by YSYS Community Advocates
YSYS Advocates Community is a community of change-makers, who are committed to campaigning against the exclusion of diverse communities within the startup ecosystem.
We've come together to create a community-sourced library of resources to support organisations collect diversity data of their employees or founders. We understand the legal, cultural, and social issues, which may make it difficult in knowing where to start - we want to help, so we've made it easier.
You cannot drive change if you don't know where your baseline is. We need to measure to understand where we start from and what areas we need to focus on to create change. Saying that, metrics only matter if they are public and accountable.
Organisations are what they measure. If profit margins and stock prices are all that you’re tracking, you’ll never prioritise your people to the same extent you do your bottom line. This is why it’s so encouraging to see, organisations publicly sharing the demographic breakdowns of their teams, especially that of executive leadership, boards and founders.
<aside> 💡 Without measuring and tracking your efforts to improve the hiring, retention, and advancement of diverse talent—and Black talent specifically—commitments and pledges are meaningless.
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As an ecosystem, we have a responsibility to ensure equality of opportunity. By working together, holding ourselves to account, and acknowledge where we are on our journey we can level the playing field and make an impact in the long run.
Explain Why The Data Is Being Collected
In order to build a culture of trust and understanding, it is important to explain clearly why the data is being collected, how it will be used and who will have access to it. It is also important to provide reassurance that the company will follow guidelines on data collection, storage and use, including complying with data protection legislation. Some people may be concerned that information could disadvantage them, or encourage discrimination or harassment.
Communicating The Purpose of Reporting to Employees
The following proposed copy can accompany your mode of data collection, to communicate the purpose of collecting employee data in order to better understand diversity and inclusion challenges. It is important employees feel safe sharing their information and that they understand the bigger picture as to ‘why’ this information is important. Please feel welcome to amend this draft copy to best fit your organisation.
<aside> 💡 Proposed copy: As a member/employee of company name, diversity and inclusion is a critical focus for and our commitment to a new generation of diverse leaders driving the UK tech/startup industry/ecosystem. As a member/employee, we are dedicated to creating a better workplace for generations to come – one where all member/employees can feel safe and valued in their workplace and the wider community. As part of company name commitment, we are implementing a measurement and accountability initiative to better understand our people - this means you. By understanding who currently makes up our workforce, we can then look to identify gaps in diverse representation and clearly track our progress. You are under no obligation to provide any personal information that you do not wish to share.
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<aside> 💡 All information provided will be held in confidence and according to the requirements of the Equality Act and Data Privacy Law, and any reporting will be conducted at an aggregated, company-wide level only. As both gender and ethnicity are matters of personal identification, you have the opportunity to change your own data at any time, and can do so by . We value you as a unique individual and look forward to learning more about our people. Thank you in advance for considering the following questions.
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If you found the above resources useful, please let us know by sharing your feedback online using the hashtag #KnowYourData or emailing [email protected]
Thank you to Liz Alexander, Nithin Bopanna, Daniel Akinola-Odusola, Dama Sathianathan, Selina Parmar, Deborah Okenla, and fellow YSYS Community Advocates.