Diversity representation and employee leadership advancement

Many companies are examining the diversity representation within their employee base and in their hiring process. In fact, companies with more than 100 employees in the US are now required to report their diversity statistics to ensure compliance with the diversity representation requirements. Only approximately 6% of America’s largest employers disclosed this intersectional data (EEO-1) information prior to 2021. With this new regulation we have seen a spike in public disclosures. As an example, from January to September 2021, the share of Russell 1000 companies in the US disclosing racial and ethnic data increased by 23 percentage points—from less than one-third (32%) to more than half (55%).

Companies are looking at their hiring and talent screening processes to ensure they are reducing bias, structuring their interviewing questions and evaluation, and creating data-based defensibility in their decision making processes. On the employee side, employers are auditing their processes for employee growth, development and leadership opportunities to ensure that all employees are getting an equal opportunity for development and advancement.

So how is digital talent assessment helping companies improve their employee diversity metrics?

1. In hiring

Best practices today ensure that employers are standardizing and structuring their talent interviewing, screening and evaluation process to minimize subjective and unconscious bias. There is also an increasing requirement to add data analytics support in hiring decisions. This involves combining recruiting team evaluation with AI and other data-based evaluation methods to create another data point to ensure hiring decisions are fair and defensible. Employers are also increasingly required to collect voluntary diversity data from candidates and increase blind interviewing methods to ensure no visual or name bias is unknowingly being applied.

2. In employee development, growth and advancement

In leadership development, mentorship and internal promotional tracks, sometimes internal networks prevent all employees from accessing the same opportunities, equally. Employers are increasingly focused on creating diversity acceleration programs to apply a more targeted focus on identifying and developing candidates for leadership development. These programs help to ensure great candidates are not missed or overlooked from within.

Employers are finding that even though their diversity, equity and inclusion policies make a significant difference in the results of hiring, once the employees are hired it becomes less straightforward to provide the diverse workforce with an equitable path through their career advancement.

Standardized, structured digital interview assessments are created for development programs that allow employers to identify potential candidates who possess the right potential for growth and development and bring them to the front of the development line.