Business Issue

A plastics manufacturing organization encountered challenges in executing and measuring the impact of its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) strategies. Key obstacles included:

• Lack of standardized metrics: Absence of universally accepted DEI metrics hindered the ability to assess progress consistently across the organization.
• Data collection and reporting challenges: Complexities in gathering accurate DEI data due to privacy concerns and legal constraints posed barriers to comprehensive reporting.
• Employee reluctance and trust issues: Some employees hesitated to disclose personal information, impeding the organization’s ability to accurately measure DEI progress.
• Intersectionality complexities: Addressing the multifaceted dimensions of diversity required nuanced approaches and tailored metrics.
• Long-term cultural change: Embedding DEI principles into the organization’s culture demanded ongoing effort, with subjective measures complicating progress assessment.

Approach

To tackle these challenges, we helped the organization implement a strategic approach focused on building robust analytical capabilities:

1. Crafted comprehensive design principles: Developed a framework to guide analytics, ensuring alignment with DEI objectives and organizational goals.
2. Implemented a secure virtual environment: Established a client-controlled platform for data analysis, ensuring confidentiality and compliance with organizational boundaries.
3. Engineered robust data pipelines: Leveraged cloud-based technologies to build reliable data pipelines, enabling real-time insights from people-data assets.
4. Developed diverse DEI metrics: Created a suite of metrics and analyses to assess DEI progress comprehensively, accommodating various dimensions of diversity.
5. Incorporated advanced analytics: Utilized Organizational Network Analysis and behavioral science insights to enhance understanding of organizational dynamics.
6. Built dynamic visualization tools: Designed a customizable dashboard for visualizing DEI progress, offering macro and team-specific perspectives on metrics and projections.

Business Impact

The initiative yielded substantial benefits and measurable impact across several key areas:

• Increased productivity: Automation of reporting processes freed up over 40 hours per month for the HR team, enabling more focus on strategic initiatives and proactive DEI interventions.
• Action-oriented insights: Improved access to critical KPIs and deeper analysis capabilities empowered swift responses to emerging trends and issues, enhancing proactive DEI management.
• Secure data management: Integration of a secure, client-controlled dashboard ensured data confidentiality and compliance with privacy regulations, enhancing trust and compliance.
• Customizable visualizations: Dynamic and flexible visualizations supported tailored insights, including talent movement analytics, applicant conversion rates, and performance evaluations, enhancing decision-making precision.

By leveraging advanced analytics and a secure data infrastructure, the plastics manufacturing organization not only overcame challenges in measuring and managing DEI but also fostered a culture of continuous improvement and inclusivity, driving sustainable business success.