The Benefits of a Diversity Audit Report Checklist

Although many organizations may have taken steps toward increasing diversity and inclusion, there’s always room for improvement. A diversity audit can assess how successful an organisation is at this task.

Data will need to be gathered from multiple sources – HR systems, employee surveys and training and development records among them – in order to properly conduct this analysis.

1. Review Policies and Procedures
An independent diversity audit offers your organization with an accurate, impartial report on its progress towards diversity objectives. Employees from different groups can voice their thoughts on how the company is progressing while you gain a better idea of what’s working and what needs to change.

Engaging in a diversity audit sends a strong signal that your organisation values diversity and is committed to making changes that will benefit all its employees. Doing so increases retention rates among existing staff while drawing in talented individuals who appreciate working for a diverse business, increasing your talent pool.

Reviewing internal policies and procedures will reveal areas for improvement in recruitment, selection and performance management processes. If company policies exclude disabled people from applying for roles, this must be addressed to ensure all staff are treated equally. Identifying disparities will allow you to develop inclusive training that caters for every employee in your team.

2. Review Promotions
Diversity audits aim to collect objective, fact-based feedback from diverse employee groups regarding whether an organization is meeting its diversity goals. White male executives might believe they’re meeting them successfully while single mothers or people with vision disabilities might see things differently; an audit provides leadership with valuable information from employees from diverse groups that could inform its strategy moving forward.

Data collected during a diversity audit can help pinpoint any issues and spot trends that might otherwise go undetected. For instance, if one demographic group keeps out-promoting others consistently, that should serve as an indication that employee equity issues require attention.

An effective diverse audit not only equips leaders with the information needed to build a stronger company, it sends out an important signal: your business cares about diversity, equity and inclusion. One effective way of showing this commitment is making the report delivery transparent so all can see whether their organization is progressing toward improvement or not.

3. Review Complaints
Engaging a diverse workforce unlocks an enormous wellspring of innovation. Teams composed of employees with various perspectives can bounce ideas off each other to generate unique solutions to problems, while simultaneously decreasing groupthink-related decisions that might otherwise come to pass.

An organization diversity audit can provide an honest evaluation of its diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. An audit may include diversity diagnostics surveys, equality impact assessments, custom diversity research projects and gender pay gap analyses.

To gain a complete picture of your diversity, it’s vital that you review complaints from all demographics. If certain groups are being mistreated unfairly, it is imperative that they know so they can remedy the situation. Reviews provide insight into which demographics feel disenfranchised and why, helping identify areas for improvement for your DEI program.

4. Review Training
Implementing a diversity audit is an integral step in creating a more inclusive workplace environment. An audit shows employees that you take your inclusion goals seriously and consider them part of the company culture moving forward.

Diversity audits can examine various topics to ensure an organization is addressing all areas for improvement, including policies, promotions and training; data; as well as any unconscious biases present within their system.

NoveList Plus could also assist a library in conducting a “reverse diversity audit,” which involves using the list of traditionally marginalized people or groups as the source and then seeing how many titles there are from this list in its collection. This would demonstrate to patrons that the library is making efforts and encourage them to seek more representation by actively seeking it out when selecting reading material from this source.