Achieve DEI Goals by Collecting and Breaking Down Data

Data transformation is driving the push to create more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplaces. The most effective companies are adopting the same strategy experts in education, public health, and other fields are using to improve outcomes: data disaggregation.

While large, aggregated datasets can give a big-picture overview of an organization’s recruitment and retention numbers, disaggregating data breaks down the numbers to reveal specific trends affecting groups such as Black or LGBTQ+ employees. This level of precision helps pinpoint problems and may be essential to the legality of DEI solutions.

After the US Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions, which curtailed affirmative action practices in higher education, many in the private sector are understandably nervous about the legality of taking race into consideration in an employment context.

At the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, we appreciate the need to manage risk, but we also see in the current legal landscape an opportunity to double down on disaggregated data as a tool for transformation.

In SFFA, the Supreme Court applied strict scrutiny to colleges’ consideration of race as a factor, requiring that schools’ policies be “narrowly tailored” to serve a compelling interest. This proved to be a critical failing, and Chief Justice John Roberts ruled that Harvard University and University of North Carolina “lack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives” in their more general quest to admit a diverse student body.

Put plainly, institutions interested in furthering DEI must demonstrate a close connection between the problem they’re trying to solve and the outcome their policies are designed to achieve.

Collecting and publishing disaggregated data is the surest way to get specific about challenges your organization is facing, and about transformative solutions. MCCA has seen this firsthand as we’ve tracked DEI progress in law firms for the past 21 years through our law firm diversity survey.

Asking Better Questions

We have long relied on longitudinal, disaggregated data to advance a two-pronged strategy for sustainable progress. First, we drill down on the numbers to help us ask better questions. Then we examine year-over-year patterns and trends to identify what’s working and what isn’t—getting to better, more tailored answers that don’t try to boil the ocean.

Because we track the hiring and promotion numbers of attorneys of color and individual racial and ethnic groups, we can ask better questions prompted by anomalies across our datasets.

For instance: Why aren’t Black women lawyers advancing at the same pace as others at the equity partnership level? Or why is there a precipitous drop-off of Asian American lawyers from associate to partner?

By parsing the data finely, we reduce the risk that one group’s success will mask another’s struggle, as often happens when organizations track the progress of “women and people of color” grouped together. In pursuing answers to these data discrepancies, we often discover pipeline blockages beset with bias—and opportunities to do better.

Our observations about Asian and Black advancement led us to further scrutinize this noticeable drop-off in advancement. We looked at criteria firms use for promotion and narrowed in on two drivers: an attorney’s book of business and their perceived leadership skills.

To address the first, we created networking and pitching opportunities to help women and diverse attorneys build client relationships. And in response to the second, we’ve encouraged firms across the country to reexamine the unconscious biases that may seep into their assessment of employees’ soft skills, publishing a bias interrupters report in partnership with the American Bar Association and toolkit to shift the conversation about who is “partner material.”

DEI at Delta

For many companies, tracking the progress of specific populations is critical to setting the kind of meaningfully articulated, thoughtfully benchmarked goals that will pass legal muster.

Take Delta Airlines, which in 2020 joined the OneTen coalition, a group of companies committed to hiring and advancing one million Black employees over 10 years. Headquartered in Atlanta, a city with a large Black population, leaders at Delta pushed beyond a notional goal to increase the number of employees of color and instead became specific.

They wanted a workforce that better reflected their community and held themselves accountable to a figure and a timeline. To meet their goal, they took a hard look at the detailed numbers.

After disaggregating employee data by both race and role, Delta discovered that most of its Black employees occupied “frontline” roles with little room for advancement—a potential deterrent in their quest to improve representation. The numbers helped frame a specific, concrete problem, and the company moved quickly to address it.

To attract more talent, Delta reexamined its employment strategy and adopted a “skills-first” approach that created a path from frontline to management. The company reframed job requirements around candidates’ abilities rather than their credentials and invested in more on-the-job training for workers interested in advancement.

Today, Delta is on its way to meeting its ambitious goal thanks to an approach that Harvard Business School professor Linda Hill describes as measurable, accountable, and sustainable.

Outlook

Disaggregated data, in some cases, helps confront new challenges in data collection itself. We’ve observed a rise in firms reporting employee demographics as “unknown,” raising flags about whether employers are growing hesitant to ask about—or employees are reluctant to disclose—aspects of personal identity. In keeping with our strategy, we start by asking: Why?

MCCA members—including some of the nation’s largest law firms and most prominent companies—join with a majority of Americans in affirming the importance of creating a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workforce. But now, this concerning trend in data reporting suggests that they may fear recrimination for their efforts.

That’s why firms, companies, and organizations like MCCA must unite around our shared understanding: Disaggregated data is not the problem—it’s the solution. It helps us know better so we can do better, cutting through an environment of legal uncertainty to pave a path toward progress and a sustainable workforce that is good for business.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg Industry Group, Inc., the publisher of Bloomberg Law and Bloomberg Tax, or its owners.

Author Information

Jean Lee is president and CEO of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association.

Write for Us: Author Guidelines