A diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility and culture survey will help companies understand the perspectives and feelings of their employees. A well-crafted survey will uncover people’s:

• Authentic feelings and beliefs about DEI
• Experiences (based on people’s intersection of their identities)
• Opinions and perspectives about the organization’s policies, practices and programs
• The organizational culture (overt and covert)

Companies should run DEI and Culture surveys with questions that, once responded to, will provide actionable questions that reveal how different groups experience your workplace culture. This  data can help your organization determine how equitable and inclusive the work environment is, with feelings of belonging and outcomes focused on justice.

DEI survey questions can be used to uncover and measure:

• Workforce demographics across social identities (Diversity)
• Fairness in the workplace (Equity)
• Feelings of being respected and valued (Belonging)
• Ability to provide input in policy and decision-making (Inclusion)
• If the organization is providing a safe and brave space to share their opinions (Psychological safety)
• Do all have equal and fair access to programs, spaces and technology (Accessibility)
• If policies, practices and programs, that may cause inequities or barriers, are identified and addressed (Justice)

Categories of questions you may want to consider

Are you curious what questions to ask on a DEI survey? We’ve put together a list of foundational questions to consider, as well as a more exhaustive list of questions that will help you take a deeper dive to measure how impactful DEI is within your organization.

As you develop your organization’s questions, we encourage you to frame the questions in a concise way, and when possible use a combination of open-ended, Likert-scale, multiple choice and rating scaled questions.

Demographic questions:

Begin with capturing demographic data which might be voluntarily provided and used for analysis of people’s experience by various social identity groups. This information should not be used to try to identify any individual. SO, keep in mind that if your organization is small, people may be concerned about you being able to identify them based on their responses to these demographic questions.

How long have you worked for [Company Name]?

___ Less than one year

___ One year to less than two years

___ Two years to less than five years

___ Five years to less than ten years

___ Ten years or more

What is your ethnicity?

___ Asian

___ African American or Black

___ Alaskan / Pacific Islander

___ Caucasian / White

___ Hispanic / Latinx

___ Native American

___ Mixed Race

___ Other

What is your age?

___ Under 21

___ 21 to 34

___ 35 to 44

___ 45 to 54

___ 55 or older

What is your gender?

___ Male
___ Female
___ Nonbinary

Which of the following best describes your role in the organization?

___ First-level supervisor

___ Manager/supervisor higher than first level (including senior management positions)

___ Not a manager or supervisor

NOTE: You may also choose to ask questions about sexual orientation, religion, ability status and more. You know your staff best and will understand if these demographic components should be included.

Basic DEI Culture Survey Questions

I feel my company:

1. Values the differences of individuals and empowers them to make decisions
2. Understands that diversity is critical to our future success
3. Welcomes a diverse group of talent (e.g. ethnicity, gender identity, age, disability, sexual orientation, education, religion, etc)
4. Provides opportunities for me to grow and advance in my career at my company regardless of my background
5. Takes steps to make the workplace and services inclusive, safe, and welcoming
6. Allows me to bring my “whole self” to work including all parts of my background
7. Takes appropriate action in response to incidents of harassment or discrimination
8. Enables me to voice my opinion, even when it differs from the group opinion
9. Employs diverse leaders that I can relate to
10. Offers promotions and raises fairly regardless of background

DEIA and Culture questions using a likert scale

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Using a scale of 1-5 (Likert scale), with 5 being strongly agree and 1 being strongly disagree, please select one response for each statement

Overall Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Culture

• The leadership at this company encourages diversity
• Management shows that diversity is important through its actions
• This company is committed to improving the diversity of employees
• This company fosters a workplace that allows employees to be themselves at work without fear
• This company respects individuals and values their differences
• The leadership at this company treats all employees fairly
• At this company, employees appreciate others whose backgrounds, beliefs and experiences are different from their own
• Comments or suggestions for improvement:

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Using a scale of 1-5, with 5 being strongly agree and 1 being strongly disagree, please select one response for each statement

Hiring and Recruitment

• ‍‍This company takes active measures to seek a diverse candidate pool when hiring
• There is diversity among the people a job candidate will meet/see on his/her first visit to the company
• Comments or suggestions for improvement:

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Using a scale of 1-5, with 5 being strongly agree and 1 being strongly disagree, please select one response for each statement.

Career Development

‍Employees of different backgrounds are encouraged to apply for higher positions

Employees of different backgrounds are treated fairly in the internal promotion process

There is a career development path for all employees at this company

Comments or suggestions for improvement:

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Using a scale of 1-5, with 5 being strongly agree and 1 being strongly disagree, please select one response for each statement.

Personal Experiences

‍My experiences at this company have led me to become more understanding of differences among my coworkers

Getting to know people with backgrounds different from my own has been easy at this company

Comments or suggestions for improvement:

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Using a scale of 1-5, with 5 being strongly agree and 1 being strongly disagree, please select one response for each statement.

