By: Emma Edoga, Chad Peddie, and Keli P. Wilson, and DiversIQ
There is no single way for employers to signal their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Employers may partner with a third-party organization, sponsor DEI-focused events, support community needs, or endorse workplace initiatives. They can also share their efforts through environmental, social, and governance reports, 10-K filings, or internal policies. Yet, every Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 100 company can use its website to signal commitment. DCI was interested in understanding the landscape of DEI commitments shared on a dedicated page of the company website. Thus, DCI partnered on a study with DiversIQ to understand the percent of S&P 100 businesses hosting DEI content on their company website. DiversIQ, a provider of diversity and human capital benchmarks for thousands of publicly traded companies, supplied the data fields to support this study. Table 1 illustrates the percentage of S&P 100 companies within the 11 Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) sectors that have a website dedicated to sharing DEI efforts.1
Table 1: Percent of S&P 100 Businesses within GICS Sector with a DEI Website
It was found that 92% of S&P 100 companies provide a link to communications on a DEI program. It was also found that 5 of the 11 sectors have 100% of its S&P 100 companies with a DEI page on the company website: Communication Services (N=9), Financials (N=18), Health Care (N=14), Materials (N=2), and Utilities (N=3). However, the Real Estate sector was found to have the lowest outward DEI commitment by S&P 100 companies. In addition, for the 8% (N=8) of S&P 100 companies that do not have a DEI page, 3 were also found to not have a DEI-related blurb included on the website.
Further, we were interested in knowing the location in which the employer embedded the DEI content on the website. Table 2 provides the common locations of choice.
Table 2: Location of DEI Content on Company Website
*Note: One company had DEI content in the About Us and Career pages.
Of the 92 companies with DEI content on their company website, we found that the majority (N=40) leverage their Environmental, Social, and Governance section, which indicates DEI as part of a broader corporate social responsibility stance.
Why are these insights important?
Given legislative, judicial, political, and social activity that continuously shifts employer and individual perceptions on DEI, this baseline study is a useful data point to monitor changes in the DEI realm. A dedicated page to DEI on the company website is a valuable insight that signals transparency and the public stance an employer is taking on DEI. This public acknowledgement of DEI commitment, or lack thereof, is a key indicator for forming an understanding of vested interest to DEI in the workplace. This transparent action signals to employees, potential employees and customers, as well as the community that DEI is important to the employer.
It is also important for organizations to think about authenticity in communicating commitment to DEI. Research has demonstrated that there are more positive benefits when organizations “show” people aspects of their diversity climate and how they value DEI (e.g., through highlighting employee demographics, displaying accounts of the racial climate by employees, demonstrating a racially diverse organizational chart) rather than “tell” people about their diversity (Wilton et al., 2020)2. Current and potential employees value authenticity and honesty in communication of DEI commitment, as it can lead to better work outcomes, such as more positive perceptions around “fitting in” within an organization and being one’s authentic self. Even if an organization is in the early stages of its DEI journey, it is still beneficial to emphasize diversity goals in company messaging and communicate the clear and actionable steps being taken to move toward those diversity goals.
Although a DEI dedicated page on the company website is a commendable action, DCI decided to take a closer look at the content that may exist across companies and industries. Stay tuned for Part II in this blog series, where we will cover an examination of typical DEI content included on S&P 100 company websites and offer some recommendations to consider when organizing a company diversity webpage.
References
1 For more information, see: https://www.msci.com/our-solutions/indexes/gics.
2 Citation: Wilton, L. S., Bell, A. N., Vahradyan, M., & Kaiser, C. R. (2020). Show don’t tell: Diversity dishonesty harms racial/ethnic minorities at work. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 46(8), 1171-1185.
