109+ Must-Know Workplace Diversity Statistics [Q1 2024]

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has become increasingly important to corporate culture. How diverse a company is speaks to its gender, racial, demographic, and cultural tolerance - all of which play into the employer brand, company culture, and employee experience.

We’ve aggregated the most recent and insightful workplace diversity statistics that we believe business leaders should be aware of in 2024. This snapshot of where the U.S. and global workforce stands regarding diversity will serve to point out where your organization can improve its DEI efforts.

The Top 10 U.S. Workplace Diversity Statistics and Facts

• As of 2023, the U.S. labor force is 76.5 white, 12.8% Black or African American, 18.8% Hispanic or Latino, and 6.9% Asian, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
• Women make up 46.9% of the U.S. civilian labor force. This includes women who are employed or actively seeking employment.
• Only 7% of CEOs appointed in the first quarter of 2024 were women. It’s estimated it will take 88 years to achieve global gender parity.
• Gender pay gap between men and women in the U.S. is 23.7% on average, and it has barely closed in the past two decades.
• In Q1 2024, white women earned 82.9% as much as their male counterparts, compared with 94.9% for Black women, 79.3% for Asian women, and 90.3% for Hispanic women.
• Globally, only a quarter of the 146 countries had pay gaps of 20% to 30%, and even fewer (two) had an overall earned income gap of less than 20%.
• The new high for female CEOs still only translates to 10.6% representation at the top of the country's biggest public businesses.
• In the U.S. 7.6% of the population now identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or some other sexual orientation besides heterosexual (LGBTQ+).
• LGBTQ+ workers earn about 90 cents for every dollar earned by the typical worker.
• 43% of LGBTQ+ employees say that their employer either demonstrates no commitment to LGBT- inclusion or they are unaware or unsure of their employer’s commitment to LGBT+ inclusion.
• 6 in 10 workers seeking a new employer actively sought out information about an organization’s commitment to diversity and inclusion before applying. Almost 7 in 10 (69%) cite workplace diversity as a deciding factor.
• Anti-LGBT bias is highly prevalent in the workplace and creates massive hurdles in the day-to-day. Research suggests that nearly 50% of LGBT workers remain closeted at work and fear being stereotyped or jeopardizing professional connections.‍
•  Companies in the top quartile for board gender diversity are 27% more likely to experience financial success compared to those in the bottom quartile.
• Similar benefits are seen in terms of ethnic diversity, with companies in the top quartile for ethnically diverse boards being 13% more likely to outperform those in the bottom quartile.
• Higher percentages of non-White management are positively correlated with several higher financial metrics, including enterprise value growth rate and free cash flow per share. Large caps showed a clear and statistically significant correlation with financials.
• Diverse and inclusive organizations outperform their competition on key HR metrics. Companies with inclusive cultures have 22% lower turnover rates, 22% greater productivity scores, and 83% higher engagement scores (in the case of millennial workers).

Statistics that Show Why Workplace Diversity Matters

Making a case for corporate diversity is best seen as a cautionary warning of what would happen if leadership ignores its importance to workers.

• According to a 2023 survey by Eagle Hill Consulting, 53% of employees in the United States say a diverse and inclusive workplace is important to them when evaluating job offers.
• Approximately 77% of Gen Z workers and around 63% of millennials indicated that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) greatly influence their choice of workplace.
• When seeking new job opportunities, employees highly value finding a company they can relate to. More than 6 in 10 respondents said it’s important to know there are employees they identify with and 59% expressed a need to resonate with the leadership. Additionally, more than half sought assurance that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is a top priority for the CEO.

• A study by Indeed and Glassdoor found that age and generation were the most significant factors in determining whether someone values DEI in the workplace, more so than other factors like gender, race, and sexual orientation. The data showed that younger workers are more likely to consider rejecting job offers or leaving companies if they perceive a lack of support for DEI initiatives, race/ethnicity diversity, and gender balance in company leadership.
• 62% would reject a job offer or leave a company if they felt their manager did not support DEI. This sentiment was stronger among Black respondents, with 80% willing to make such decisions based on a company's commitment to DEI.
• Most U.S. workers consider corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives important when looking for jobs. Around 74% say DEI efforts matter in their decision-making. It even matters more to certain groups: women (76%), Hispanics (77%), Black/Non-Hispanic workers (79%), parents (80%), and Asian-American/ Pacific Islander workers (82%).

