The Diversity Benchmark Report
Key Diversity & Inclusion Indicators Among Fortune 500 Companies
June 2021
A Welcome Note
The nation’s biggest and best-known organizations are making pledges almost daily, towards increasing diversity within their organizations. Half of the 100 largest publicly traded companies in the U.S. have agreed to make publicly available the so-called EEO-1 data on the racial, ethnic and gender makeup of their workforce that they report to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. As we look forward to future years, we are keen to see the positive progress they make.
But where do we begin to measure their progress?
Up until now, no diversity-focused report has looked deeper into some of the key indicators impacting the diversity makeup of leading companies. For example, key indicators like internal mobility, risk of churn and median tenure have not been analyzed, even though they have a significant impact on diverse talent retention.
In addition, while companies may know the breakdown of diversity in their workforce, they may not know how they stack up compared to other companies in their industry. They may also not know the possible causes for low participation of diverse talent in their workforce.
Moreover, currently available reports can only present the status months after the companies release their previous year’s diversity data. Fortunately with the advent of new technologies, such data can now be analyzed in near real-time.
Talenya’s new Fortune 500 Diversity Report provides, for the first time, data and analysis that goes wide and deep into the diversity status of Fortune 500 companies. The report will be updated bi-annually to not only show the “state of the land” as far as diversity in leading companies, but also to show their ongoing, real-time, progress over time.
Big Data and AI Algorithms make this analysis possible
Building a report that is current and comprehensive is not trivial. Thanks to Talenya’s 1 billion profile database and its Diversity AI™ algorithms that are used to help companies hire more diverse talent, it was possible to create, for the first time, an independent report that can be updated bi-annually without any manual participation from the companies themselves.
This report marks a starting point
This is the first report of its kind. It provides a snapshot of Diversity at Fortune 500 companies as of Q1 2021. Every 6 months we will release follow up reports tracking trends and performance compared to the previous periods. To receive this report bi-annually, sign up here.
- 1. The report is interactive. Use the table of contents menu above to navigate through the different sections. Click on graph legends. This will hide or present the data you wish to see.
- 2. Each section follows the same format. For each metric, find 1) the aggregated data set for the Fortune 500 companies as a whole, 2) a data set for the 5 largest industries, and, 3) a leader board announcing the 3 best performing, and 3 worst performing industries. We also name the best companies in the leading industries.
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Click here to receive your own company’s Free Diversity and Retention Report.
Highlights
While Women make up 35% of employees of Fortune 500 companies, they still make up only 23%-28% of employees among the least performing industries
The industries with the highest inclusion of Women employees are Healthcare, Human Resources and Retail
While Black employees make up 10% of Fortune 500 employees, they still make up only 5%-8% of employees among the least performing industries
The industries with the highest inclusion of Black employees are Logistics & Supply Chain, Retail and Airline/Aviation
Asian employees, who account for only 5.9% of the working population, are far more represented in Fortune 500 companies with a participation of 20%.
Women showed overall greater rates of internal mobility within the same company than Men
White employees have overrepresentation in managerial roles compared to other racial and ethnic groups. Asian employees, in particular, are underrepresented in managerial roles.
Research Methodology
Here’s a quick explanation of how we generated our insights for you:
Our talented Data Scientists have access to a database with close to 1 billion professional profiles. These profiles are curated from multiple public sources. Profiles are captured, updated, enriched and reconstructed by Talenya’s Diversity AI algorithms. Using the latest big data analytics techniques, we carved out the current employees of Fortune 500 companies to draw meaningful insights.
Leveraging a suite of proprietary unbiased algorithms, Talenya Diversity AI™ is able to predict the gender and race/ethnicity of these profiles to 98% accuracy.
Each Fortune 500 Company that is included in this report is associated with a specific industry. For the largest industries, we focused the analysis on the 5 industries with the highest number of employees. All other industries have been consolidated into a group named “Other.”The 5 largest industries include:
- Technology and Services – including organizations defined as information technology and services, digital, internet, networking, computer software and hardware companies.
- Financial Services – including organizations defined as accounting, insurance, banking, capital, investment and financial services companies.
- Retail – including organizations defined as retail, apparel and fashion.
- Healthcare – including organizations defined as hospitals, medical, and mental healthcare.
- Telecommunication – including organizations defined as telecommunication infrastructure, and service companies.
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The Findings
Employee Distribution
Employee Distribution By Gender
This section examines the employee breakdown by gender across all 500 companies. The representation of Men outweigh Women, 65% vs 35% respectively.
Breakdown By Gender And Industry
Of the largest industries, Retail and Healthcare show the greatest equity between genders with close to 50/50 splits. The greatest inequity by gender is in the Technology & Services, and Telecommunication industries where only 31% of the workforce is represented by Women.
