Award wins, and DEI metrics you should be tracking...

VIDEO: DEI - Measuring impact through data

Meet Kyle, the Diversity Director of a UK charity. See how he makes DEI improvements with the help of illumin8HR.

AWARDS: Activ8 Intelligence wins HR Tech Award for second year running

The team at Activ8 Intelligence are delighted to have once again won the?HR Tech Award?for Best Analytics, Measurement, and Business Impact Solution this year. The award is in recognition of Activ8’s innovative people analytics platform, illumin8HR.

?

The initiative, powered by one of the HR technology industry's most innovative research firms,?Lighthouse Research & Advisory, provides peer-reviewed feedback and inputs on technologies purpose-built to serve employers and the workforce. The program has a rigorous judging component with a panel of independent practitioners, consultants, and educators.

?

In this year's program, the winners span several categories. According to Lighthouse Research & Advisory data, more than 5,000 providers exist across the HR technology landscape, with more start-ups and innovators entering the industry every single day. This year, the HR Tech Awards is recognising approximately 1% of those firms for creating solutions that solve problems their customers care about.

?

The Chief Research Officer at Lighthouse Research & Advisory, Ben Eubanks, had this to say; "In the four years we have done this program, hundreds of HR technology providers have sought to participate in the HR Tech Awards. Our judges strive to select technology solutions that have a real, measurable impact on employers. It's such a pleasure to be able to congratulate the winners of this year's program -- they represent some of the very best that the industry has to offer."

?

In yesterday’s livestream announcement, the award winners were celebrated in front of the HR community. George Rogers, Chief Culture Officer at Lighthouse, added, "In addition to examining the actual technology through a demo, we look at the company behind the solution, a client case study, and other relevant details to fully understand what each firm offers. It's incredible to see the amazing value that employers can get from the right HR technology partner."

?

The illumin8HR platform

illumin8HR?is a people analytics solution that brings employee data together into one platform to enable better people decisions.

Unlike BI tools, illumin8HR is designed for people managers and HR teams who don’t have the time or sometimes the skills to bring data together and interpret it.

We automate the process of combining and categorising data from siloed systems into pre-built metrics and dashboards, saving hours of manual effort crunching spreadsheets and creating reports.

It’s simple to drill down, create, export, share and schedule dashboards and reports within the platform and automated insights alert users to outliers and forecast trends in their data making it quick and easy to spot issues. Action plans can be created and shared to address key HR goals, with targets and timelines to track results and measure impact.

By making people analytics easy, accessible, and relevant, we enable over 1,000 organisations to make better decisions - avoiding bias, reducing risk, managing cost and achieving better engagement, retention and productivity.

?

Chief Research Officer at Lighthouse Research & Advisory, Ben Eubanks, further commented about Activ8; “So much data analysis in HR is backward-looking, but high-performing companies are more likely to be proactive in their use of people analytics. Activ8 Intelligence supports this modern approach, helping employers to get more insight and value from their people's data.”

?

Heidi Lopez, Manging Director at Activ8 Intelligence commented, “I am exceptionally proud of the Activ8 team and of our award-winning platform for achieving Best Analytics, Measurement, and Business Impact Solution for the second year running. It really is a reflection of the innovation of our product, and the client centric nature of our team and partners.”

?

The ultimate purpose of the HR Tech Awards program is to help HR technology buyers and employers understand some of the best companies in the industry for their technology selection needs.

For additional information and to see the full list of winning firms, please check out?HRTechAwards.org

BLOG: 5 DEI metrics you should be tracking

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within HR are essential for building an equitable workforce. Diversity acknowledges the differences within individuals and groups of people, while equity looks to ensure fair access to opportunity and resource. Inclusion ensures an open environment where all people feel involved and truly appreciated.

These concepts are necessary to overcome barriers that may prevent individuals and groups from participating fully in society or the workplace. Addressing these issues requires a commitment to education, policy reform, and community engagement.

Why is DEI important for my organisation?

DEI are vitally important contributions towards an engaged, productive, and thriving workforce. A diverse pool of employees allows companies to access unique perspectives, experiences, and skills that can benefit their business.

The employee experience has been seen to vary significantly among different demographic groups. For example, studies have shown that women and people of colour are often underrepresented in higher-paying and leadership positions, which can be attributed to systemic bias and discrimination (sometimes unconsciously). Addressing these disparities involves intentional efforts to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion within workplaces.

Why do we need to track the metrics?

As an HR professional, it’s easy to fall into the trap of feeling comfortable in your own estimations of DEI performance. You might think that you have a pretty good idea of how your organisation is made up, and the positive inclusion practices you have in place. But It’s incredibly easy for unconscious bias to come into play unwillingly and unknowingly in many areas of an organisation’s processes.

The action to address and remove these biases requires initial identification. By selecting key metrics, and tracking them over time, you can identify biases and other DEI concerns, put in place initiatives to rectify them, and continue to track the effect those initiatives may have.

