Salary.com’s Annual Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Survey Results Reveal a Narrowing Gap Between Corporate Intentions and Actions

65% demonstrate that diversity is a strategic mission for their organization

The 2022 DE&I Intentions vs. Actions survey from Salary.com reveals a -5.8 percent gap relative to what companies intend to do to address diversity, equity and inclusion and what companies are actually doing to address DE&I. This is down from a -7 percent gap in 2021. In the survey of 629 human resources professionals in U.S. organizations across a variety of industries, 65 percent have proactive initiatives in place that demonstrate diversity is a strategic mission for their organization. While the vast majority (90 percent) of respondents intend to promote a culture in which employees feel supported and free to speak up, just under three-quarters agree or strongly agree that their employees do speak for themselves and feel supported.

“The overall results of the survey speak to a desire to do good,” said Chris Fusco, SVP of Compensation at Salary.com. “While respondents’ intentions exceeded their actions no matter how we broke out the survey data, such as by gender and geography, the reality is that gaps exist to be closed. Good intentions lead to good actions.”

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Leadership Diversity and DE&I Resources

Progress is being made on leadership diversity, with 46 percent of HR respondents stating they have a diverse executive team, compared to 40 percent in 2021.However, only one-third stated having a diverse board of directors.

While less than half (49 percent) confirmed they have someone dedicated specifically to lead DE&I initiatives in their organization, this is up from 43 percent in 2021. The majority (51 percent) said that person has access to senior leadership and the financial resources needed to be successful.

Half of the organizations in the survey have a promotion, evaluation, and succession process that allows diverse employees to grow within the organization. However, almost a third said their organization does not have DE&II resource/affinity/breakout groups that help foster change.

“Incremental progress is being made towards DE&I goals, yet this survey reveals work still needs to be done to ensure that diversity, equity, and inclusion becomes truly integrated into organizational culture,” said Lenna Turner, Director of DE&I at Salary.com.

“Pressing issues related to the economy and the pandemic have likely taken some focus off DE&I initiatives but hopefully organizations will remain steadfast in their expressed commitment to achieving it.”

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Areas most in need of improvement

HR respondents identified the following as areas most in need of improvement in their organization:

• Recruitment/Hiring: Diversify candidate pool, with a focus on representation for women, BIPOC, managers, and executive leadership
• Training & Education: Make available to all employees, including managers and senior leaders; communicate DE&I goals, formalize practices, and implement ongoing training
• Data: Establish and track metrics for progress and accountability
• Prioritization: Investment of time, resources, and budget to DE&I goals and initiatives

2022 Top DE&I Goals

HR respondents shared that having tangible goals around DE&I is a priority. Goals include:

• Creating a DE&I committee/advisory board
• Increasing DE&I knowledge, education and understanding through clear policies, procedures, trainings, mentorship programs, etc.
• Assessing pay equity

Survey Methodology

Data was collected between March 10 and April 29, 2022, with 629 organizations responding, representing 21 industries. Organizations ranged in size from businesses with fewer than 99 employees to global organizations with greater than 100,000 employees. Salary.com complies with the “safe harbor” guidelines published by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. For the responses, on average, organizations agree that Intentions are above neutral, with a score of 3.6 on a 5-point on a Likert scale for all questions (with a score of 1 for an answer of “strongly disagree” to a score of 5 for “strongly agree”). On the Actions dimension, the score of 3.3 demonstrates only a -7% gap relative to Intentions.

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