Alliance Develops Shared Diversity and Inclusion Goals

Intel, Snap Inc., Nasdaq, Dell Technologies and NTT DATA launch index survey data as benchmarking tool for biannual progress.

Intel, Snap Inc., Nasdaq, Dell Technologies and NTT DATA announced a new industry coalition today, Alliance for Global Inclusion, and have developed shared diversity and inclusion metrics. These metrics are based on a global survey launched by Intel in 2020 to determine the status of diversity and inclusion progress at 13 major companies. The survey data is available on a new website and forms the coalition’s inclusion index. The index serves as a benchmark to track diversity and inclusion improvements, shares current best practices and highlights opportunities to improve outcomes across industries.

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“Aligning on a set of unified diversity and inclusion metrics and standards has been a consistent challenge for companies across industries, including in tech where gaps continue to be highlighted in areas such as women and underrepresented minority representation in leadership roles,” said Dawn Jones, Intel’s chief diversity and inclusion officer and vice president of social impact. “The goal of the Alliance for Global Inclusion and index is to have a consistent system of measurement to better track progress and identify areas of improvement. We invite others to join us in using our collective strengths and capabilities to create positive change within corporations, our communities and society at large.”

The coalition will focus on making progress in four critical areas:

• Leadership representation: Develop representation guidance for board of director roles and direct reports to CEOs that reflect the customers and communities served. The Alliance will create and distribute guidance for boards to use when identifying and assessing diverse talent for board consideration. Coalition partners commit to share with their boards.
• Inclusive language: Drive awareness, dialogue and industrywide change for inclusive language in products and documentation, amplified through partnerships with standards bodies and academic institutions. This involves convening coalition partner companies and other interested organizations to align on a standard set of language changes that all can support.
• Inclusive product development: Commit to leveraging existing intervention points in artificial intelligence (AI) product development to mitigate bias and embed diversity and inclusion considerations into AI product lifecycles. This will involve the creation of a multi-stakeholder or cross-industry forum to share best practices on an AI governance approach.
• STEM readiness in underserved communities: Improve STEM readiness in higher education for youth in underserved communities by increasing technology access and partnering with wrap-around support services. This includes a collective investment in global inclusion centers for underserved communities in partnership with established non-profits.

Among the coalition’s goals is use of the index to align on a consistent system of measurement to better track progress and identify areas for improvement. Coalition partners believe the best way to accelerate the adoption of inclusive business practices is through transparency and collaboration. The Alliance for Global Inclusion plans to convene at least twice a year to track the status of each of these goals as well as assess and monitor the index. The next survey for the inclusion index will be administered in fall 2021.

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