What is D&I data?
Diversity data captures the demographic mix of the employees in your organisation. This typically includes data on your employees’ Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander background, age, carer status, cultural and racial identities, disability status, gender, LGBTIQ+ identity, and social class. Diversity data can be coupled with other Human Resource data to explore D&I focus areas (e.g. gender pay gap).
Inclusion data captures the inclusion and exclusion experiences of your employees. Examples of this include employee experiences of inclusion in their team and with their manager, experience of discrimination, or their engagement with your D&I work.
Why should you collect D&I data?
Collecting D&I data is key for effective D&I work. It helps you make informed decisions about the future direction and aspirations of your D&I work and your overall business strategies.
D&I data gives you an understanding of the mix of employees in your organisation.
When compared to benchmarks (e.g. diversity in the Australian population) this can help you identify where you might be underrepresented, and what action you need to take to address this (e.g. more inclusive recruitment).
D&I data is a diagnostic tool to identify your D&I priority areas when combined with other employee data points.
For example, in combining your data on disability status with your human resource information data, you might find employees with disability are seriously underrepresented in your management and leadership roles.
D&I data can indicate ways in which you can better support your employees.
For example, data on disability status can indicate the need for workplace adjustments, or data on caring responsibilities can indicate the need for flexible work options.
D&I data can be a great source for understanding the cultural capabilities of your workforce.
For example, data on the languages spoken by your employees and time spent working in another country can help you assess your capability to access and better serve different markets, clients, and members of the community you service.
Without having this data to guide your D&I work, you risk taking ill-informed D&I and broader strategic action that will have limited impact or may cause more harm than good.
How to collect D&I data
Start with D&I data at Work
Learn how to collect and use D&I data well with the D&I Data at Work resource – whether you are starting from scratch or updating your existing approach.
Access:
- guiding principles for a respectful, safe, accurate and effective D&I data approach
- a 4-step process to using D&I data to drive meaningful change
- question and response options
- video: recording of DCA’s event, Diversity Data Deep Dive featuring live Q&A.
Learn how to collect and use D&I data well with the D&I Data at Work resource.
Then, use our diversity-dimension specific guides
Neurodiversity Data at Work
Amaze and DCA partnered to provide organisations with a practical resource on measuring and reporting on workforce neurodiversity respectfully, safely and accurately.
Neurodiversity data supports workplace neuroinclusion, enables organisations to understand the neurodiversity of their workforce, identify neuroinclusion pain points, and track the impact of their neuroinclusion initiatives.
Disability Data at Work
This report features research-based guidelines to assist organisations in creating environments where people with disability feel safe to share their disability status.
The research, created in partnership with Australian Disability Network, includes a state-of-play of employment of people with disability, a strong case for change to create disability-inclusive workplaces, and a lock-and-key approach to creating safe and inclusive environments for employees to share their disability status.
Counting Culture
Counting Culture is DCA’s standardised approach for defining, measuring, and reporting on workforce cultural diversity in a respectful, accurate and inclusive way.
Created with the University of Sydney Business School, this report guides employers through how best to count cultural background, language, religion – and even global experience – for maximum organisational benefit. Critical in a country where the Australian Bureau of Statistics reports nearly half (49 per cent) of Australians have been born overseas, have one or both parents born overseas, where over 300 languages are spoken at home, and where more than 300 ancestries are identified with.
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This content was last updated in May 2026.