Policies and Procedures

‍The company’s policies or procedures encourage diversity, equity and inclusion

I am aware of and understand the procedures for reporting incidents of discrimination and/or bias in the workplace

I believe the company will take appropriate action in response to incidents of discrimination and/or bias

Comments or suggestions for improvement:

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Using a scale of 1-5, with 5 being strongly agree and 1 being strongly disagree, please select one response for each statement.

Inclusion

‍Employees of different backgrounds interact well in this company

Management of this company demonstrates a commitment to meeting the needs of employees with disabilities

Employees of different ages are valued equally by this organization

Racial, ethnic, sexual and gender-based jokes or slurs are not tolerated at this organization

This company provides an environment for the free and open expression of ideas, opinions and beliefs

Comments or suggestions for improvement:

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Using a scale of 1-5, with 5 being strongly agree and 1 being strongly disagree, please select one response for each statement.

Your Immediate Supervisor

‍My supervisor is committed to, and supports, diversity, equity and inclusion

My supervisor handles matters related to diversity, equity and inclusion matters satisfactorily

Comments or suggestions for improvement:

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Using a scale of 1-5, with 5 being strongly agree and 1 being strongly disagree, please select one response for each statement.

Diversity Training

‍This company has done a good job providing educational programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion in our workplace

Comments or suggestions for improvement:

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Using open ended questions to gather qualitative data

You may also choose to ask questions that are segmented specifically to capture open ended feedback about diversity, equity and inclusion, which provides more in-depth information about how people feel about their experiences or what their perceptions are about the culture of the organization. These questions might include:

Open-ended Management/Leadership Questions

Do you think your top management team is diverse? If yes, in what ways?

The responses to this question will help you understand how staff feels about diversity within the leadership team.

Does the company’s appraisal and promotion policy support diversity?

This question looks to identify perceptions of bias within your company’s promotion and evaluation policies and practices.

Does the organization hire individuals from all backgrounds and communities?

The identifies perceptions of the recruiting and hiring process.

Do you think HR and management support the needs of disabled people in your company?

This question aligns with the company’s value about supporting employees with disabilities.

How do you think the company can improve to become more diverse in the future?

This is an exceptional question that allows employees to feel their voices are wanted and respected. When an employee can freely share their views on improvements, they begin to feel empowered to be a part of the change.

Open-ended Inclusion Questions

What do you think about inclusivity in your organization?

This question collects employees’ opinions about the efforts that have been taken to hear the voices of those who are impacted by decisions. Are they inviting them to the “decision-making” table?

How do you feel the executive team promotes inclusivity? Please provide examples.

This helps you understand the perception of leadership’s actions to promote inclusivity at all levels in the company.

Give an example of how your leaders encourage you to share your concerns about program, policies, practices and more?

This question speaks to psychological safety. Employees will only share their problems when they feel comfortable and. This question will help evaluate how proactive the leaders are in helping employees feel valued.

Have you ever faced discrimination in the workplace because of your cultural background?

This question helps you uncover any  problems faced by employees, and with disaggregated data, you can determine if there are any trends in people’s experiences.

What steps can be taken to promote inclusivity in the company?

Listen carefully, these are your inclusivity opportunities for adjustments in policies and practices.

Open-ended Equity Questions

What does equity mean to you, and how is it shown at [Company Name}?

This question will help you gather employees’ opinions on what they think about the company’s equity policies and practices.

Have you ever been treated unfairly in your company because of your . . . (race, age, gender, sexual orientation, ability status, religion, etc.)?

This social identity equity question evaluates if employees have experienced any unfair treatment in the company.

Do you think the career advancement policies of the company are fair for all, regardless of their background?

This question determines how your employees perceive if the career growth policies of the company are fair, or biased.

How does the leadership team proactively seek concerns related to equity within the organization?

This question helps you understand employee perspectives of leadership’s desire to proactively solve equity issues.

What more can be done to promote equity in the company?

You can gather data about what employees want to see in your organization’s equity policy.

Open-ended Questions About Belonging

How comfortable are you discussing your social and cultural background with your teammates?

This question can help you evaluate how comfortable or uncomfortable employees feel talking about their background with their colleagues.

How comfortable are you bringing your authentic self to work, without fear of judgment?

This question will reveal how comfortable or uncomfortable employees feel just being their true selves.

You can also ask about the implementation of DEI and people’s perceptions

On a scale of 0-10, how will you rate the implementation of diversity in your organization’s culture?

This NPS question is used to understand what employees think of the organization’s culture in terms of diversity. You can also modify this question to an open-ended one, depending on the type of data that you need to collect.

What improvements, if any, can be made to improve the diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at [Company Name]?

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

DEIA Survey Questions to Ask

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A focus group is a type of qualitative research method that brings together a small group of people to answer questions in a moderated setting. Focus groups are most suited for obtaining several people’s perspectives about DEIA. By asking guided questions, the facilitators can:

• Encourage free flowing conversation
• Build responses to linked questions (take a deeper dive to specific answers)
• Gain insights into people’s perspectives by uncovering personal attitudes and beliefs that other research methods can’t reproduce which results in more meaningful insights
• Helps participants gain trust (if the moderator/facilitator lays a great foundation)

The focus groups generally consist of 5 – 10 people within your company . The purpose in holding a focus group meeting is to gather direct, personal insights from customers with strong interest in your products or services. Because a focus group is a dynamic research environment, the skills of the moderator are key to getting valuable, unbiased data.

