Dive Brief:

• Workers from different racial and ethnic backgrounds vary in their assessments of workplace diversity and inclusion efforts at their employers, according to an April report published by Glassdoor Economic Research.
• On a scale of 1 to 5, Glassdoor users gave their employers an average D&I rating of 3.73, the company said. However, Black or African American workers reported an average rating of 3.49, whereas White employees gave an average rating of 3.74. Asian workers, meanwhile, gave a higher-than-average rating of 3.98, per Glassdoor, and Hispanic and Latinx workers reported an average of 3.80.
• That perception gap persisted even in industries where Black workers are more fully represented, Glassdoor said, such as the government and non-profit sectors. But it found only "small or indistinguishable" gaps in sectors including media, business services, telecommunications and transportation and logistics, the report noted.

Dive Insight:

A key aspect of the Glassdoor report to note is that most of D&I ratings in the sample, 56%, were submitted by White employees. The same could be true of other organizational D&I measures, the company said.

"While diversity at work is not strictly limited to race and ethnicity — gender, sexual orientation, and age are also important facets of workplace diversity — this means overall D&I satisfaction, and employee satisfaction more broadly, tend to be defined if not dominated by the opinions of white employees," the report said. "That risks the creation of blind spots within organizations not directly soliciting feedback from underrepresented groups."

Corporate America's renewed focus on D&I in the past year has led to statements of support, financial commitments and other initiatives, but it also has created opportunities for organizations to partner with each other. In September, a member of one CEO coalition on D&I said the group of executives developed a "D&I scorecard" to measure companies on accountability and transparency.

Research indicates those types of metrics will be integral to the recruiting process moving forward. Survey results released in March by Boston Consulting Group, The Network and Appcast showed more than half of U.S. respondents said they would exclude a company from their job searches if its stance on D&I did not align with their own.

The current climate has provided both momentum and opportunity for diversity, inclusion and equity executives in their efforts to enact workplace change. However, executives' focus may have shifted from capitalizing on the societal moment to ensuring that D&I initiatives are sustainable in the long-term. D&I professionals who recently spoke to HR Dive emphasized the need for practices such as road mapping, as well as achieving standardization of D&I practices across the enterprise to ensure they become part of day-to-day operations.