• However, the majority of employees report a decline or stagnation in their organization’s DEI initiatives over the past six months.
• This aligns with Quartz’s findings. Since the U.S. Supreme Court banned race-based admissions in higher education in mid-2023, many organizations have begun to lay off DEI employees or are reducing their DEI budgets.
• Another study found that almost half of employees (48%) have experienced prejudice or discrimination when seeking to enter the workplace, and 55% believe they would be held back in their careers because of discrimination.
• Discrimination based on an individual's ethnicity was found as the most prevalent type of discrimination experienced. Black respondents reported a higher prevalence of workplace discrimination due to their ethnicity (59%), followed by Asian respondents (50%) and respondents from Mixed/multiple ethnic backgrounds (48%).
• About 73% were prompted to actively seek employment opportunities at other companies due to facing discrimination at work and a sizable number (71%) even considered exploring different industries altogether.

• McKinsey's research reveals an ongoing positive connection between ethnic diversity and successful business outcomes. Organizations in the top quartile of ethnic representation are 39% more likely to outperform those in the bottom quartile.
• Furthermore, it has been observed that diversity in leadership correlates with holistic growth targets, enhanced social impact, and a more engaged workforce. With the range of DEI hiring tools now available, companies have an expanding opportunity to amplify their DEI initiatives.

Statistics on Diversity in Corporate Leadership

• Although cultural and racial statistics in the workplace seem to favor White workers in terms of representation, it is in line with population data according to the U.S Census Bureau, if you go on “White alone” data, which includes the White Hispanic and Latino population.
• Unfortunately, the figures get skewed when it comes to executive teams. Of the Fortune 500 companies, only 8 have a CEO that is Black—1.6%, despite 14.4% of the population identifying as Black.
• According to a report by Grant Thornton, the proportion of women in senior management roles globally is 33.5%— up from 32.4% in 2023.
• In 2024, the percentage of female CEOs decreased significantly from 28% to 19% year on year. This drop was particularly noticeable among large corporations, where several high-profile resignations occurred in 2022/23. Female CEOs at larger firms, who were surveyed about their reasons for leaving their roles, cited public pressure, caring responsibilities, and the perception that they needed to behave more like men in their positions.
• As of June 2023, 10.4% of Fortune 500 CEOs were female.

It’s one thing to have a diverse workforce, but quite another to have diverse leadership. Organizations in which workers can see their gender, race, orientation, or culture represented in leadership, trust the organization’s decision-making. These organizations are psychologically safe, and benefit from the various viewpoints diversity brings.

Important Statistics by Diversity Type

Statistics About Gender Diversity in the Workplace (International and U.S.-based)

• While the European Union aims for 40% female representation on boards by 2026, 47% of wealth and asset management firms are yet to meet this target, compared to 24% of banks and 17% of insurance firms.‍
• An FT analysis of U.K. and U.S.-listed companies reveals that CEOs primarily advance through male-dominated finance and operational roles. In contrast, HR, marketing, and PR are the only C-suite positions where women hold a numerical advantage.

• In 2023, women constituted 41.9% of the global workforce, but they occupied only 32.2% of senior leadership roles, approximately 10 percentage points lower than in 2022. On average, women held only 25% of C-suite positions, which was slightly more than half of their representation at entry-level positions, where they made up 46%.
• In 2023, for every 100 men promoted to manager, 87 women were promoted to that level. This gap is even bigger for women of color: 73 women of color were promoted to a managerial role for every 100 men, down from 82 women of color in 2022.
• As reported by McKinsey, women represent roughly 1 in 4 C-suite leaders, and women of color are just 1 in 16.
• Compared to their counterparts, they also suffer microaggressions at a significantly higher rate—they are twice as likely to be interrupted and hear comments on their emotional state.
• Approximately one-third of women with disabilities and one-fourth of LGBTQ+ and Black women report feeling invisible or underappreciated at work.
• Flexible scheduling ranks highly among mothers with young children as a crucial employee benefit. Without this flexibility, 38% indicate they would have been compelled to either resign from their current employment or reduce their working hours.
• In 2023, the median weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary working women were $1,005, or 83.6% of men’s earnings.

