Metrics
Metrics
Use of data to support DEI efforts in organisations
“What does not get measured
does not get done.”
Organisations must use data to understand, monitor, and adapt their DEI efforts to be more efficient. Both quantitative and qualitative data can be used, depending on the maturity of DEI activities in the relevant organisation or location. Monitoring absolute values is important, but it is also important to keep track of the trends in time to monitor progress. Along with the collection and analysis of data, a process must be built to analyse, report and make recommendations to finetune DEI efforts.
The HR and the DEI strategy of organisations will define ambition levels, which are monitored by corresponding quantitative and qualitative measures. A good practice is also to have a set of benchmarking data that can be acquired from industry-collected data sets, such as the CANSO survey outcome of distribution of male/female ATCOs and ATSEPs or the IATA data from the IATA 25by2025 initiative.
These aspects are examined in more detail below:
Quantitative metrics
Aviation organisations must comply with local and national regulations, EU regulations (where applicable) and best practices. A solid approach is not only to have information on the current status but also to understand staff attraction, retention and promotion to build dashboards resulting from the aforementioned processes. Data should be made available to all staff and its analysis should be presented and discussed to the management team concerned. For the aviation industry, it is important to make a distinction between licensed and non-licensed staff (e.g. between ATCOs, ATSEPs, pilots and cabin crew, on the one hand, and administration, developers, and HR, on the other).
- Pay gap analysis: In the UK and EU countries, there is legislation with applicable methods for making pay transparent. In the EU, the Pay Transparency Directive was adopted on 7 June 2023, giving EU Member States three years to transpose it into national law by 2026. The Directive sets out requirements for the preparation of a pay gap analysis and imposes compulsory assessments in cases where reports reveal a gender pay gap that exceeds 5%. In addition, job candidates must have access to information on salaries at the company concerned, and candidates may not be asked about their current salaries during application procedures. Employees will have the right to receive written information about their salary and average salaries broken down by gender. Companies will be required to send employees an annual reminder of their rights and how to exercise these rights (see the resources provided for more information).
- Staff analyses, beyond the pay gap: Modern data analytical and visualisation tools allow for the creation of interactive dashboards per diversity category (gender, age, education, background, etc.), per location where applicable, per directorate/area/unit, pay scale, and organisational level (director D level, and levels underneath D-1, D-2, etc.). Such interactive dashboards may reveal pockets of opportunities for targeting efforts toward a specific category, location, directorate, etc.
- Analysis of the recruitment funnel: looking at the proportion of people in the desired categories in measurable terms, e.g. with regard to online engagement, applications for a job, invitations for an interview, job offers, job offers accepted per diversity category.
- Analysis of internal promotions: building dashboards regarding the amount of time between roles or new promotions per diversity category.
In addition to demographic metrics, metrics of uptake on DEI training, activities and the time staff are allocated to work on, learn about or support activities is a good indicator of an organisation’s appetite to strengthen a culture of inclusion, equity and diversity. These metrics could be the number of participants in activities, the number of hours spent in training programmes, and the budget planned and used for DEI work.
(For further iteration of this toolkit, specific metrics could be developed depending on the size of a company/organisation if so desired.)
Follow-up on metrics
Metrics are a good indicator of the results of an organisation’s DEI activities and they can be used to finetune and focus efforts on a particular DEI aspect. Metrics should be part of reporting on DEI to not only reflect on goals and results but also measure the direction of changes in culture.
Another good practice is benchmarking. There are very good benchmarking surveys available in the aviation industry (e.g. IFATCA (2018) and CANSO (2022) – members can reach out to these organisations directly). In addition, IATA has conducted a DEI Maturity Survey, along with the 25by2025 initiative. Companies can carry out a self-assessment through their website. Finally, many statistics from the European Institute for Gender Equality website can be used, in addition to information provided by the European Commission on the gender pay gap in the EU.
