The benchmarks you set will depend on what you find within the results of your monitoring.
You should use these as your starting point and set your initial goals from here: ask where would you like your organisation to be in in three months, six months, one year or several years. From your collected data, look at your company afresh. Ask and be honest in your answers: who is in the room? Who is missing? Are some groups of people confined to junior roles? Do some groups dominate your senior roles? Who is feeling included and who isn’t?
Benchmarks in diversity monitoring usually start with percentages of types of people within the workforce of your company, a department, or a production. Large organisations often set these against the general population as a point of comparison. For example, your goal is that 50% of your factual entertainment producers must be women, because 50% of the UK’s population are women. You should set benchmarks for each characteristic you measure. You could also consider and compare where you are to your competitors and aim to meet similar levels. Or your goal could be to meet the rates of different groups of people graduating from film school, for example.
Benchmarks for promotion and progression are also important to consider. For example if 20% of your entry-level employees are from an ethnic minority, then 20% of those you promote in the next 6 months should also be from that group. Additionally, examine the inclusion questions in your survey and set benchmarks on this aspect too. For example, at the next survey point, you are aiming for a 20% increase in people stating that the organisation is inclusive.
To take your benchmarking a step further, ask whether there are any gaps in staff retention, career development and longer-term progression into mid-level and senior roles. Over time, regular data collection will reveal patterns. For example, which groups stay, and which leaves. Do some groups of people find it easier to progress to senior roles whilst others don’t?
It is important to note that these benchmarks are targets, not quotas.
You can then implement any interventions or strategies which will help you (make improvements. If you are benchmarking for a specific project, at the end, you should re-evaluate and establish new benchmarks for the next project.
Communicate, Be Accountable& Review Progress
It is important that your goals should be difficult and challenging, but achievable. They should not be so out of reach that they discourage you, nor should they be so easy that reaching them requires little or no effort. Culture change is hard work, so if you’re finding it too easy it might be an indicator that your goals aren’t ambitious enough.
In larger organisations, the HR or talent management department often set these benchmarks. In smaller companies, it could be the CEO or COO. Whoever sets the benchmarks, it is important that everyone across the organisation is made aware of them (from most junior to most senior), in order that everyone is on board with the goal of making your workplace more diverse and inclusive.
In order to be accountable, assign an owner to each action within your strategy. This person should be senior enough to challenge colleagues, add issues to meeting agendas and champion change. Set dates for reviewing progress (or lack of progress, to help to identify barriers) and commit to sharing your results with your teams and stakeholders. Remember, you are accountable to broadcasters and commissioners, so this information is a must-have for companies in the UK’s broadcasting and film sectors.
Those setting the benchmarks should regularly review progress, ideally quarterly, against targets for diversity and inclusion, and share the results with the CEO and senior leadership team. The review should focus on specific actions, and progress made against targets. It should aim to identify successes, identify barriers, and recommend adjustments where progress has been less successful. Use the results of the review to inform the development of future action plans. Remember to celebrate success to keep teams motivated!