As businesses around the globe continue to come online to the import of analytics around diversity, equity, inclusion, and access (DEI&A), a consistent challenge is the lack of uniformity in approaches to measuring success in this area. As Trusaic observed earlier this month concerning quantifying demographic changes within a specific workforce: 

“There is also a dearth in real metrics for measuring these changes as they occur. Surveying staff, analyzing retention rates, and using comparative measures to evaluate performance with regard to other companies, industries, states, and even countries will allow organizations to have a better understanding of what is lacking and what needs to be done.”

Into this void steps GDKA: the Gender & Diversity KPI Alliance. According to a news report by Catalyst, a non-profit dedicated to improving workplace conditions for women, GDKA is made up of “corporations; diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) advocates; academics; and trade organizations…” These groups have come together to make a push for the widespread adoption of three key performance indicators (KPIs) geared toward measuring gender and diversity. Specifically, GDKA’s website states, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure; currently, there is no universal standard for measuring diversity in organizations.”

What are these three KPIs? GDKA defines them as follows:
1) “Board representation,” defined as “Percentage of representation on an organization’s board”
2) “Representation,” defined as “Percentage representation by employment category”
3) “Pay Equality,” defined as “The ratio of compensation by employee category (e.g. equal pay for equal work).”

The public-facing documents from GDKA do not elaborate further on the details surrounding these KPIs, although there is an FAQ Section. 

Whether or not organizations choose to adopt the GDKA’s key performance indicators, the very formation of the GDKA is another data point in a growing trend toward improving DEI&A through analytics. Not sure how to get started? Trusaic offers a no-cost Pay Gap Risk Assessment which provides analytics concerning the racial/ethnic and gender make-up of your workforce, as well as measures of pay equity across gender and race/ethnicity.