• Women of color (including Latino and Hispanic women) are by far the most underrepresented group in leadership. This group comprised 20.3% of the United States population in 2021, but their presence was harshly diminished in corporate leadership.
• At all levels of educational attainment, women earn, on average, 25% less than men.

Statistics About Racial Diversity in the Workplace

• White Americans account for 76.5% of all U.S. workers today. In contrast, Black or African American, Asian, and Hispanic or Latino workers comprise 12.8%, 6.9%, and 18.8% respectively, making up a smaller proportion of the total workforce.

• According to a study conducted by Pew Research, over 50% of Black workers believe that being Black makes it harder to be successful at work. This is significantly higher than the shares of Asian (41%), Hispanic (23%), and White (18%) workers who say the same about the impact of being Black.
• Approximately forty percent of Black employees report experiencing discrimination or unfair treatment from their employer due to their race or ethnicity.
• 12.8% of the current U.S. workforce identify as Black or African American according to the latest BLS data. There are, however, industries where Black representation is significantly more than this median.
• Healthcare support occupations, for example, have an average of 25.0 Black representation, the highest segment being nursing assistants (38.1%).
• The most outlying occupation we could identify is Postal service mail sorters, processors, and processing machine operators which are Black in 48.4% of cases.
• Asian people, who make up 6.9% of the U.S. labor force are also disproportionately represented in some factions. Asian workers hold computer and mathematical occupations in 24.0% of cases. The highest segment percentage here is under software developers (36.2%).
• The most outlying occupations we could identify are manicurists and pedicurists of which 64.8% are Asian.
• Hispanic and Latino workers, who make up 18.8% of the U.S. labor force are significantly overrepresented in interpretation and translation services (42.8%), service occupations (27.3%), food preparation (29.6%), construction (40.8% average), and various cleaning and maintenance occupations, the average of which comes to 41.6 representation.

Statistics About Religious Diversity in the Workplace

• The USA is a religiously diverse country, dominated by a 67% share of people who identify as Christian.
• Over the past decade, the demographic makeup of Christians in the country has changed significantly. In 2013, white Christians made up 46% of the population, but this number decreased to 42% in 2023. Conversely, Christians of color have remained relatively stable, representing 24% of the population in 2013 and 25% in 2023.
• Americans have also become less religious over the past decade. 26% identify as religiously unaffiliated in 2023, a 5 percentage point increase from 2013's 21%. Around 17%, comparable to the 16% in 2013, describe themselves as “nothing in particular.” Notably, the number of atheists has doubled from 2% to 4%. Agnostics have also doubled, from 2% to 5%, since 2013.

Despite having freedom of religion, the U.S. does struggle with religious intolerance.

• According to a recent Pew survey, about eight out of ten Americans see discrimination against Muslims, Jews, Arabs, Black, and Hispanic people.
• 75% see at least some discrimination against Asian people.
• Muslims are most widely perceived to face a high degree of discrimination. 44% believe there is a lot of discrimination against Muslims, followed by Black people (40%), Jews (40%), and Arab people (39%).
• Fewer think there is a lot of discrimination against Hispanic people (28%) and Asian people (24%).
• U.S. adults are least likely to perceive there is a lot of discrimination against evangelical Christians (14%) and White people (13%).