The research results suggest that most companies need to invest greater efforts in hiring qualified Women talent.
Services
Resources (49%)
The 3 industries with the lowest % of Women:
Oil & Energy (28%), Automotive (24%), Semiconductors (23%)
Employee Distribution By Race/Ethnicity
Across the 500 companies, White employees are the highest represented race/ethnic group, with 60% representation. Asian employees are the 2nd largest group with 20%, and finally Hispanic/LatinX and Black/African American employees each represent 10% of the Fortune 500 workforce.
Employee Distribution By Race/Ethnicity And Industry
When looking at the breakdown of Race/Ethnicity by industry, all industries show an average of 60% White employees, with the exception of Technology & Services, where White employee representation is 55%. The data shows a relatively high percentage of Asian employees in the Technology & Services Industry (31%).
Services
The 3 industries with the lowest % of Black/African American employees:
Medical Devices, Pharma & Bio Tech (8%), Information Technology & Services (7%), Semiconductors (5%)
With a 13% Black/African American and 18% Hispanic/LatinX population over the age of 18 in the US, the research suggests that companies have much ground to cover if they wish to reach an equitable race/ethnic representation. The research shows 10% representation for both Black/African American and Hispanic/LatinX employees. Conversely, employees of Asian race/ethnicity, who account for only 5.9% of the working population, are far more represented in Fortune 500 companies with a participation of 20%.
Churn
High Risk Churn By Gender
High risk churn is defined as the likelihood of employees to leave their company within the next 12 months. Our findings show that there is no significant difference in terms of high risk of churn between Men or Women. Both genders show 11% likelihood to churn in the next 12 months.
High Risk Churn By Gender And Industry
Within the 5 largest industries, the Technology & Services industry shows the highest risk of churn for both Men and Women with 12% of employees likely to churn within the next 12 months. Healthcare also shows a 12% risk, but that applies only for Men.
The 3 industries with the highest level of churn risk for Women:
Information Technology & Services (11.9%), Logistics & Supply Chain (12.5%), Construction (14.5%)
High Churn Risk By Race/Ethnicity and Gender
This section allows us to explore which racial/ethnic groups are most likely to churn within the next 12 months. Across the full sample size, the most significant finding is that Asian employees have the highest risk of churn (12%-13%), compared to White employees who have the lowest risk (10%).
The 3 industries with the highest level of churn risk for Black/African American employees:
Food & Beverages (13.5%), Management Consulting (13.6%), Logistics & Supply Chain (13.7%)
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Tenure
Median Tenure By Gender
Median tenure is a measure of loyalty and stability that people have in their jobs. With a high median tenure, companies need to worry less about losing employees. With a low median tenure, companies may be forced to hire new employees more often than they want.
In order to calculate median employee tenure (in years), we have excluded employees who are currently working in Fortune 500 companies for less than 2 years. Companies may have many new employees with less than 2 years of tenure, who could drive down median tenure and skew the accurate picture.
In our findings, across the Fortune 500 workforce, both Men and Women have an equal median tenure of 8 years.
Median Tenure By Gender And Industry
With a median tenure of 8 years for both Men and Women, it’s interesting to examine whether there are any differences between the specific industries themselves. Although there are differences from one industry to the next ranging from 6-12 years, we do note that there are no significant differences between Men and Women within the industries.
The highest median tenure can be found in Healthcare where for Men and Women, median tenure is 11 and 12 years respectively.
The 3 industries with the lowest tenure for Women:
Management Consulting (6.1 yrs), Entertainment (5.9 yrs), Consumer Electronics (5.9 yrs)
Median Tenure By Race/Ethnicity
We see no differences between White, Black/African American and Hispanic/LatinX employees. Only Asian employees have a lower median tenure of 6 years, lower than the other groups which top 7 years.
Median Tenure By Race/Ethnicity And Industry
With the exception of Asian employees who show 5 years of median tenure across nearly all industries, there are small differences between the industries for other racial/ethnic groups.
The 3 industries with the lowest tenure for Black/African American employees:
Logistics & Supply Chain (6.2 yrs), Human Resources (6 yrs), Entertainment (5.8 yrs)
Internal Mobility
Internal Mobility By Gender And Industry
We used the number of jobs held for each employee within the company, as a proxy for the level of internal mobility. The more jobs held by an employee, the higher the mobility. Internal mobility is important in retaining employees. The assumption is that when people hold several jobs within the same company, they are generally more satisfied. Across Fortune 500 companies, Men had a marginally lower level of mobility with 36% holding 2 jobs or more, compared to 38% of Women.
