Diversity Spend Reporting, Tracking, and Validation

In this article, we’ll share the importance of tracking diversity spend and how to do so successfully. Step one is understanding your company’s reporting needs. Different companies have different standards for what they need tracked in order to make a case for their investment towards diversity programs. Once you know those requirements, you should create an accurate spreadsheet that will track your diversity spend.

– Start by creating a list of the types of expenses you want to track in your spreadsheet. Here are some appropriate categories:

* Employee training and development

* Recruitment tools, such as job postings or advertising campaigns on sites like LinkedIn or Facebook

* Community engagement initiatives for minorities living in low income communities, including donations or grants given towards community programs that empower marginalized groups

* Reconciliation and diversity training

Next, create columns in your spreadsheet to track the following: Expense type, Date of expense (month/year), Amount spent. In some cases you might want to list additional information like a job title or contact name on expenditure records for reference.

– Spend allocating within categories is also important. For example, if an organization spends $150 towards community engagement initiatives but only $100 goes through their own channels then they would need more than one column with different allocations so that it’s clear where the money has gone.

The point is not just tracking what was spent; you’re trying to establish how much of that spend went directly towards these programs and why those are valuable investments for your organization.

– The point of diversity spend reporting is to both track and validate where an organization’s money goes so that it can be clear what the impacts are as well as ensuring accountability for how funds have been spent.

How do I know if my company has done diversity spending?

If your company has not already published their data publicly in some way then they should start with having a centralized place from which all expense records originate (i.e., ERP system) or going back into paper receipts and filing them centrally until there is consistency across departments.

The diversity spend data can come from literally anywhere. It doesn’t have to be a specific fund as long as you are able to track where it went and what the impacts were. A few examples of types of spending would include:

– employee education on unconscious bias or cultural competency trainings (e.g., one time cost)

– diversity research within your organization for potential solutions (e.g., overhead costs)

– external consultants hired by several departments across an entire company for various projects related to diversity (i.e., project based work with variable expenses depending on scope, timeline, etc.)

What does tracked look like?

Tracked looks like being able to tell investors exactly how much they put into diversity spend and where it went.

– What companies are above the industry average in terms of spending? Which companies have a high return on their investments (ROI)?

– How can trends be identified from year to year or quarter to quarter?