• Pearn Kandola also reports an uptake in religious discrimination in the workplace in the U.S. and the U.K. According to their research, 47% felt uncomfortable discussing the religious festivals they celebrate at work. 32% said they have had negative experiences when expressing their religious identity at work, and 38% said they feel organizations could do more to foster inclusivity for individuals of various faiths.
• More than 6 in 10 said they were not comfortable wearing religious attire or symbols at work. In contrast, only 23% felt equipped and prepared to do so.
• Some employees had been unable to get time for religious festivals. While only 2% of Christians felt that such requests for time off were rejected without good business reasons, 31% of Muslims, 25% of Sikhs, 23% of Hindus, 20% of Jews, and 14% of Buddhists held the opposite view.

Statistics About Cultural Diversity in the Workplace

‍Naturally, being from a different country means people have different backgrounds, views, and practices, even if they are of the same race, generation, and religion. Knowing the importance of diversity and tolerance, U.S. companies must be aware of how immigrant employees experience their working environment.

• In 2023, the share of foreign-born accounted for 18.6% of the U.S. civilian labor force, up from 18.1% in 2022.
• Nearly half of the foreign-born labor force is Hispanic (47.6%) while Asians account for 25%.
• Foreign-born workers were more likely than native-born workers to be employed in service occupations (21.8% vs. 12.6%); production, transportation, and material moving occupations (15.2% vs. 11.8%); and natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations (13.8% vs. 7.8%).
• Foreign-born workers were less likely than native-born workers to be employed in management, professional, and related occupations (36.1% vs. 45.4%) and in sales and office occupations (13.0% vs. 20.1%).
• The median weekly earnings of foreign-born full-time wage and salary workers was $987 in 2023, while their native-born counterparts averaged $1,140.

Statistics About Age and Generation Diversity in the Workplace

• Generational diversity is when different generations are represented in the workplace. This means Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and Gen Z should ideally have members at various levels of seniority within the organization.
• Millennials currently make up 36% of the U.S. workforce—the largest share compared to other generations. It is predicted that this generation will see 74% representation by 2025.

Generational diversity can have immense benefits for a company. If managed effectively, age-diverse teams can offer better decision-making, more productive collaboration, and improved overall performance. This benefit stems from being able to tap into institutional experience, and current innovation.

Statistics About Political Diversity in the Workplace

• According to 2024 data from Gallup, American people identifying as Democrats or that are leaning Democratic constitute 49% of adults. This is slightly more than the 48% of adults who identified as Republicans or leaned toward Republican support.
• Despite a reputation for being conservative, the Wall Street banks are highly politically diverse with almost all firms hovering around a 50/50 split between Democratic and Republican support.
• U.S. tech companies have the least political diversity— varying between 0% and 30% conservative support.

Global Workforce Diversity Statistics

• According to the 2023 Global Gender Gap Index, parity in labor-force participation rate increased from 63% in 2022 to 64% in 2023.
• Globally, women experience higher unemployment than men. The unemployment rate for women is approximately 4.5%, while for men, it stands at 4.3%.
• No country has yet achieved complete gender parity. However, the top nine countries (Iceland, Norway, Finland, New Zealand, Sweden, Germany, Nicaragua, Namibia, and Lithuania) have closed at least 80% of the gap. Iceland retains the top position for the 14th consecutive year with a score of 91.2%, continuing to be the sole country to close more than 90% of its gender gap.
• It is estimated that it will take approximately 162 years to bridge the gender gap in Political Empowerment, 169 years in Economic Participation and Opportunity, and 16 years in Educational Attainment.
• Europe leads all regions in gender parity with a score of 76.3%. North America is second, having closed 75% of the gap, 1.9 percentage points lower than in 2022. Latin America and the Caribbean ranked third at 74.3%, followed by Eurasia and Central Asia at 69%. East Asia and the Pacific achieved a parity score of 68.8%, while Sub-Saharan Africa ranked sixth. Southern Asia's gender parity score was 63.4%, the second-lowest among the eight regions. The Middle East and North Africa remain the region furthest away from parity.

