals and verticals, without the right tools. It can be back-breaking at best, and even impossible at worst. And it explains why HR technology is increasingly being seen as a non-negotiable strategic partner by businesses that take diversity and inclusion in the workplace seriously.
At HireRoad, we’re thrilled to see HR professionals at market leading organizations like Splunk, DraftKings, and Stryker forging ahead on the DEI front, as a result of using our next generation analytics with PeopleInsight.
Are you inspired by the idea of ultimate HR technology that expedites DEI and tracks your progress in a captivating and unparalleled way? Get in touch and let’s arrange a show and tell.