Equity leaders and advocates are parched for transparency and quality information across the corporate and nonprofit sectors.

Big Picture Data

Let's look at some big picture data from the corporate sector. The chart below shows DEI is often a subset of Human Resources.

Most respondents to this survey said their DEI programs are not highly matured and the chart below shows the #1 barrier to program maturity is a lack of investment in DEI data.

In addition, from my personal experience as a strategist, the positioning of DEI within a company’s HR department often places an emphasis on individual action versus institutional equity. This means the company meets EEOC risk management benchmarks and emphasizes the personal responsibility of employees to create a welcoming culture. This structure often overtakes placing DEI as central to organization strategy and in order for sustainable change to occur, DEI must be seen as pivotal to an organization's long-term growth and core activities.

Private Companies Should Prioritize DEI Data

In order for advocates and stakeholders to see change, employers must become radically transparent.

We at Perspectives Media see five steps to DEI data.

The Public Sector is Leading the Way

The public sector is leading the way both in terms of collecting and transparently sharing DEI data with stakeholders and private organizations can take some clear lessons from their lead.

For example, the City of Los Angeles is publicly releasing data dashboards showing everything from inequitable access to COVID19 programs to lack of broadband connectivity. The possibilities of crowdsourcing solutions to inequity are endless as LA undertakes an open data initiative it calls Know Your Community.

Two national projects that are related called Racial Equity Lab and National Equity Atlas are providing national statistics on rent debt disparities and prosperity indexes.

Private Employers Can & Must Do Better

Meanwhile, access to private employer data on equity remains opaque.

Just Capital created a database of corporations that mentioned equity related justice causes in their annual reports after the George Floyd BLM protests last summer but you have to sort through an entire SEC filing to understand what was promised. Large consulting firms PWC and Deloitte released long data heavy reports that seem to lack clarity of purpose.

Nonprofit organizations on the other hand have wide disparities ranging from some good examples to nothing at all.  On the good side, The University of California’s Latinx/a/o data initiative was so successful that they took it to the next level. “In an effort to move conversations beyond access and enrollment, this report also showcases academic outcomes for Latinxs enrolled at UC over time.” The Poetry Foundation also released a wonderful report that I found substantive and goals focused.

David Craig, CEO of Refinitiv summed it up best in a recent Fortune article, “To make real headway companies will need to open themselves to public, shareholder, and broader scrutiny. That means disclosing what they look like today, not just talking about what they want to look like tomorrow.”