Three Ways Digital Transformation Is Driving A More Diverse, Future-Ready Workforce

Change is a marathon, not a sprint

In an effort to attract and retain top talent and encourage greater transparency, a growing number of businesses are prioritizing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) in the workplace. Just this past year, a Gartner survey revealed that DEIB ranks in human resource leaders’ top five priorities this year. 
 

It’s no surprise that a more diverse workforce leads to a more future-ready workforce, which drives increased innovation and productivity, as well as better decision-making and problem-solving. 

When it comes to HR, people leaders have been stuck using legacy tools and technology. With more than 70 percent of organizations investing in people analytics tools to make data-driven decisions, people analytics adoption must be central to HR leaders’ digital transformation strategy.  

What many leaders have yet to realize is that this data-driven approach extends to DEIB. When companies use people analytics to understand their DEIB data, they can make powerful strides to improve retention, engagement, and belonging. This information can then be shared across the organization, fostering greater transparency and, ultimately, stronger accountability to create more diverse and empowered organizations. 

Here are top three ways to harness your digital transformation strategy to create a more diverse and inclusive workforce. 

1.    Aggregating Your DEIB Data 

Digital transformation helps to inform a diverse and future-ready workforce by bringing DEIB data to life. A people analytics platform helps HR and business leaders gather information like representation, compensation, and performance to analyze your workforce. This holistic perspective enables leaders to identify gaps across their organization and turn this into actionable data. 

Representation data is critical to knowing your team. With this information, leaders can make informed decisions surrounding employee experiences such as bolstering employee resources and benefits. This data also enables managers to better support their employees, fostering trust and connectedness.  

Compensation differences represent a significant driver of workplace racial inequities. For example, Latina women earn 49 cents for every dollar a white man earns. People analytics platforms can quickly identify this significant inequity by pulling in payroll data viewed alongside demographic and identity data. People leaders should look at base, variable, equity, and total compensation, along with other benefits like PTO. 

In order to fully understand your data, you need to take a step back and examine it within context. For example, if your first discovery uncovers disparities in entry-level pay among one group, you’ll need to dig deeper. Is the issue a diversity gap in hiring or promotions, or specific to one new hire group skewing your data, or something else entirely? You need to see all the pieces of data in one place to find the problem before you can tackle the solution. 

Further, performance platforms allow managers to view both how an employee performs and how an organization performs in supporting its employees. Keep an eye on data to ensure performance ratings and promotions aren’t biased. You should analyze downward, upward, peer, and self-reviews, as well as average time to promotion and number of promotions. When biases leak into the workplace, they can severely impact both culture and performance. Among many other things, discrimination can deplete an employee’s will to engage in their work. And disengagement is costly. Gallup estimates the global economy loses $7 trillion a year to disengagement. 

Once you’ve collected the data you want to focus on, it’s time to analyze it.

2.    Understanding Your People and DE&I Data 

A digital solution, like a people analytics platform, helps companies understand and visualize their people and DEIB data. Visual data paints a true picture of the health of an organization so that HR and people leaders can easily see what’s working and where there’s room for improvement. 

Remote work can make it challenging to feel connected to your teammates. Org charts and employee directories not only help leaders identify where people are located, but managers can easily see how people prefer to be managed, their time zone, employee survey results, and even their hobbies. Not only is this information valuable for managers to help cultivate relationships with their team, but it empowers other teammates to access this information and foster a greater sense of company-wide belonging.

You can also track your data over time to see if you are making progress toward people and DEIB goals and motivate your organization to take action. Visualization reaches beyond the confines of an HR department to help leaders and employees begin the work of shifting behaviors. 

3.    Sharing Your DEIB Data to Drive Change 

When it comes to driving change and taking action, it’s important to share your DEIB data with your entire organization. The robust visualizations you’ve built to understand your data can be shared with your executive team and employees, who can support your strategy to advocate for change.

When sharing data with all employees, company leaders must take responsibility for the representation and compensation numbers. Leaders should come prepared with the goals the company is hoping to achieve and the steps they are willing to take. This looks like identifying how to connect DEIB to the employee experience. Consider mapping employee journeys to visually see how employees engage with milestones along the employee experience. For example, comparing onboarding experiences is a good place to start. Additionally, developing programmatic ERGs can boost employee engagement and create a sense of belonging. 

By sharing your data within your organization, leaders can promote transparency and, in turn, hold the entire organization accountable to change. 

While undergoing digital transformation won’t fix every problem at an organization, it helps bring data and obstacles to the forefront. The work that comes after building transparency is significant. Leverage people data to keep an eye on your DE&I data, and remember that change is a marathon, not a sprint. 

Author Bio

Former Hampton University and Penn State alum, Ivori Johnson (she/her) is recognized for her work in the diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging space. She identifies as a masculine presenting Black queer woman and a bonus mom. Ivori advocates for equity, fairness and representation in the tech industry. She breaks down barriers that do not support inclusive hiring, retention, inclusion, fairness and equity. Ivori, originally from New Jersey, is the Director of Diversity, Equity,Inclusion and Belonging at ChartHop and has worked for organizations such as Google, Twitter, DuPont, and Capital One.  Connect Ivori Johnson