Requesting data can be a challenge. You may be placed on an internal wait list due to other competing business needs or maybe you are unsure of the data fields needed for an effective query. 

If you are a federal contractor, strongly consider using the same data used to develop the statistical portion of your Affirmative Action Plans (AAPs). Why? In addition to consistency, it will give you several advantages.

Advantages of using Affirmative Action Plan Data for your Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Efforts:

• Data is already available
• Integrity checks on the data are already completed
• Diversity goals will be aligned with the same timeframe and dataset as your AAP goals
• Collaboration between DE&I and compliance teams

What can you do with Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Data?

Now you have data to use, you need to put it to use. You can use your DEI data to:

• Look for trends year over year to identify patterns. This will help find trends such as underutilization for females in the management level of the organization.
• Identify differences in the DE&I profile of different organizations. For example, the diversity in the marketing department may be very different than that in the engineering department. this will assist in identifying appropriate programmatic efforts for each department.  
• Connect various personnel results to tell your DE&I story. For example, consider results that show Hispanics are hired at a rate comparable to availability; Hispanics not promoting at a rate comparable to availability; and Hispanics leaving the organization at rate comparable to availability. This will inform the DE&I team to take additional measures to understand a potential barrier at the promotion stage.
• Create charts and graphs that will effectively reinforce your strategic plan.
• Align DE&I with compliance to create more synergy and reduce any confusion that may occur when operating parallel to each other.