Focus groups can be used to gather feedback to check the pulse of what’s happening in the organization. It’s also great to be used to supplement the culture survey(s) which provides quantifiable data by enriching them with qualitative perspectives.

A well facilitated focus group should result in an open-ended, free-flowing discussion that can be used to help your organization understand people’s perspectives, and ultimately feeds into the decisions made. Below are steps you can take to conduct a great focus group discussion:

Now that you have your DEIA survey results, with the various identities, cultural and otherwise, that are represented among your employees, what do you do with them? The results will not only help you jumpstart your efforts, but provides a snapshot in time to track progress.

The first step is to reveal the demographic information you’ve captured from survey:

• Gender representation
• Racial and ethnic representation
• Age representation
• Geographic representation

Graphic example of demographic categorization:

NOTE: You might ask, is it legal to collect demographic information: The short answer: yes. But be sure you’re doing it in a way that protects everyone’s rights and privacy. Check with your own legal advisors and HR department as it’s important to do this right for your organization.

Analyze the number of people who responded

The next step when analyzing survey data is to turn your individualized responses into aggregated numbers. For every question in your survey, you need to know the total number of people who this question was sent to (this is “N” – which represents TOTAL NUMBER), and the number of people who answered each response (this is “n” – which represents the NUMBER OF RESPONSES).

• N = 100 (Example of the total number of people who a response was requested of)
• N = 76 (Example of the total number of people who actually responded to the question)

For every question that is asked and there are responses, you will quantify the number of respondents to the question, based on the aggregate.

Analyze quantitative data first

Quantitative data (data about numeric variables (e.g. how many; how much; or how often)

is valuable because it uses statistics to draw conclusions. While qualitative data (are measures of ‘types of information’, not numerical) can bring more interesting insights. This is subjective information, which isn’t always easy to analyze. Quantitative data might come from close-ended questions which can be converted into a numeric value. Once data is quantified you can compare results and identify trends.

It’s best to start with quantitative data because quantitative data can help you better understand your qualitative data. For example, if 60% of staff say they’re unhappy with the company culture, you can focus your attention on negative qualitative comments about staff’s experience. Qualitative data can also help you uncover gaps and roadblocks in that may be causing concern.

Consider causation versus correlation

Another important aspect of survey analysis is knowing whether the conclusions you’re drawing are accurate. For instance, let’s say we identify a correlation (a measure to which two variables are related) between a group of people of a specific social identity, and a belief that there is discrimination. While this data may suggest a link between these variables, it doesn’t tell us WHY.

Just because the two are correlated doesn’t mean one causes the other. That’s why it’s important to continue your analysis. You never want to draw a conclusion that’s inaccurate or insufficient. So analyze all the data before assuming what influences why someone thinks, feels, or acts a certain way.

Compare new data with past data

If you’ve conducted a past DEIA and Culture survey, you will want to compare your new data with past data to see where improvements or opportunities exist.  If you know 42% of respondents said they feel the culture of the organization is not inclusive, you’ll want to see what the percentage (%) is from the prior data. If the last survey said it’s 30%, then you’ll want to identify why the culture of inclusion has shifted negatively. If the last survey said it’s 85%, then you’re doing something right, and you want to identify what that is and continue toward that positive path. If this is your first year analyzing data, you’ll use these results as a benchmark for your next analysis.

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Now that you’ve gathered and analyzed all of your data, the next step is to share it with organizational leaders, then coworkers  and other stakeholders. Sharing a survey summary of the results of an engagement survey with everyone invited to participate is a great way to close the loop. So ideally it’s a great idea to share the information within a few weeks.

Two levels of information that should be shared:

• All results – for organizational leaders
• Survey summary results – for staff and other stakeholders “

While transparency is an excellent value for any organization to hold, there is a level of transparency that can lead to lower engagement and morale. There is also sensitive information and personal information that should not be shared broadly.

According to McKinsey, “the first rule of thumb [in deciding what employees need to know] is to strive for a match between transparency and responsibility.”

Since all employees are not responsible for executing the DEIA strategy, you want to provide the high-level summary of findings that helps them understand where the organization is (positive and areas for improvement), and provides context behind some of the actionable items that will be introduced. The information that is shared company-wide should be high-level, easy to digest, and strike a positive “we’re in this journey together” tone about embracing the DEIA journey. Following the steps below will help to engage staff and entice them to listen and begin talking about the DEIA Culture summary of findings.

Step-by-step Guide

• Step by Step guide to conducting your DEIA Survey

Survey Questions

• DEIA Survey Questions to Ask
• Sample questions to use in your small focus group discussion

Email Templates

• Sample invitation and informational letter to participants to communicate survey results

Presentation Templates

• Sample Leadership presentation template
• Sample All-staff presentation template

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