Get Your Baseline D&I Data

The power of having accurate and relevant trend data on diversity and inclusion at your fingertips cannot be underestimated. Not only will it enable you to understand the current state of D&I in your organisation, but also help you make informed decisions about setting future state aspirations and the best way forward with your strategy and initiatives.

DCA recommends these two main sources of data:

  1. Diversity data is a powerful tool for understanding the mix of employees in your organisation, and can help you make informed decisions about the future direction and aspirations of your diversity and inclusion (D&I) initiatives and overall business strategies.
  2. Benchmarking the state of inclusion in your organisation via the DCA Inclusive Employer Index

Diversity Data

D&I 101 graphic

Diversity data is captured to provide baseline data about workforce diversity – that is, the demographic mix of employees in your organisation. It is a powerful tool to help make informed decisions about the future direction and aspirations of your D&I initiatives. 

Whether you are collecting diversity data from scratch, or updating your existing data approach, DCA’s comprehensive D&I 101 – Collecting Diversity Data guide outlines leading principles for undertaking respectful and inclusive diversity data collection in order to obtain genuine, meaningful data. The guide answers provides sample wording for all diversity demographic groups and benchmarking information.

Benchmarking the State of Inclusion in Your Organisation

Many organisations have policies and strategies detailing their commitment to Diversity & Inclusion (D&I). But often, organisations don’t understand what their employees think about diversity & inclusion or what impact is it having on their employee’s experiences of inclusion (or exclusion) at work. Likewise, for organisations just starting out on their D&I journey, it can be difficult to know where to start without knowing the current state of D&I in their workplace. 

One way to understand the impact that D&I initiatives are having in your organisation or where to start focus on is via DCA’s Inclusive Employer Index.

The DCA Inclusive Employer Index is a survey that enables organisations to explore, map and track the state of inclusion in their workforce benchmarked against leading D&I employers.

By taking part in the Index, you can measure diversity and inclusion in your workforce, its impact, and compare findings to national and DCA Member benchmarks. The survey gathers data from your employees across:

  1. Diversity: the diversity of your workforce on a range of demographic backgrounds (e.g., Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples, age, cultural background, disability status, gender, sexual orientation).
  2. Inclusion: employees’ experience of workplace inclusion
  3. Impact: the impact of workplace inclusion on team and employee outcomes
  4. WGEA: WGEA’s Employer of Choice for Gender Equality Citation employee survey questions

Organisations that participate in the Inclusive Employer Index also have access to:

  • Leading Practice Benchmark: Your diversity and inclusion results compared to a DCA-Member Leading Practice Benchmark, as well as access to a Standard Practice Benchmark, derived from a nationally representative survey of 3000 Australian workers (National Index).
  • Profiling as an Inclusive Employer 2023-2024 DCA publicly promotes on its website and associated communications inclusive employers that participate in the DCA Member Inclusion@Work Index (with the organisation’s permission). See our list of past and present Inclusive Employers here

The Inclusive Employer Index runs annually. Find out more here.

Want to delve deeper?

Members can also watch the recording of DCA’s key contact event Diversity Data Deep Dive to hear our experts answer members’ burning questions on D&I data. 

If you have queries about collecting cultural diversity data, explore our research report Counting Culture to discover this standardised approach for defining, measuring, and reporting on workforce cultural diversity in a respectful, accurate and inclusive way.

The rest of this content is restricted to DCA members.

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