Analyzing Diversity in Your Workplace

Towards A More Intersectional, Accurate and Useful Picture of Workplace Diversity and Employee Experiences 

Many tech companies are showing increasing engagement with diversity in their workplaces. Unfortunately, this interest tends to focus too narrowly, particularly in new companies and startups, on a single metric: % of women vs. % of men.

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While neglecting fundamental intersectional issues, this metric also neglects a more nuanced and accurate analysis of diversity and employee experiences in the workplace. In order to both build diverse companies and ensure equality of experiences and opportunity within them, we must attain a broader view.

Please note that it is NOT a tactical guide. In this post, we look at some different axes, perspectives and analytical techniques with the goal of gaining a broader and more useful mental framework for quantifying and qualifying diversity in the workplace. It is important to consider the ethics and implications of how diversity information is self-reported, collected and/or used and published in your workplace — detailed treatment of that is outside the scope of the piece (stay tuned), but should not be neglected in practice. For example, individuals self-identify across gender, sexuality, and racial/ethnic categories in many ways, and you cannot and should not rely on your own assessment of others’ identity. At the same time, requesting and sharing this information can be problematic and even hazardous or dangerous and is not to be collected, analyzed or shared without serious, critical consideration.

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Population and Representation

Some important considerations for an intersectional view of your company. Much of this data can be contextualized by information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Department of Labor and the many organizations devoted to underrepresented groups in tech. It is important to contextualize workplace demographics both with industry demographics, where available, and data from the general population.

• Ethnic and racial diversity
• Ethnic and racial diversity within gender groups — i.e., do you have diversity among men in your organization but have mainly or solely hired white women?
• Age — is your startup mostly comprised of people in their mid-twenties and early thirties? How does age break down across gender groups?
• Gender — Gender isn’t just about the monolithic binaries of “man” and “woman.” It’s about a range of presentations within a broad spectrum that includes traditional representations of masculinity and femininity, androgyny, and combinations, variations and departures thereof. It’s about gender identity, about cisgender and transgender identities and experiences. It’s about the complex intersection of perception, presentation, experience, and identity that goes into gender.
• Sexuality — An intersectional view of the workplace must include a look at populations, identities, presentations and experiences of gay, lesbian, pansexual and bisexual individuals, as well as individuals with other sexual identities.
• What about the population, identities and experiences of people in your workplace with disabilities, mental illnesses, and/or short and long-term health challenges?

Attrition and Advancement

A view that only considers population metrics neglects much of the lived experiences of employees within the workplace. Please consider:

• Average length of employment of white men vs. average length of employment of persons from marginalized and underrepresented groups
• Relative rates that people from marginalized groups get fired, laid off or quit compared to people from dominant groups
• Representation in various tiers of management — what is the diversity breakdown in the top tiers (C-suite) vs middle-managers vs individual contributors
• Representation in service groups — What is the representation across positions such as personal assistant, employee wellness, internal administration, etc. that are more focused than other roles on internal welfare and enablement?
• Representation across departments — do you have a marketing team of all women but an engineering team of all men?
• Other things to look at in this category: average time to promotion, average time in single positions without promotion, % that attain a management position over time

Pay and Compensation

Pay and compensation is a complex issue — simply examining the base pay across various groups is insufficient. Consider:

• Starting salaries of white men vs. starting salaries of persons from marginalized groups — we know that starting salary differences across similar roles and qualification levels contributes significantly to endemic wealth gaps over time.
• Average time between raises for white men vs. persons in marginalized and underrepresented groups; differences in relative size and proportion of raises
• Overall average salaries across groups at various tiers (management, middle-management, individual contributor, etc.)
• Breakdown in equity granted to white men vs equity granted to persons from marginalized groups; breakdown in additional stock grants over time
• How spot bonuses, percentage bonuses, and other extra-salary comp is awarded across groups and at various hierarchical tiers

Employee Welfare and HR

• What percentage of HR complaints are generated by persons in marginalized and underrepresented groups relative to their overall population in the company?
• What *kinds* of HR issues and complaints are brought forward by persons across diverse groups?
• What are the differences in use of vacation and leave across groups? For example, do white men in the company take less overall vacation and leave than other groups, creating a dominant culture where taking less leave is rewarded and ultimately disadvantaging groups that need to use vacation time for family support and other issues?
• How much company and team-building centers around after-work activities, masculinity-centric competitive extracurriculars, alcohol consumption, and other bonding sites that might alienate or exclude women, parents and members of other marginalized groups? Who participates in these activities?
• What perks are provided in the workplace and who can and does take advantage of those perks? I.e., what type of people attend conferences and speak on behalf of the company; what perks are only available outside of working hours; what perks are designed to keep people in the office and who uses them, etc.
• Remote employees: How are diverse groups represented in the remote employee pool?

Socialization, Administration and Coordination

Oftentimes, women and other marginalized groups end up assuming more of the coordination costs of the company due to gender roles and the prioritization and division of labor across patriarchal lines. Think about:

• Who schedules the meetings at your company? Takes notes for them? Follows up on them?
• Who coordinates social gatherings such as birthday celebrations, company parties, holiday events, happy hours, etc.? How is that work assigned and rotated in the employee base?
• Who gets asked to order lunches, clean up, take notes, schedule meetings and perform other administrative tasks within your company?
• Who performs the emotional and social work within your company and how is that valued? i.e., new employee onboarding and socialization, conflict resolution, facilitating social relationships, etc.?

This is not an exhaustive or even comprehensive list of the axises that must be examined when assessing the diversity and intersectionality of your workplace and the experiences of under-represented and marginalized groups within it.

However, it should get you thinking more broadly and critically about diversity inside your company and teams so you are more equipped to intervene in them.

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