Evaluating Success
When considering the success of diversity and inclusion efforts, it is imperative to have a set of objectives that the company wishes to achieve. In order to measure the success of these objectives, organizations need a set of key performance indicators (KPIs). Based on the insights provided from the participants, there are four key categories to evaluate the success of diversity and inclusion in the workplace: existence, leadership endorsement, metrics and feedback. While broad, these four sets of KPIs can be narrowed to evaluate the company’s performance in terms of the hiring and retention of individuals with disabilities, as well as the hiring and retention of individuals with autism.
existence.
By creating materials, processes and messaging that focus on diversity and inclusion, an organization is demonstrating their commitment to diversity. Creating these materials as they relate to autism, would further indicate the level of commitment the company has to employing individuals with autism. The fulfillment of these practices is considered a success in and of itself to many of the participants. Even just having developed and implemented a cost-effective on-boarding process is a success. Encouraging a diversity culture is a success because it allows employees to feel comfortable coming forward with their needs.
leadership endorsements.
The level of support of company leadership is a success metric because it demonstrates the value of diversity and inclusion on the corporate level and represents the company culture. Furthermore, the leadership endorsement as it relates to autism demonstrates the company commitment to hiring individuals with autism. Indicators include: diversity messaging in internal messaging, internal positions dedicated to diversity & inclusion efforts, diverse ability programs and leadership speaking publicly about it.
metrics.
Metrics that are dedicated to diversity and inclusion efforts around employees with disabilities, particularly with autism, can provide quantitative data about a company’s progress. The diversity and inclusion message can be furthered by publishing these numbers in the corporate-wide performance assessment. While these numbers would differ from company to company, three possible metric may be:
- The participation rate of self-identified individuals with disabilities in the company’s disability programs/groups
- The participation rate of those who do not have a self-identified disability
- The number of jobs fulfilled by self-identified employees
In addition organizations fulfilling federal compliancy can utilize the metrics outlined for Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act.
feedback.
Comments and written evaluations are invaluable for understanding the culture and sentiments of workforce. Without a qualitative metric such as feedback, it would be difficult to assure that the company efforts are actually improving the quality of the working conditions. The feedback from all employees (both those with disabilities and without) can further programming efforts, event structure, and the quality of services for individuals with disabilities. Also collecting feedback from managers, particularly those that are working with individuals with disabilities, can provide insight to the state of working conditions. The feedback from managers who may become or want to become involved with diversity and inclusion efforts is of great value to evaluate perception. Furthermore, the feedback from interns and their families helps them improve the program. Even the number of tips employees provide and the corporation enacted through crowd-sourcing resources was a metric for her company.