FAQ's

Equiscore BI™ is an equity scoring and business intelligence platform that converts diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) into an actionable, trackable, industry-specific business metric that – because it can be tracked – it can be improved.

The platform is also a project management and analytical tool for DEI consultants, officers and teams leading DEI efforts across companies.

Equiscore BI™ uses human-centered design to ease the process of gathering, aggregating and analyzing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) data from across your company. The platform works in four thoughtfully-designed stages:

• – Your DEI leader onboards your company and team

• – Your team enters and aggregates comprehensive DEI data from across the company into the EquiScore BI™ platform, with the support of your DEI leader
• – Your data is validated data and scored using our scoring algorithm 
• – You receive your industry-specific EIA Score™ and a detailed analysis of the results

EquiScore BI™ uses the RACI Model to build your DEI Team from those leaders who manage departments and programs and therefore play a role in determining the company’s EIA Score™. After participating in data collection these leaders are better positioned to support subsequent DEI strategy development, implementation and tracking efforts. This approach also makes it easier for your DEI leader to facilitate the scoring process and work with teams across the company to improve DEI over time.

RACI is a tool for assigning responsibility to team members participating on a project together. Each letter in RACI represents a role that is assigned to members of the project team. Those roles include:

R = Responsible – the leaders in the company who manage specific departments and initiatives and are closest to the data related to those departments; R’s answer questions and provide supporting documentation related to the company’s policies and practices.

A = Accountable – the DEI Officers, Chief People Officers or others who lead DEI efforts across the company; There is only one “A” on the team and their job is to onboard the company and DEI team to the process, oversee the data collection process and support R’s as needed.

C = Consulted – the members of the company who provide consultation, data or answers to specific questions in the application; C’s are invited into the application by R’s and are only able to view and respond to the question they were assigned.

I = Informed – the CEO or other company leader who needs to be kept informed about the data collection process and follow along as desired. There is only one “I” on the team and they have the same view and capabilities as the A’s.

Other Data Providers
Employees: Every one of the company’s employees are invited to participate in a confidential and voluntary survey to provide feedback on their personal experience at the company.

Customers: For consumer-facing companies a link to a confidential and voluntary survey is placed on the home page of the company’s website so customers can provide feedback on their personal experiences at the company.

 The heart and soul of Equiscore BI™ is the Equity in Action (EIA) Score™ – an industry-specific, peer-reviewed measure of how a company’s internally and externally-focused policies and practices impacts equity for their workers, customers, and communities. The EIA Score™ is like a credit score for equity and helps companies assess themselves against a peer-reviewed standard for their industry. The EIA Score™ and Report are informational tools that help leaders develop effective strategies and measurably improve.

Equity is both a process and an outcome. As a process, we apply racial equity when those most impacted are meaningfully involved in the creation and implementation of the policies and practices that impact their lives. As an outcome, we achieve racial equity when race no longer determines one’s socioeconomic outcomes. 

-Definition from the Center for Social Inclusion

The EIA Score™ is based on several factors:

• – The racial diversity of your company’s workforce, customers, board and suppliers compared to the demographics of the community the company operates within
• – The extent to which diverse populations, and their experiences, are included in strategies to create an equitable company
• – The differences in the experiences and results of diverse populations based on your company’s processes and outcomes

A company’s impact on equity goes beyond the diversity of their team whether they feel like they belong. A company can be inequitable differently based on their industry. For example, a bank can be inequitable through its lending practices while a technology company can be inequitable through biased data models. Additionally, because inequity is seen in the disparities across different groups of people, it also looks different based on the demographics of the community it operates in. 

To avoid unrealistic and vague analyses and recommendations, the EIA Score™ is always tailored to the organization’s industry and area of operation. This ensures the score accurately examines how similar organizations practice and impact equity, as well as how representative its demographics are of the surrounding community.