• At every level, women and minorities are significantly more likely to say they need to change companies to advance in their careers. According to a Development Dimensions International study, women are 1.5x more likely to leave their current employers to advance their careers than men.
• Establishing trust with senior leaders is of paramount importance for female mid-level leaders. A significant 64% of women and minority leaders intending to leave their jobs cited a lack of trust in senior leaders as a primary reason, while in contrast, only 27% of those who had trust were intending to leave.
• Catalyst found that two-thirds of workers from marginalized racial and ethnic groups in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States have encountered racism in the workplace at some point in their careers, and half have experienced racism in their current jobs.
• Nearly half have experienced workplace harassment, and 32% experienced employment and professional inequities, such as disparities in pay, limited opportunities for career advancement, and unequal distribution of workload compared to their colleagues.
• Four out of five acts of racism are instigated by White people and one out of five by another person from a marginalized racial or ethnic group.
• In the UK, for example, nearly 1 in 3 employees (31%) have experienced at least one form of microaggression or discriminatory behavior from their manager within the last six months.
• In the U.S., three out of every five employees reported regularly encountering race-based microaggressions, while two in five experienced gender-based microaggressions.
• It’s no surprise then that, according to a 2022 report released by the International Labour Organization, one-in-four people do not feel valued at work.
• The report, aggregated from over 12,000 survey responses, points to a common trend— of those who do feel included at work, the greater share is in more senior (managerial and executive) roles.

Why Workplace Diversity Matters

Statistics About How Workplace Diversity Affects Profitability

• In the same Development Dimensions International study, organizations that excel in diversity are 2.4 times more likely to outperform their peers financially. They are also 4 times more likely to have leaders who understand and respond to changing customer needs and perspectives.
• This BlackRock study supported these findings. Companies with the most diverse workforces outperformed their country and industry group peers with the least diverse workforces in terms of return on assets by 29% per year, on average, from 2013 to 2022.
• Over the years, companies with more balanced representation in crucial roles, such as revenue generation, engineering, and top-paying positions, have surpassed those with significant discrepancies in these roles in terms of return on assets, the study indicates.

Statistics About How Workplace Diversity Affects Employee Experience

• Beyond the financial benefits, Development Dimensions International found that organizations that are developing more high-potential leaders from diverse backgrounds are also 11x more likely to have high-quality leaders overall, 10x more likely to have a strong leadership bench, and 3.2x more likely to engage and retain top talent.
• Globally, 39% of job seekers have declined or decided not to pursue a job opportunity due to a perceived lack of inclusion. Additionally, 6 in 10 expect CEOs to publicly address social and political issues, McKinsey reports.
• When searching for an employer, young millennials and Gen Z prioritize diverse and inclusive organizations among their top three considerations.
• According to Deloitte, 7 in 10 millennial and Gen Z employees are more likely to stay for more than five years at a company with a diverse workforce.
• However, if an employer's diversity and inclusion efforts do not meet their expectations, more than half (52%) of these employees would consider leaving their jobs within two years.
• Out Leadership's study revealed a strong correlation between LGBTQ+ inclusion and employee retention. 97% of LGBTQ+ employees at companies with high LGBTQ+ inclusion planned to stay, compared to only 38% at companies lacking LGBTQ+ inclusion.
• Despite this, according to Pew Research Center, only 26% of U.S. workers say their employer has affinity groups or employee resource groups (ERGs) based on a shared identity. About six out of ten say affinity groups or ERGs are either not available at their workplace or that they aren’t members.

The Future of Workplace Diversity

• The racial landscape in the U.S. is set to look very different in the coming years. This is because racial diversity is growing.
• People in the Baby Boomer generation are around 75% white.
• Millennials, the largest generation group in the country, are approximately 56% white.
• Millennials are also the most religiously diverse generation in the current U.S. workforce as shown in the breakdown below.

