How to Conduct a

Diversity & Inclusion

Survey
A step-by-step guide
Introduction
Focusing on diversity and inclusion is more than just the right
thing to do.

Allowing discrimination to take place within your organization is The business case for D&I
unethical, and dealing with an non inclusive environment takes a
● Companies in the top quartile for ethnic diversity are
major toll on your employees. Psychological research reveals
35% more likely to have better financial returns than
that discrimination can exacerbate stress, and that
the industry medians.
discrimination-related stress is linked to mental health issues
● A three year study of U.S. venture capital firms
such as anxiety and depression. As an HR professional, that is
released in the Harvard Business Review found that
the last thing you want to subject your employees to.
diverse firms had IPO/acquisition success rates that
If you want to make a business case for your diversity and were 26.4% to 32.2% higher than those of ethnically
inclusion initiatives, it can help to take a more analytical, homogenous firms.
profit-focused approach to the subject. ● Another study of 1,700 companies across the world
found that diverse companies consistently deliver
Luckily, D&I is a demonstrated benefit to business. Many
higher innovation than non-diverse companies.
studies have revealed the correlation between inclusion and
business performance.

2
Why this guide
Diversity and Inclusion projects can be challenging, especially if Then we'll share a step-by-step guide to conducting D&I surveys
you're tasked with the first such project within your that will help you gather the data you need to understand the
organization. So where do you get started? status quo in your organization and create a plan to make your
workplace inclusive and welcoming to all.
At AIHR, we have always been big advocates for taking a
data-driven approach to HR, and believe D&I projects are no
different. However, like many matters in the diversity and
inclusion domain, this is easier said than done.

That's why we've compiled this step-by-step guide that

explains how to gather the data you need to lay solid
foundations for making your organization more inclusive.

First we'll take a closer look at what diversity and inclusion

mean today, including stats and insights you can use to make a
business case for your D&I initiatives.

3
Table of contents

The foundations Your step-by-step guide

Get up to speed on the ins and outs of diversity and inclusion, Learn how to design and distribute an effective diversity and
along with key statistics to help you make a business case for inclusion survey, as well as how to analyze and follow up on
an inclusive organizational culture. your findings.

● Diversity ● Step 1: Get buy-in

Page 5 Page 13

● Inclusion ● Step 2: Create the survey

Page 8 Page 14

● How inclusive is your culture? ● Step 3: Distribute the survey

Page 9 Page 20

● Step 4: Analyze the results

Page 22

● Step 5: Follow up
Page 24

● In practice: a D&I case study

Page 26

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Diversity
What is diversity exactly, and why should it be a priority for your organization?

What is diversity?
Diversity means making a conscious effort to diversify your
Intersectional diversity
organization at all levels by including employees from
In addition to the range of identities within your
traditionally underrepresented backgrounds. This includes
workforce, it is also important to consider that people
well-known demographic categories such as men vs. women,
can belong to multiple traditionally underrepresented
people from different ethnic backgrounds, and members of the
groups. An employee can be both a member of the
LGBTQ community. However, there are more identities to take
LGBTQ community and have a disability, or be both a
into consideration, such as people with disabilities, people over
veteran and over 60. This emphasizes that members of
60, people with different religious backgrounds, and veterans.
these groups are not all the same, and while they may
face similar challenges and share experiences, they
cannot be reduced to a label.

5
Diversity

❝
Why diversity matters
As we mentioned in the introduction, creating an organization
Diversity means making a
where diversity is possible is both ethical and good for business.
Beyond the fact that it simply isn't ethical to discriminate
conscious effort to diversify
against employees, there are more reasons than ever to make your organization at all
diversity a priority within your organization.
levels by including
● Diversity doesn't just matter to a vocal minority: according employees from traditionally
to a Randstad survey from 2018, 78% of employees say a
workplace where people are treated equally is important to
underrepresented
them. backgrounds.
● Changing demographics is making diversity within
organizations a reality, not a choice. While 72% of baby
boomers in the U.S. are white, this is true for just 56% of
Millennials and 50% of Gen Z, your future workforce.

