Peakon's diversity and inclusion question set consists of drivers and subdrivers, similar to the engagement question set. It enables you to measure employee perceptions of your organization's efforts to maintain a diverse workforce and create an inclusive environment.
This article contains Peakon’s standard diversity & inclusion question library and a summary of the theory and research that Peakon draws each question from, along with the wording of the questions.
To read more about driver questions in general, see Driver questions.
Background
Evidence shows that individuals, teams, and organizations benefit from diversity. Employees in diverse organizations experience greater engagement and trust (Downey et al 2015), report greater job satisfaction (Hofhuis et al, 2016) and fewer incidences of harassment (Kabat-Farr and Cortina, 2014), and are less likely to leave their organization (Ali et al, 2015; Buttner and Lowe, 2017).
Diverse teams demonstrate increased performance (Shoreibah et al, 2019), creativity, and innovation (Lorenzo et al, 2017). Diversity enhances knowledge-sharing (Hofhuis et al, 2016) and decision-making within teams (Galinsky et al 2015).
While diversity benefits an organization's overall reputation, it also enables organizations to perform better in financial measures such as returns, cash flow, EPS, EBIT, margins, investment performance, market value, ROA, ROE, revenue, and sales growth (see: Catalyst, Why Diversity and Inclusion Matter: Financial Performance, 2018).
Question library
The standard diversity and inclusion question library includes 10 questions:
- 1 main diversity and inclusion question.
- 3 driver questions.
- 6 subdriver questions.
| Driver or subdriver | Question | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Diversity and inclusion | I'm satisfied with [company]'s efforts to support diversity and inclusion. |
Measures employee perceptions of an organization's efforts to maintain a diverse workforce and create an inclusive environment. |
| Inclusiveness | At [company], people of all backgrounds are accepted for who they are. |
Employees' sense of belonging with the organization and their team is central their perceptions of the organization’s inclusiveness. This means that employees feel that they can be themselves and that they’re valued for their unique talents or characteristics. |
| Belonging | I feel a sense of belonging at [company]. |
Measures employees' sense that they’re an accepted member of a group or team. |
| Feeling valued | I feel like I'm valued as a person at [company]. |
Measures employees' belief that their unique characteristics or talents are important and beneficial to the team or organization. |
| Diversity | A diverse workforce is a clear priority at [company]. |
Measures how employees perceive the organization’s views on diversity and the efforts that it makes to attract and retain a diverse workforce. This perception is typically based on the organization's recruitment strategies, the process used to select employees for training and advancement, and behavior that is considered acceptable within the organization. |
| Diversity recruitment | Recruitment processes at [company] attract and select a diverse workforce. |
Measures employees' perceptions of the organization’s efforts to recruit a diverse workforce. |
|
Workforce diversity |
I believe [company] is a diverse workplace. |
Measures whether the employee feels that the organization’s workforce is diverse. |
| Non-discrimination | I'm confident I won't be discriminated against at [company]. |
In an inclusive environment, employees feel that they can be themselves without fear of discrimination. The ways in which an organization responds to instances of discrimination, harassment, or inappropriate behavior have a strong impact on employees' sense of safety and their willingness to present their true selves. Without this sense of safety, employees often refrain from making best use of their unique strengths. |
| Responsiveness | I believe [company] would respond appropriately to instances of discrimination. |
Measures employees' belief that the organization responds appropriately to incidences of discrimination. |
| Fair opportunities | People of all backgrounds have the same opportunities at [company]. |
Measures employees' sense that everyone within the organization is given the same opportunities, regardless of background. |
Theory references
| Driver group | Theory |
|---|---|
|
Inclusiveness Belonging Feeling valued |
Individuals want to feel accepted to a group while feeling they can be themselves. In Optimal Distinctiveness Theory, Brewer (1991) proposes that people seek to balance a need for belongingness with their need to feel that their individual characteristics—our uniqueness—are valued. According to Shore et al. (2011), when others actively encourage an individual to express their individuality, they form a social identity that encompasses both a sense of belonging and a sense of uniqueness. This helps make individuals feel included. |
|
Diversity Diversity recruitment Workforce diversity |
An employee's sense of inclusion is strongly influenced by whether they feel that the organization values employees as individuals. Employees judge this by the organization's attitudes and behaviors around creating and keeping a diverse workforce. You can observe these attitudes and behaviors in:
|
|
Non-Discrimination Responsiveness Fair opportunities |
Unsurprisingly, experiencing discrimination, both as a victim and witnessing its impact on others, has a profound impact on employees’ perceptions of how inclusive their organization is. Ensher et al. (2001) found that employees’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and willingness to go above are all negatively affected by employee perceptions that they have experienced discrimination from a coworker, supervisor, or the organization. |
Best practice
We recommend you to add the diversity and inclusion question set alongside the engagement question set, and measure results on a continuous basis.
You can use editable attributes to collect sensitive attributes (Example: Ethnicity), to help you segment diversity and inclusion scores by different employee groups. This enables you to act on the groups that feel less included and have a higher probability of leaving the organization.
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