Our Approach to Measuring Diversity and Inclusion Data

BCG draws on real-world experience in diversity, equity, and inclusion to customize our approach to client needs. We provide a robust foundation and framework for tracking diversity and inclusion initiatives to ensure progress is made and embedded in your organization’s business and people processes. We can also help you communicate the purpose of your efforts to build buy-in throughout the organization.

We leverage diversity and inclusion data baselines to build clear, user-friendly scorecards that are integrated into existing governance processes and the leadership cadence.

We customize these diversity and inclusion benchmarks by business unit, geography, and cohort.

Recruitment

Attracting a strong pipeline of candidates from groups that have been historically underrepresented, such as women or minorities, is critical—especially in industries that have struggled retaining such groups (industrial goods and the tech sector, for example).

Retention

Companies need to know the percentage of employees by gender and race at each level of seniority, and they need to track the attrition rate at each level to determine where the ladder is broken.

Advancement

Companies need to measure the percentage of underrepresented employees, including women, promoted each year as a share of the total cohort and compare that with the promotion rates of men and majority groups. (Keep in mind that the challenge of advancement is unrelated to ambition levels, as BCG research on women’s ambition has demonstrated.)

Representation

Women and employees from other underrepresented groups who do make it to the top should not be concentrated in such administrative roles as HR or marketing. Ensure they are fairly represented in operational units.

Pay

An employee’s role—not race or gender—should determine pay. Even if pay is fair, perceptions count; companies should survey employees to make sure they believe that pay levels are equitable for all employees.