What is D&I data?
There are two main sources of D&I data organisations use when exploring their D&I baseline:
- Diversity data: information about 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?
D&I data is a powerful tool in 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.
Read & learn more
- DCA’s D&I 101 – Collecting Diversity Data guide outlines leading principles for undertaking respectful and inclusive diversity data collection. The guide provides sample wording across a range of diversity demographic groups and benchmarking information.
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.
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