How To Evaluate The Success Of Diversity Programs

In this era of DEI backlash, it’s important for people to understand precisely how DEI practices are implemented and what their impacts are. Diversity scholars typically follow Lisa Leslie and colleagues’ influential typology, which distinguishes between practices designed to address the following three issues: ensuring that women and URM have access to the same resources and opportunities as men and non-racial minorities, managerial bias, and organizational accountability.  The question is, which of these practices, or combination therein, matters for recruitment and retention of women and URM workers? Tiffany Trzebiatowski Kaifeng Jiang Zhen Zhang Rory Eckardt Yeongsu Anthony Kim try to answer these questions by combining two datasets: an annual reporting of law firm demographics and annual surveys conducted by a third party that tracks law firms’ diversity practices over time. They specifically look for whether a firm has the following diversity practices and then track the turnover rates of women and URM leaders and non-leaders over time. ·     Resource practices: diversity mentoring or sponsorship programs, social support systems (i.e., ERGs), career advice, and targeted recruitment practices ·     Managerial bias practices: Diversity training for employees focused on countering bias ·     Accountability practices: having a chief diversity officer or similar, diversity committees that track recruitment and retention trends over time There’s a fair amount to parse here but I’ll jump to the big takeaway, which is that for both leaders and non-leaders, turnover rates are lowest when all forms of diversity practices are in place. That is, when firms address the social isolation of women and URM, train managers on bias (we can dive into the specifics of what should look like), AND have practices that keep the organization cognizant of the diversity of the workplace, they have the lowest turnover of women and URM. However, the other notable finding is that turnover is highest when only some of the practices are in place, but not all. And the combination that is the worst for turnover is the utilization of resource and anti-bias practices WITHOUT accountability practices. While most firms are gutting all three forms of practices, a savvy leader might wonder, which ones can I give up with the least amount of negative impact? Sadly, the answer to this isn’t straightforward, because another factor that appears to matter is whether the worker is a non-leader or a leader. For retention of non-leaders, your best bet is to maintain resource groups and practices if you don’t want to increase turnover rates of women and URM. But if what you care about is keeping women and URM leaders around, then the answer is to cease anti-bias training.

If someone asks, “How should we measure the success of this program?” Your answer should be: -> 1) What’s our goal? and 2) What kind of time/resources can we put into this? Begin with a business-level goal. Then, work your way down the Kirkpatrick model (Level 4 to Level 1). Here’s an example for an emerging leader program. 🟣 Level 0: Set your business-level goal. This is budget agnostic. Example: I want to promote at least 20 emerging leaders who graduate from my program by the end of next year. 🔵 Level 4: Business Impact Example: Measure the number of positions you successfully filled. Also, measure leadership readiness before and after using a 360 assessment and manager interview. Goal: To fill those 20 slots. To show preparedness to lead for more than 20. 🟢 Level 3: Behavior Change Example: In-depth self-assessment of critical behaviors (before and after the program). Have managers evaluate all the same items. Goal: To show you’re changing critical behaviors that make your emerging leaders promotable. 🟡 Level 2: Learning Retention Example: Create a digital badge awarded for 80% completion of all learning, exercises, and activities. Goal: To ensure enough learning and practice is happening to change behavior. 🔴 Level 1: Learner Reaction: Example: Measure participant net promoter score (NPS) and collect evaluations on program content and activities. Goal: To get feedback you can use to improve your content and delivery. *** The whole “measurement thing” gets much easier when you begin with the end. Start with your goals. Then lay out your metrics. #leadershipdevelopment P.S. You can use this diagram as a template for any program. Just: 1/ Fill in Level 0. 2/ Fill in your goals for each level of measurement. 3/ Find the option that suits your budget & resources. P.P.S - I just used the mid-budget, mid-resources examples in this text post. For examples of “low” and “high” budget/commitment, see the full diagram.

Important reminder of the critical need to dig deeper and closely unpack Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) reports to better understand the lived experiences of historically underrepresented minorities in workplaces. Breaking down demographic data, defining the elements that go into inclusion scores, looking at representation at senior levels, analyzing pay equity by organizational levels and demographic splits, and assessing the outcomes of training are among some of the key ways to build a culture of greater transparency and accountability when it comes to authentically advancing DEI. https://lnkd.in/g_EMZ_75 Aparna R.