Progressing diversity and inclusion through data collection
Collecting data is one of the first steps a business should take if it's serious about improving ethnic diversity in its business. Without any ethnicity data, it's challenging to work out the best way to make progress.
Collecting data on ethnicity in business isn’t always straightforward, for a number of reasons. Colleagues may not want to tell you what their ethnicity is, and they may have concerns around what you are going to do with the data.
Companies, particularly smaller organisations, won’t want to risk identifying individuals, but neither do they want to feel that they haven’t captured data on the different ethnic identities of their workforce.
There might be challenges around data collection, but it’s still worth doing. Through data collection and disclosure, organisations can begin to see what needs to be done – and can work on a plan to show commitment to progress to the workforce, customers and investors. It’s the best first step on the journey to drive impact and change at pace.
Ethnicity Disclosure Panel Discussion
Change the Race Ratio held a panel debate on data and disclosure as part of Race Equality Week, where panel members shared their own experiences, insights and lessons learnt.
We were joined by Jonathan Briggs, Aviva, Group Head of Talent Acquisition and Diversity & Inclusion, Ade Rawcliffe, ITV, Group Director of Diversity & Inclusion, Christos Tsaprounis, Auto Trader, Head of People and Culture, and Henrietta Jowitt, who at the time was CBI Deputy Director General, Commercial (Chair).
The panel discussed the importance of being clear about how you’ll use the data, how to set up systems correctly, how to engage internal networks (and the executive team) and how data collection needs to be seen as an iterative process, not just a one-off activity.
