Representation is important because it empowers those who have been marginalized historically. For instance, if minorities are overrepresented in lower-paying jobs and have little to no leadership positions, this shows inequality.
It is also important to evaluate inclusion in a broader sense rather than just representation within different levels of an organisation.
Using the Logical Model, try to analyse the impact of the company’s practices, initiatives, and/or solutions to achieve true inclusion. What has the company done to empower or degrade minorities? Where and since when? Try to measure their practices and initiatives’ effectiveness in their life: is it improving their financial situation, access to resources, health, etc.? Is it providing benefits and protection, etc.?
Caution
An absolute impact assessment must be made rather than conducting relative impact assessments (representation as a percentage or only compared to the industry). You should report how the company is empowering or degrading minorities in absolute terms, such as systemic changes brought about by the company.
1. The introduction should examine the importance of inclusion and provide industry statistics:
- What percentage of employees and pay gaps from monitored groups in the relevant labour market or industry benchmarks?
- If discussing representation, explain how underrepresentation negatively impacts people’s standing in society/why it is an issue for certain minority groups to be underrepresented in the workplace. What would be the impact of increasing their representation?
- Note: Do not include any information about how representation affects business. This is a small but important distinction.
- If discussing other metrics, explain why inclusion is important, provide the context of inequalities for the company's industry, and the adverse social externalities from being marginalised.
- Generally speaking, you should not yet mention the company in the introduction.
2. Core Analysis
If discussing the workforce representation, the core analysis should provide:
- The total number of people working at the specific company in question and the % of minorities.
- The % of minorities in management, the executive level, and on the board.
- When the company is discussing inclusion, it's important to look at the country in which it is. Ethnic minority groups differ per region. The analysis should provide essential background information and statistics on whom the marginalized groups are in that particular society to understand as readers what is going on.
- If the company is global, it is important to benchmark it to a close competitor and include a score given by third parties, i.e. Corporate Equality Index (CEI).
- Consider if there is a glass ceiling effect or not.
- Disclose the ethnic pay gap if it is present and reported on. If you know what women and men earn on average, you can calculate the percentage difference. For example, at company X, an ethnic minority group earns an average of EUR 3,000 for every EUR 4,150 White employees make compared to the monthly salary.
Calculation: % change = (change ÷ lower number) × 100 => (1,150 ÷ 3,000) x 100 = 38.3%
Or you may use this calculator: https://percentagecalculator.n...
The analysis can discuss one or more of the following ways the company has continued to marginalise minority groups in the workforce:
The ethnic gender pay gap for the same job – including cash incentives, bonuses, etc., transparency in raises
Are there higher turnover rates amongst minorities?
Are minorities concentrated in part-time and lower-paying jobs?
Are there cultural norms and stereotypes excluding minorities from upper management and senior/executive/leadership positions?
Measuring the impact:
Have the initiatives reduced turnover rates?
Is there a high tenure for employees belonging to minority groups compared to dominant ones?
Is there equal recruitment for open positions? Equal promotions?
Are there equal financial and non-financial rewards earned?
Comparing the results to the industry averages will help show how the company ranks within its industry.
Do not assess whether the company has increased or decreased the share of minorities by a small margin or if they did or did not meet the goals they have set themselves, as it is trivial.
3. Your conclusion should recap the main point without adding new elements.
Decide how well the company is empowering or degrading minorities in the workforce. No new information is needed here; tie your conclusion back into the introduction.
After considering the broader issue and the company’s actions, what is the company’s net impact on the issue at hand? Is it positive or negative? Is the impact significant when compared to the data illustrating the broader issue?
Is the company close to achieving true diversity and inclusion, regardless of the industry norms?
Unfortunately, if there is no indication of the company impacting minority empowerment or degradation, we will not publish the analysis. Please note that it may be difficult to find sufficient available data for one specific minority group.
Sidenote
When coming across company reports that include aggregated (or consolidated) and non-aggregated data, you can go ahead and still treat this topic. Please keep in mind that when the gender breakdown is only available for the non-aggregated number of employees, it would be important also to provide the aggregated number of employees to allow the reader to make a more informed judgment when it comes time to rate both the value and scale of the company's impact.
The difference between aggregated and non-aggregated data is that the latter only includes financial/other information on the parent company. In contrast, aggregated data includes data from both the parent company and all of its subsidiaries.