• Generation Z is the most racially diverse U.S. generation, with roughly half identifying as non-white, according to PRRI.
• “Unaffiliated” is the only major religious category experiencing growth. In 2023, around one-quarter of Americans (26%) identified as religiously unaffiliated, a five-point increase from 21% in 2013. Nearly one in five (18%) transitioned from a specific religious tradition to becoming religiously unaffiliated. Among those who did, a significant proportion (35%) had previously been Catholic, while another 35% had belonged to mainline or non-evangelical Protestant.
• In the past decade, the percentage of Americans who identify as "nothing in particular" has remained relatively stable, hovering around 16% in 2013 and 17% in 2023. However, the numbers of both atheists and agnostics have doubled during this period, increasing from 2% to 4% for atheists and from 2% to 5% for agnostics.
• By 2045, non-Hispanic white Americans are projected to be a minority group.
• By 2050, non-Hispanic white people will represent less than 40% of the under-18 population.
• By 2045, over 18 million Americans will claim two or more races.

Workplace Diversity Statistics by Industry

Workplace Diversity in Technology

• According to a recent report, women account for only one-quarter of the IT workforce in the U.S.
• People of color make up 41% of the IT population, yet just 8% of those women are Black or African American.
• There is a clear disconnect between DEI perceptions and the actual impact of these programs. In the same report, 96% of IT employees say leadership at their company makes it clear that DEI initiatives are critical aspects of company strategy. But less than half of women working in IT say DEI programs have positively affected their careers.
• 86% of IT decision-makers believe DEI programs have created inclusivity, but only one in five says women or minorities fill the majority of leadership roles. About half feel they have growth opportunities at work (vs. 89% of men), and around two out of five don’t believe they receive fair compensation for their work.

• A survey of nearly 2,500 tech professionals in 2022 revealed that racism and sexism are growing problems in the profession. Compared with 2021, the percentage of tech professionals who reported experiencing racial discrimination rose from 18% to 24%. The percentage of tech workers who said they experienced gender discrimination also increased, from 21% in 2021 to 26% in 2022.
• More than half of Black workers (54%) said they faced racial bias at work—the highest among all racial groups.
• 73% of White tech professionals reported not experiencing racial bias—notably higher than for all other groups.
• Tech professionals with a disability or mental health condition were more likely than those without to say discrimination occurs frequently or very frequently in the workplace.
• Black workers make up 12% of the U.S. workforce but only 8% of workers in tech.

Workplace Diversity in Healthcare

• Most active physicians are White men and people of color are still vastly underrepresented in healthcare. Per 2023 Association of American Medical Colleges data, 56.5% of active physicians identified as White, 18.8% as Asian, 6.3% as Hispanic, and 5.2% as Black or African American. Less than 1.5% identified as multiracial, other, American Indian or Alaska Native, or Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. 10.4% of physicians had unknown race or ethnicity.
• Approximately 24.7% of active physicians are international medical graduates.
• More than one-fifth (23.2%) of active physicians were aged 65 or older, while less than 17% were under 40.
• Women account for only one-third (37.6%) of the active physician workforce.
• A new analysis shows that between 2014 and 2022, the number of U.S. hospital and health system boards with at least one non-white board member increased from 53% to 68%.
• However, only 30% of top provider boards had one Black member. People of color made up less than a quarter (22%) of board members in top healthcare organizations, despite representing 41% of the U.S. population.
• According to Association of American Medical Colleges data, just 5.2% of physicians in the country were Black.

Workplace Diversity in Finance

• Deloitte reports that women hold just 19% of C-suite positions in banking, capital markets, and payments. 
• CityWire tracked 18,015 portfolio managers globally and found the number of female fund managers rose to only 12.1% in 2023 from 12% in 2022. Women were also reported to run smaller funds than men—$396m in assets on average compared with $595m for their male peers.
• The fund industry is struggling to retain female talent, with the turnover much higher for women than men, 42% compared with 28%.