Without data, you cannot know for sure that you’re not missing any opportunities for improvement. And without data, you cannot track progress over time, or understand and prove how initiatives you are implementing have affected DEI in the workforce.

So, which 5 metrics should you be tracking?

1. Demographics across organisation levels

It is not uncommon in some industries to observe less diverse groups of people the higher up you move in the organisation level. For example, amongst senior managers, directors, and partners. Having diverse senior leaders in an organisation is important because it allows for a range of perspectives and ideas to be considered in decision-making processes. This leads to more innovative solutions and better problem-solving. Additionally, a diverse leadership team can better understand and serve a diverse workforce, and customer base, leading to increased employee retention and customer loyalty and profitability. Overall, diversity at the top level of an organization improves performance and fosters a positive and inclusive workplace environment.

To quantify your organisation’s success in this area, you might be looking to compare the distribution of varying demographics within your leadership team, against those within the general employee population. Does diversity diminish the higher up in the organisational structure that you go? If so, one thing you might want to consider is how leadership roles are advertised and targeted, to ensure you are enticing and considering a diverse selection of people to your leadership group.

2. Retention rates

By analysing variation in retention rates across different groups of people, you can start to determine whether retention is affected by factors such as age, gender, ethnicity, or other demographics. The results will provide insights into the factors that contribute to employee attrition and ultimately help improve your organisation's overall retention efforts. By identifying any outliers from the data, you can take proactive measures to develop targeted retention strategies and ensure better engagement and satisfaction of all employees, as well as the continuation of a diverse workforce.

To accurately assess this measure, you will be looking to compare retention rates from one identified group of people to the next, as well as the organisational average. If any groups have statistically lower retention rates than the rest, this may highlight an area for focus. You can combine this data with exit survey information to drill down into more specific reasons for low retention rates.

3. Employee advancement / Promotion rate

When reporting on promotion rates amongst employees, you can identify any underlying biases and systemic barriers in the career advancement and promotion process, such as the lack of diverse representation in leadership positions, unconscious bias in promotion decisions, and limited access to mentorship and professional development opportunities for underrepresented groups. By identifying any such areas, your organisation can implement initiatives to address these issues and increase equal opportunities for all employees.

To assess this metric, you would be looking to compare promotion rates against different demographics within your workforce, in order to identify any particular demographics receiving fewer advancement opportunities.

4. Pay equity

When analysing pay equity, the aim is to eliminate wage discrimination by ensuring that employees are paid based on their skills, experience, and job responsibilities rather than on their demographic characteristics. Achieving this requires regular monitoring, evaluation, and adjustment of pay structures to ensure that everyone is compensated fairly. It is fundamental when considering fair employment practices and crucial to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace.

To monitor this effectively, there are going to be a few layers to your metrics. You’re going to want to compare total salary against job roles, and then against different demographic groups, to really understand whether biases are influencing your compensation and remuneration.

5. Diversity in the hiring process

By prioritising diversity in hiring, companies can create a more equitable and successful work environment. There are a couple of angles to consider when measuring diversity in your hiring processes. You should be looking at both the diversity within applicants, as well as diversity within the hiring panel.

Diverse applicants ensure an ultimately more diverse workforce. A diverse hiring panel helps to eliminate unconscious bias during the hiring process and allow candidates to feel equally treated.

To achieve diversity in hiring, your company can take steps such as setting diversity goals, using inclusive language in job postings, reaching out to underrepresented groups, and providing unconscious bias training to hiring managers.

Measuring and tracking diversity in your hiring is a vital step towards making improvements. There are two aspects to this. You will be looking to measure percentages of applicants from within varying groups of people, and then comparing this with the figures amongst those that ultimately receive offers of employment. This can help to reflect both how effectively you are attracting a diverse talent pool, as well as ensuring elimination of biases in hiring decisions.

How to track

If you’re just getting started with DEI metrics, the above might sound a bit daunting. You might be asking;

How am I going to pull all those metrics together?

What equations need to be applied?

Where will I find the time to continuously monitor it all?

If you’re going it alone, there are going to be workload implications, and space for human error. However, investing in illumin8HR makes it all quick and simple. There’s no need for complex equations and the stitching together of data from multiple sources.

Simply decide what you’d like to track and illumin8HR will do the rest. There are no equations to decipher, or pages of figures to sift through.

Your metrics will be presented in easy-to-understand charts, along with automatic notifications of any potential problem areas to consider addressing. The platform comes complete with a knowledge bank to house articles and information, helping you and your managers make improvements to specific areas of your workforce. Save time and make real business impact through insights, with illumin8HR!

Ready to give your People Analytics a boost?

We’ve suggested some key examples of useful DEI metrics for you to get started, however, with illumin8HR in place, there are very few limitations when it comes to selecting specific metrics to track. If the data is available, you can create as many bespoke reporting configurations as you can think of – the sky really is the limit.

If you’d like to know more about illumin8HR and how it could strengthen your organisation’s People Analytics, simply?book a demo?today!