A Data-Driven Approach to Advancing Meritocracy

1. For example, see J.B. Fuller and M. Raman, “Dismissed by Degrees: How Degree Inflation Is Undermining U.S. Competitiveness and Hurting America’s Middle Class,” PDF file (Accenture, Grads of Life, and Harvard Business School, 2017), www.hbs.edu; and R.C. Booth, “Stop Requiring College Degrees for Jobs That Don’t Need Them,” Vox, March 19, 2023, www.vox.com.

2. For more information about employers that are proactively advancing and developing workers, visit the American Opportunity Index website, www.americanopportunityindex.org.

3. For example, see N. Lewis, “Technology Can Be Used to Achieve Pay Equity,” SHRM, June 19, 2023, www.shrm.org.

4. Y. Slan, “Viewpoint: A Reflection on Juneteenth, Transparency in Diversity Reporting,” SHRM, June 16, 2023, www.shrm.org.

5. Some employees seem to feel comfortable sharing their demographic information in certain companies and organizations worldwide. As of December 2024, for instance, Salesforce was committed to DEI and regularly releasing data on its workforce demographics, encouraging employees to disclose their race, ethnicity, gender, and other demographic details. Similarly, Airbnb has implemented Project Lighthouse to collect data on discrimination and bias experienced by its users while also collecting demographic information from employees to inform its DEI initiatives. Microsoft and Target follow similar practices, encouraging employees to share demographic data. Target encourages employees to share their demographic information to help inform its diversity and inclusion initiatives and to track progress over time. However, as workplace policies, privacy concerns, and legal regulations continue to evolve worldwide, companies may continue to adapt their approaches to demographic data collection and DEI transparency.

6. See D. Habtemariam, “3 Must-Dos for Collecting Employee Demographic Data Beyond Race and Gender,” Senior Executive, April 21, 2022, https://seniorexecutive.com; B. Melloy, “What Demographic Question Should You Ask in Surveys?” Culture Amp, updated July 7, 2020, www.cultureamp.com; and K. Magoon, M.-J. Robinson, A. Kissling, et al., “Best Practice for Demographic Data Collection & Reporting: Evaluator’s Guide,” PDF file (Boston: Public Consulting Group, August 2022), www.publicconsultinggroup.com.

7. “2024 Gender Pay Gap Report,” PDF file (Boston: Payscale, March 2024), 5, www.payscale.com.

8. Google offers a similar example. As reported on its re:Work site, the company identified a gender disparity in one of its promotion cycles: Junior female software engineers were being promoted at a lower rate than their male peers. Google’s People Analytics team discovered that the issue was rooted in differing self-nomination rates. Since engineers at Google can self-nominate for promotion when they feel ready, the data revealed that men were doing so more frequently than equally qualified women. To address this problem, a senior leader shared the findings with employees and encouraged all engineers to self-nominate when they felt prepared. After this simple intervention, Google reported that the gender gap in promotion rates was eliminated.