The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) recommends organizations look at five overarching metrics when it comes to gender diversity. These metrics provide a quantitative snapshot of the company’s current state as well as softer data. After collecting these metrics, companies will be able to identify their biggest challenges and priorities that can be translated into goals.

1. Pay: Assess pay levels, including base salaries and wages as well as discretionary pay (i.e. bonuses). Also, look at whether formulas behind performance bonuses include unintentional biases against women. Finally, survey employees to learn if they believe pay levels are equitable.
2. Recruitment: Track the ratio of men to women along the entire recruiting funnel (i.e. applications, interviews, final rounds, hiring). This is of special interest for companies in industries that have historically struggled to attract women.
3. Retention: Assess percentages of women and men at each level of seniority, and the attrition rate among women and men at each level. Also, assess employees’ perceptions at different levels to identify warning signals to retention issues.
4. Advancement: Measure the percentage of women and men promoted each year as a share of the total cohort and compare both. Soft indicators of advancement can be women’s perception of a fair shot at senior and leadership positions.
5. Representation: Assess the distribution of roles across different units to understand if women are concentrated in specific units. This can provide insight to whether women are fairly represented in operations units and not just administrative roles (e.g. HR or marketing).

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