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Diversity
And, as we mentioned, diversity also offers business benefits. A This is just a handful of the data available that demonstrates
diverse workforce will have insights, ideas and perspectives that that having a solid diversity and inclusion strategy is essential.
are significantly harder to find in a group of more homogenous Because as we explain in the next chapter, without inclusion,
employees. Let's take a look at a selection of studies that your diversity efforts will be ineffective.
illustrate this.

● Research by McKinsey found that companies with diverse

top teams were 21% more likely to outperform on
profitability and 27% more likely to have superior value
creation.
● Deloitte research showed that engagement is an outcome of
diversity and inclusion.
● A study published in the Harvard Business Review reveals
that diverse teams are able to solve problems faster than
cognitively homogenous teams.
● A Glassdoor survey reveals that a diverse workforce plays an
important role for 67% of job seekers when considering job
offers.

7
Inclusion
Having a diverse workforce isn't enough: you also need an inclusive culture.

What is inclusion? Why inclusion matters

While diversity focuses on the variety of identities within your If your traditionally underrepresented employees don't feel
organization, inclusion focuses on creating a culture where all welcome within the organization and empowered to share their
your employees feel welcome and respected. Without inclusion, different views and insights, they will be less likely to alert you
your organization will not be able to fully benefit from the to potential business mistakes that others may miss.
diversity in your workforce.
But it goes beyond that: an inclusive culture can also help
minimize your unwanted staff turnover. In fact, many business
leaders have started to argue that an inclusive culture offers
more value than high-end perks.

8
How inclusive is your culture?
A survey is a great tool to find out and make your organization more inclusive.

Testing your hypothesis

As we have seen so far, diverse organizations enjoy many
benefits that more homogenous organizations don't. However,
we've also seen that being diverse simply isn't enough. The key
is being inclusive: your employees need to feel included and
welcome enough to share their perspectives and opinions.

You may feel that your organization is very inclusive, and that
your main challenge is sourcing more diverse candidates.
Nevertheless, research indicates that it's still a good idea to
put this hypothesis to the test.

9
How inclusive is your culture?

The challenge The study reveals that members of majority groups

underestimate the obstacles that diverse employees face. Half
Research published in the Harvard Business Review reveals that
of all diverse employees stated that they see bias as part of their
approximately three quarters of employees from traditionally
day-to-day work experience. By contrast, white heterosexual
underrepresented groups don't feel they've personally
men, who tend to dominate the leadership ranks, were 13%
benefited from their companies' diversity and inclusion
more likely to say that the day-to-day experience is free of bias.
programs.
This discrepancy demonstrates that the perception of

❝
How can this be?
inclusivity can vary greatly within an organization. And that's
where an inclusivity survey comes in.

Approximately three
quarters of employees from
underrepresented groups
feel they haven't benefited
from D&I programs

10
How inclusive is your culture?

How a survey helps

A good way to avoid these differences in perception limiting the
success of your D&I initiatives is by gathering more data from
throughout your organization. By conducting a survey, you will
be including more perspectives on the levels of inclusivity within
your organization, revealing potential blind spots and helping
you accurately identify areas for improvement.

With the right input from your employees, you will be in a better
position to understand how inclusive your organization truly is
— and prevent your employees from being part of the majority
who feel that diversity and inclusion programs do not benefit
them.

11
Creating a D&I survey
Your step-by-step guide

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Step 1: Get buy-in
Your first challenge is getting the right people on board.

