Last month, we launched our first Pulse Survey around the topic of diversity, and inclusion in the workplace. Marketing, Creative and Digital leaders shared how they truly feel about their role in leading the conversation around diversity and inclusion, how they think their organization is doing to promote this idea, and more.
Key Findings
Polarized Responses
When it comes to the feedback we received from company leaders, there was a trend in the data that may seem surprising – initially. What we saw were extremely polarized responses when it came to these three questions:
- How comfortable are you leading the conversation regarding diversity in your workplace?
- How effective do you believe your organization is at creating a diverse and inclusive workplace?
Answers ranged from literal 0’s to 100’s. Why might this be? We can infer that these responses reflect how people are feeling about the health, social, and economic challenges we are currently facing in today’s world.
The Size of the Company Matters
Leading the Conversation + How Their Companies Are Doing
Overall, large company leaders felt less comfortable driving the conversation around diversity and inclusion. Further, they felt like their organizations were doing, at best, a moderately good job at creating a diverse and inclusive workplace.
- More than 50% of large company leaders feel that their organizations are doing only a moderately good job of creating a diverse and inclusive workplace (ranked between 51-75 on a scale of 0 to 100, 100 being the best)
- 25% of large company leaders think their organizations could be doing significantly better (ranked between 26-50 on a scale of 0 to 100)
In comparison, small-to-mid and mid-sized company leaders felt the most comfortable directing the conversation around diversity inclusion with 57% of respondents ranking themselves above 75 (on a scale of 0 to 100). 41% of leaders from small companies also think they’re doing a good job at creating a diverse and inclusive workplace (76+).
Most Important Diversity and Inclusion Initiative
A majority (50%) of large company leaders believe that providing equal opportunities for career advancement in leadership roles would be the most impactful diversity and inclusive initiative for their team or organization.
Small company leaders believe their most important diversity and inclusion initiative is their recruiting and/or hiring processes.
Mid-size companies believe their most important diversity and inclusion initiative is training and education.
Most Leaders Feeling Positive About Future Company Growth
Generally, leaders are feeling pretty positive about the 1 year outlook regarding future company growth. 69% (or more) of leaders from each business size category ranked above 50 on a scale of 0-100 (100 being most positive).
Want pulse survey results on trending topics in the future? Sign-up to receive Insights. And, to participate in this month’s pulse survey, click here.
Methodology
The data set used by Celarity only includes manager, director, VP+ level responses.
Data was analyzed overall and also split and analyzed by company size (as indicated by respondents):
- Small (<50 employees)
- Small-to-mid (50-200 employees)
- Mid-size (200-1000 employees)
- Large (1000+ employees)
Various industries are represented including respondents from: Education, Energy, Finance & Banking, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Professional Services, Technology, Insurance, Media, Non-profit, Publishing, and Restaurants/Food Service.
