Companies have a responsibility to ensure their employees reflect the communities they serve and build an equitable and inclusive environment for them to thrive in. Using DEI metrics to assess your organization’s efforts and then acting on the resulting data is key to ensuring furthering the DEI mission. What are the key DEI metrics to track?

Without a clear and concise way to track diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, minimal progress is likely to be made as organizations revert to old habits. Having great DEI metrics does not automatically mean that the organization is achieving its efforts in this regard. Still, it is important to measure how you’re doing as it helps identify management bias, unconscious bias, fairness, and justice in the workplace.

According to Gartner, the wave of DEI efforts has undoubtedly risen, with an over 800% increase in demand for recruiters with experience in diversity hiring. Tracking your DEI metrics is thus a matter of priority.

Useful DEI metrics

1. Demographics across organization levels

2. Retention across employee groups

3. Employee turnover

4. Adverse impact

5. Candidate demographics

6. Employee advancement / Promotion rate

7. Equal pay and pay equity

8. Employee resource group (ERG) participation

9. eNPS - Employee Net Promoter Score

10. Initiative-focused DEI metrics

DEI initiatives need to be measured over a long period of time, as sometimes these changes are not immediate. 

While keeping track of your DEI metrics is important to understanding the state of DEI and its progress at your organization, it is even more critical to turn this data into actionable insights and use it to improve.