Identify the stakeholders Make your case

As with any project, getting buy-in from key stakeholders is vital When meeting with the stakeholders, make sure to explain the
for the success of your diversity and inclusion survey. Identify goal of the survey and how the organization will benefit.
the people you need to involve (this could be the CHRO, a
If this is one of the first D&I projects initiated within the
diversity leader, or even the CEO, depending on the
organization and you are having trouble convincing
organization) and get them involved.
stakeholders why your project should be on the agenda, try
sharing the D&I stats on pages 6 and 7. You can also create your
own case tailored to your company's strategic goals: there is a
lot of research into the benefits of Diversity and Inclusion, so
you will undoubtedly find compelling numbers that will resonate
with your business leaders.

13
Step 2: Create the survey
Asking the right questions is the key to getting the data you need.

No one-size-fits-all solution Focusing on inclusion

The second step may be one of the most difficult in the entire As you may have noticed, this guide focuses strongly on the
process. Topics such as inclusion are often extremely sensitive, inclusion aspect of D&I. There are several reasons for this.
so determining which questions to ask and how to phrase them
As we mentioned before, inclusion is more impactful than
can be a challenge.
diversity, and often more challenging to accurately gauge.
We have gathered examples and information to help you create However, there is also a practical aspect.
surveys that let you gather the information you need for your
Legislation relating to the gathering and processing of
D&I initiatives in a considerate and respectful way. Please note
diversity data differs from country to country. For instance,
that this information is general; you may need to add or omit
many U.S. organizations are legally required to file certain
new topics based on your organization's structure, culture, or
demographic information, while gathering such data is
geographical location. Every organization is different and D&I
prohibited in many European countries.
legislation varies from country to country, so there is no
one-size-fits-all solution. Be sure to check your local legislation before proceeding.

14
Step 2: Create the survey

What to include in your inclusion survey 3 key aspects of inclusion

If inclusion is the measure in which all of your employees feel
welcome and respected within the organization, how do you ● Objectivity. If your organization is sufficiently

quantify your company's inclusivity? objective, your employees will feel that promotions
and policies are transparent and fair.
Unlike diversity, inclusion is more about employee experience,
● Growth mindset. If your organization has a growth
and is more difficult to express in numbers and metrics.
mindset, your employees feel that your company will
However, that doesn't mean that it is entirely unquantifiable.
support them in their growth. If a growth mindset is
Stanford researchers have identified three key aspects of
lacking, your employees feel that their value is seen
inclusion.
as fixed. With no room for development, they may
experience a sense of stagnation and become
demotivated.
● Belonging. If there is a strong sense of belonging,
your employees feel that there is a place for them
(and people like them) within your organization.

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Step 2: Create the survey
Many common D&I challenges can be traced back to employees' experience of (one of) these three aspects being compromised. This is
why you can take these three elements as the starting point for your questions.

Here are 5 example questions created by CultureAmp in collaboration with Paradigm. Each question is a statement that your employees
can (strongly) agree or disagree with. There is also a benchmark for each statement for the percentage of employees who (strongly)
agree with the statement, included in square brackets [ ].

Example questions

1. I feel like I belong at [company]. [80%]

2. I can voice a contrary opinion without fear of negative
consequences. [70%]
3. Perspectives like mine are included in decision-making. [60%]
4. [Company] believes that people can greatly improve their talents
and abilities. [82%]
5. Administrative tasks that don't have a specific owner are fairly
divided. [56%]

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Step 2: Create the survey
These questions are based on the three elements, with the final
question being an indirect way to gauge the prevalence of
microaggressions. Microaggressions are small and often
unintentional acts of exclusion that members of
underrepresented groups experience frequently — even daily.
The fifth question lets you research microaggressions within
your organization without actually using this potentially loaded
term by using a recognizable and concrete example.

❝ Microaggressions are small and often

unintentional acts of exclusion that members
of underrepresented groups experience
frequently — even daily.

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Step 2: Create the survey

More survey creation tips

Allow for non-committal answers. There is a chance that some Be clear about the goal of the survey. Letting your employees
of your employees may feel uncomfortable answering these know that their responses will help D&I projects may make
questions, for a variety of reasons. Allowing your employees to them more open to sharing personal information about
choose “prefer not to answer” or “other” in response to your themselves.
questions will help you avoid putting your employees in a
difficult position, and will contribute to a higher completion rate
of the survey.