• A new study reveals that the average DEI score of financial services companies decreased from 67 in 2022 to 65 in 2023, out of a possible 100.
• Ethnic minority employees still feel that senior leaders are not actively doing enough to confront racism. Four in ten workers believe their CEOs lack commitment to combating racial discrimination. Almost half (48%) suggest senior leaders do not fully comprehend racism's impact, and 43% believe leadership fears backlash from within or outside the workplace.
• 48% of respondents believed senior leaders did not comprehend racism's impact, while 43% suggested leadership feared backlash from within or outside the workplace.
• Without a sufficient commitment to addressing issues of racism, a third of respondents believe unconscious racial discrimination impedes ethnic minority career advancement.
• Most employees surveyed (81%) believe that if leaders actively addressed racism, positive organizational change would follow.
• 32% of ethnic minorities believed there was ethnic representation at a senior level while that was 36% for white employees.
• Key conversations about diversity seem to be lacking between peers. While 76% of white workers trusted that their organization values ethnic and racial inclusion, only 65% of ethnic minorities believed so.

Statistics on Diversity and Inclusion Efforts

• More than half of people who took part in a Glassdoor survey think their company should be doing more to increase diversity among its workforce. This belief was especially prevalent in respondents that belong to under-represented groups.
• 71% of Black employees and 72% of Hispanic employees said their employer should be doing more to increase the diversity within the company. By comparison, 58% of white employees shared this sentiment.
• Publishing false or inflated information about diversity at a company does not serve anyone’s employer brand. Jobseekers trust social proof more than recruitment marketing with 66% of job seekers turning to employee reviews to understand what diversity and inclusion really look like at a company.
• By comparison, 19% of job seekers and employees trust senior leaders to convey this information truthfully, 9% turn to the company's website, and 6% trust recruiters.
• According to Harvard Business Review, 60% of organizations report that they have a DEI strategy.
• Of these companies, only 26% said they have gender representation goals, and 16% have race representation goals.
• 28% of companies hold their C-Suite executives accountable for progress regarding their strategic DEI goals.
• Furthermore, 23% of companies hold C-Suite leadership accountable for pay equity, 12% look to them to drive gender diversity, and 5% are held accountable for racial and ethnic diversity.
• Of the C-level executives in companies that say they prioritize diversity, 7% are held accountable for gender diversity in promotions, and 5% are held accountable for racial and ethnic diversity in promotions.
• The report also notes that a mere 12% of DEI leaders have a team under them dedicated to DEI work.
• Furthermore, only 9% of companies have a DEI leader who is at the same level as other executives.
• To quote the report, “These data help us understand why so many organizations may be experiencing stalled DEI progress in the face of what they believe is an otherwise strong strategy.”

HR Tech’s Place in Creating a Diverse Workplace

• According to the Harvard Business Report cited above, more than 90% of companies collect gender data in their HRIS (Human Resources Information System).
• Of the companies surveyed, 88% also collect race and ethnicity data this way.
• Most organizations are tracking this information in their talent pipelines as well by using ATS software. 75% of companies collect gender data and 69% collect race and ethnicity data in their hiring pipeline.
• While capturing this diversity data allows for representation to form part of organizational analytics, it is underutilized. Of the companies surveyed, 52% analyze employee attrition by gender, and 40% by race and ethnicity.
• These companies look at promotion and inward mobility data by gender in 46% percent of cases, and by race and ethnicity in 33% of cases.
• Diversity in hiring outcomes is tracked by 40% of companies according to gender, and 31% of companies according to race and ethnicity.

What can Employers Do to Improve Workplace Diversity?

‍Given the degree to which workers prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion at work, companies risk hemorrhaging top talent and profits unless they prioritize it as well.Luckily there are many tools available to aid in the task of creating a DEI-focused working environment.

• As a first step, diversity hiring tools can help create a candidate pool that represents minorities and women.
• Consciously implementing diversity and inclusion initiatives signals to existing employees that their DEI is an organizational priority.
• Having tools and initiatives is not enough. Periodically test your diversity and inclusion strategy to ensure it is robust, sustainable, and making a tangible difference. A good way to track this is through pulse surveys through an employee engagement tool. 

With a sensible plan in place to action diversity and inclusion efforts, and treat employees with sensitivity, companies will not only improve the employee experience they offer, but also their employer brand and reputation as a modern, inclusive place to work.