Inclusion Score Helps Gauge DE&I Performance
17th July 2024
Organisations across Ireland have shown improvements of up to 10 per cent in fostering diverse and inclusive workplace cultures in the last two years, with the public sector making the most progress, showing an average sector improvement of 9.4 per cent.
However, organisations need to do more to improve their workplaces for certain groups, including disabled people; people of different race, colour, nationality, ethnicity or ethnic origin; and people of different ages.*
That’s according to a new Inclusion Score metric that quantifies the sense of belonging and culture of inclusion within an organisation being launched today (17.07.24) by the Irish Centre for Diversity, a nationwide body, headquartered in Waterford, that works with public and private organisations in Ireland to help them embed diverse and inclusive workplace cultures.
An organisation’s Inclusion Score is calculated based on diversity and inclusion (D&I) benchmarking data gathered by the Irish Centre for Diversity. The details have been compiled from more than 130 organisations across Ireland that between them employ more than 120,000 people across both the public and private sectors. The data is updated every 12 months.
According to latest findings from the Irish Centre for Diversity, the national average Inclusion Score is 78 per cent, with the insurance sector having the highest average of 81.7 per cent.
Other sectors showing high Inclusion Scores include IT and technology with 80.8 per cent, and construction and engineering with an average of 79.5 per cent. The average Inclusion Score for the public sector is 71.1 per cent.
The latest findings also reveal the top three groups that workers think their organisation needs to focus further on as being disabled people (17.8 per cent); people of different race, colour, nationality, ethnicity or ethnic origin (16.1 per cent); and people of different ages (11.3 per cent).
The Inclusion Score enables organisations to compare their D&I performance both at a national level and against peers in similar sectors, such as the public sector, professional services, construction and engineering, and insurance and finance, among others. It also gives them the opportunity to monitor their own D&I performance and progress, providing data and insights to report to governing boards, for corporate sustainability reporting directive (CSRD) needs, and for sharing with other stakeholders.
Tracking and Improving D&I Progress
To track and improve an organisation’s D&I progress, the Irish Centre for Diversity delivers an initial survey followed by an action plan with recommendations for improvements. A second survey is conducted 24 months later to monitor progress, with Irish Centre for Diversity records showing 100 per cent of organisations improving.
Improvement pathways can include D&I training, and according to the D&I benchmarking data, the top requested trainings over the last two years are mental health, promoting good mental health at work, unconscious bias and inclusive leadership.
The latest findings from the benchmarking data show that the number of staff who have attended D&I training has increased by 6.2 per cent in the last two years, from 55.9 per cent to 62.1 per cent.
A further finding from the latest research shows that 85 per cent of workers believe that colleagues take D&I seriously in the way that they behave and the things that they say, with line managers scoring 83.8 per cent and senior managers 71.5 per cent.
It also shows that 91.5 per cent of people think those they work with are accepting of other people whatever their background.
Announcing the official launch of the Inclusion Score today, managing director of the Irish Centre for Diversity, Caroline Cummins, said: “We are in a unique position working with hundreds of companies across all sectors, and collecting data that covers both diversity of staff and the culture of Irish workplaces.
Having such comprehensive and robust data on workplace diversity and inclusion culture in Ireland allows the Inclusion Scores to provide meaningful benchmarks and roadmaps to progress D&I in Ireland.
The data shows valuable advances when steps are taken to address workplace challenges ─ what gets measured gets done, and we have the data that is fundamental to support this progress.
“We are seeing huge leaps in creating and fostering inclusive workplace cultures and evidence of this is that 100 per cent of organisations that we re-survey are shown to have improved Inclusion Scores by up to 10 per cent.”
For more information about the Inclusion Score, the national D&I benchmarking research data, and how the Irish Centre for Diversity can help organisations drive progress in this area, visit here>>