Make responses anonymous. This will also make it easier for

employees to share their answers to these potentially sensitive
questions.

Be mindful of the language you use. The last thing you want is a
tool for improving inclusivity within your organization to make
people feel excluded. Not only is it working against your
ultimate goal, it can make employees less likely to share honest
answers to sensitive questions.

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Step 2: Create the survey

Diversity survey tips Example survey

Please note: this only applies to countries where gathering this Not sure where to start? You can find example questions for the
type of data is permitted. If this is prohibited in your country, groups listed on this page and others in this employee diversity
you can skip this section. survey template created by SurveyMonkey.

The goal of a diversity survey is understanding how diverse your

organization is, and which diversity and inclusion initiatives are View the template
relevant and beneficial to your organization.

Make sure to think beyond the 'standard' groups such as women

and people of color: there are plenty of other communities that
can benefit from additional support or accommodation. Other
identities to take into account include:

● Members of the LGBTQ+ community

● People living with a disability
● People with religious backgrounds
● People with caretaking responsibilities
● Veterans

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Step 3: Distribute the survey
This is how to avoid survey fatigue and gather enough data to start your analysis.

Provide a clear deadline and enough time Survey a sample instead of everyone
Even if your survey is short, the questions can be more Instead of sending your survey to your entire workforce, you
challenging to answer than a poll about an upcoming company can select a representative sample. If the survey is for research
party, for instance. Give your employees sufficient time (1-2 or policy change purposes rather than individual support, you
weeks) to find a quiet moment to respond, or at least consider can survey a sample to help prevent survey fatigue. However, it
their answers — and be clear about the final deadline. does increase the chance of missing input from smaller
subgroups within your workforce.

Extra tips: Use screening questions

If you have follow-up questions to certain answers or are only
● Your employees are busy, and might forget about
interested in input from specific groups, use conditional
the survey until it's too late. Ask managers to provide team
screening questions. This will help you keep the survey as short
members with friendly reminders to prevent this from
as possible, saving your employees' time and helping prevent
happening.
survey fatigue.
● To encourage more people to fill out the survey, consider offering
rewards for survey completion.

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Step 3: Distribute the survey

Use entry and exit surveys

In addition to your 'regular' surveys, try sending D&I surveys
when an employee joins and leaves your organization. Entry
surveys can grant insight into the people who are about to help
shape your company culture, while exit surveys are an excellent
opportunity to gather honest feedback that employees might
not dare share at other times.

Repeat the survey to monitor progress

By sending the survey out once every 6-12 months, you will be
able to see the impact of your D&I interventions and, where
necessary, further refine your strategy.

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Step 4: Analyze the results
It's time to find the insights that will help create a more inclusive organization.

Do you have enough data? Compare your numbers

The deadline has come and gone. First, check whether you have If you do have enough responses, you can start analyzing your
gathered enough data for the analysis. The definition of 'enough' numbers. One way to do this is by comparing your data to
will vary from company to company. CultureAmp, the company benchmarks. This could be your own data from previous
behind a people and culture platform, uses a 72% completion surveys, benchmarks from third parties (such as the inclusion
rate as their benchmark. If you feel that you have not received question benchmarks provided in this guide), or, if relevant in
enough responses — particularly from underrepresented groups your country, local demographic data.
— then you may want to consider resending the survey.

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Step 4: Analyze the results

Processing the results

Be prepared to be disappointed by the survey responses. You
may find yourself confronted with employee experience issues
you weren't previously aware of. Remind yourself that this isn't
an attack on you or the company. In fact, it means that the
survey is a success: you have managed to reveal new insights
that can help you improve the inclusion in your organization.

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Step 5: Follow up
Make sure your employees realize that they're making a valuable contribution.

