CIDI has recently published its first report. Research was conducted through a comprehensive literature review, an examination of Canadian organizations’ diversity and annual reports, a review of the websites of every employer on the Canada’s Best Diversity Employers list, a survey of Canadian organizations, and nineteen in-depth interviews with Canadian diversity leaders.Key findings indicate that hard metrics are vitally important, but we need both qualitative and quantitative measures to tell the full story of where an organization is on its diversity journey.

What I found interesting is CIDI findings about Best Diversity Employers in Canada:

We found a wide range of information about diversity initiatives on these organizations’ websites, most do not mention their diversity measurement practices at all. Of those that do, many have vague references to goals that they measure, without explicit explanation of the goals or how they are measuring. Also, in some cases, the organizations’ website refers to their “strategic plan” and readers are left to question whether or not the plan includes measures of success for strategic D&I goals.

Conversely, some organizations go so far as to provide all their metrics and results online. Organizations that are very transparent with their metrics are often those conducting corporate social responsibility reporting using the Global Reporting Initiative (“GRI”) guidelines. The GRI is a comprehensive Sustainability Reporting Framework that is widely used around the world.

Full Report