Most people recognize that issues like gender and ethnic bias can prevent advancement at work. At the same time, they often believe that while it happens in general, they don't believe it is true in their workplace.
But how do you know, if you've never looked?
Over 95% of workers say they have never looked at the diversity data for their workplace. If you believe your workplace is fair, here's how to be sure:
The first step is looking at what data is available. Ideally, companies should release their data publicly, that way potential customers and employees can also be sure that the workplace is fair. So try searching your company's website for terms like "diversity data", "DEI data", etc.
For 500 very large companies, we've compiled a list at 500DiversityReports.com.
If you find the data, great! Important things to focus on are hiring equity (is there diversity in the overall workforce), wage equity (are people being paid equally for the same work), and leadership equity (are there a diverse set of leaders across the company).
It can be hard to talk to speak up when your company isn't doing something they should. But it is worth it: internal interest in releasing data is far more effective than external interest.
Generally, you want to start with a note to your Head of HR or Chief People Officer. Here's a template you can use to open a conversation with them about releasing data:
It is really important to me that our workplace strives to be fair and works to reduce bias. To see how we're doing, I was looking for public data about our gender and ethnic diversity, but couldn't find it. Can you point me toward our diversity data report?
Hopefully, your HR team can quickly point you to the data. But if they don't, here are some potential ways to engage:
We don't track that data.
That's too bad. It is really important to me that our workplace is fair and without actually looking at the data, how can we know? We probably do collect the data as part of our EEO-1 or hiring process; could we work together to look at it?
We pay attention to that data, but we don't release it internally or externally.
I'm so glad you're using the data to help make our workplace better. Given that we are working to make our workplace more fair, is there a reason we aren't releasing the data to show our progress?
We track that data and are happy to share it with you, but we don't release it externally.
I deeply appreciate that and would love to look at it with you. But I'm not the only one who cares: our customers and potential employees also want to know we're doing the right thing. Is there a reason we aren't releasing the data to show our progress?