Share enough information

Show your employees that you are doing important work with Once you have decided on next steps, share your insights and
their input. You don't need to go into too much detail about the plans with the rest of the company. Again, you don't need to go
results. This could be seen as compromising anonymity, making into detail: high-level learnings and your area of focus should be
employees less likely to respond honestly. Instead, share just enough.

❝
enough information for them to understand the situation and
next steps.
You can't fix everything at once, so make sure
You can share more detailed results with selected individuals
and groups within the organization, such as leadership, HR, and the scope of your follow-up projects is
Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). Once everyone has realistic.
processed the results (negative or disappointing responses to
the survey may be difficult for some), assemble a small project
group and select an area of focus that will help you address any
needs revealed by the survey. Remember, you aren't going to be
able to fix everything in one go, so make the scope realistic.

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Step 5: Follow up

Next steps
You have your survey results, and have had time to process ● Facilitate Employee Resource Groups. ERGs are driven and
them. What's next? Here are some examples of ways to promote led by enthusiastic employees, but they need the means to
inclusion in your organization. get started. It's important to provide the tools, but not start
one yourself: this can risk tokenizing your employees from
● Mentorship programs are an excellent way to not only show
traditionally underrepresented groups.
that your organization believes that people can grow, but to
help them do so. These are tried and tested programs, with
71% of Fortune 500 companies using mentoring programs to
help their employees thrive.
● Unconscious bias training can address automatic
associations that can prevent all employees feeling like they
belong in the organization. Many people are unaware of
their implicit biases, yet it can affect employees at every
level of the organization. Creating awareness can lessen the
impact and create a more inclusive environment.

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In practice: a D&I case study

D&I survey in practice Once all the results were in, Laura was surprised to see that the

Laura is a HR manager at a software company with 350 company scored well below the benchmark for two of the five
employees, based in the European Union. She has always points: "The company believes that everyone can grow and
believed in the importance of diversity and inclusion, and was develop their talents" and "I feel like admin tasks with no clear
happy when she got sign-off from the leadership team to owner are distributed fairly". This wasn't what she expected to
conduct a D&I survey. She was quite certain that the company see.
was doing well, but wants to know where they can do better.
After taking the time to process the results and discuss them
As the company is based in the EU, Laura didn't include any with leadership, Laura was tasked with setting up a project to
diversity questions. Instead, she used variations of the five improve the company's performance on these two points. She
example questions included in this guide. She set up the survey researched the matters and decided that mentorship programs,
herself using specialized software, and distributed it to all 350 to facilitate employee development, and unconscious bias
employees. training, to help prevent unfair distribution of certain tasks,
were the best choices for the company.

26
In practice: a D&I case study
Leadership signed off on the mentorship program, but wanted After six months, Laura re-sent the survey. She was happy to see
to wait for the second survey results before investing in training. that while the organization still wasn't hitting the benchmark for
To help mitigate the admin task issue in the meantime, Laura the two questions she's focusing on, there was a clear
met with managers to suggest a more formalized process to improvement, which she used to prove the effectiveness of the
distribute the responsibility for taking notes during meetings interventions and get sign-off for the unconscious bias training.
and similar tasks.

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Sources
How to measure Diversity and Inclusion for a stronger workplace

Diversity & Inclusion Survey: Building a more inclusive future

Survey: what D&I policies do employees actually want?

5 D&I questions to use at your company

A guide to inclusion surveys, the key to data-informed diversity programs

Top 10 Benefits of Diversity in the Workplace

The Impact of Discrimination

Randstad US survey reiterates need for top-down commitment to gender

equality and inclusion in today's workplace

10 Diversity & Inclusion Statistics That Will Change How You Do Business

Waiter, is that inclusion in my soup? A new recipe to improve business

performance

What Job Seekers Really Think About Your Diversity and Inclusion Stats

Millennial generation is bigger, more diverse than boomers

Delivering through diversity

Illustrations by Freepik Stories

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