Internal Mobility By Gender And Industry
The greatest level of internal mobility for both Men and Women is in the Technology and Services industry. Here, Women have greater mobility with 40% of Women holding more than 1 job vs 39% of Men. The least amount of internal mobility is in the Healthcare and Retail industries where only 30%-34% of Men and Women hold more than 1 job.
The 3 Industries with the lowest % of internal mobility for Women:
Airlines & Aviation Services (31%), Construction (31%), Management Consulting (28%)
Internal Mobility By Race/Ethnicity And Industry
When looking at internal mobility by race/ethnicity, we found there are no significant differences between the racial/ethnic groups. We do note that White employees have a marginally higher level of mobility with 37% holding more than one job, compared to 34% for all other racial/ethnic groups.
Internal Mobility By Race/Ethnicity And Industry
White employees show a marginally higher level of mobility across all industries.
The 3 industries with the lowest % internal mobility for Black/African American employees:
Airlines & Aviation Services (27%), Entertainment (26%), Management Consulting (23%)
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Participation in Managerial Roles
Participation In Managerial Roles By Gender
We compared participation in managerial across genders, ethnicity and industries. We wanted to see whether the % of diverse talent in managerial roles reflects their overall representation in the workforce.
A company with levels of participation in managerial roles that are close to the levels of participation of their group in the overall workforce is likely to be able to better retain employees. Knowing this number helps diverse employees see a fair chance of being promoted to managerial roles within their companies.
When looking at the participation in managerial roles by gender we see that each gender is represented almost equally. We conclude that there is no underrepresentation of a certain gender in the Fortune 500 workforce.
Participation In Managerial Roles By Gender And Industry
There are no significant differences between industries in terms of gender representations. We do note, however, that in both Technology and Aviation industries, Women are marginally overrepresented and Men are marginally underrepresented.
The 3 industries with the lowest representation in managerial roles of Women:
Automotive (25%), Semiconductors (24%), Oil & Energy (24%)
Participation In Managerial Roles By Race/Ethnicity
When looking at the participation in managerial roles by race/ethnicity, both Black/African American and Hispanic LatinX employees are fairly represented. Both ethnicities represent 10% of the workforce and 10% of managerial roles. White employees, on the other hand, are slightly over represented in managerial roles and Asian employees are underrepresented.
Participation In Managerial Roles By Race/Ethnicity And industry
The overrepresentation in managerial roles of White employees is seen in every industry, with the greatest overrepresentation seen in the Technology & Services industry. Asian employees are underrepresented in managerial roles in all industries.
The 3 industries with lowest representation in managerial roles for Black/African American employees:
Medical Devices, Pharma, & Bio Tech (8%), Information Technology & Services (7%), and Semiconductors (6%)
Summary
Employee Breakdown by Gender
Men’s representation outweighs Women’s, 65% to 35% respectively.
The top performing industries in terms of women’s representation are Healthcare, Human Resources and Retail.
The 3 industries with the lowest % of Women are Automotive, Semiconductors, and Oil & Energy.
Employee Breakdown by Race/Ethnicity
When looking at the breakdown of race/ethnicity by industry, all industries show an average of 60% White employees, with the exception of Technology & Services, where White employee representation is 55%. The data shows a relatively high percentage of Asian employees in the Technology & Service Industry (28%).
The 3 industries with the highest % of Black/African American employees are Logistics & Supply Chain, Airlines & Aviation Services and Retail.
The 3 industries with the lowest % of Black/African American employees are Medical Devices, Pharma & Bio Tech, Information Technology & Services, and Semiconductors.
High Risk of Churn
Our research did not find significant differences between Women and Men, as far as their risk of leaving their companies within the next 12 months.
High Risk of Churn By Gender and Industry
The Technology & Services and Healthcare industries show the highest risk of churn for both Men and Women with 11%-12% of employees likely to churn within the next 12 months.
The 3 industries with the lowest levels of churn risk for Women are Telecommunications, Entertainment and Defense.
The 3 industries with the highest levels of churn risk for Women are Information Technology & Services, Logistics & Supply Chain and Construction.
High Churn Risk By Race/Ethnicity and Gender
We found that Asian employees have the highest risk of churn.
High Churn Risk For Black/African American Employees, By Gender
The 3 industries with the lowest level of churn risk for Black/African American employees are Telecommunications, Entertainment and Consumer Electronics.
The 3 industries with the highest level of churn risk for Black/African American employees are Food & Beverages, Management Consulting, and Logistics & Supply Chain.
Median Tenure By Gender
In our findings, across the Fortune 500 workforce, both Men and Women had the same median tenure of 8 years.
Median Tenure By Gender And Industry
We found no significant differences in Tenure, between Men and Women within the specific industries that were analyzed.
The highest median tenure can be found in the Aviation, Space & Defense industry with Financial Services not too far behind.
The 3 industries with the highest tenure for Women are Telecommunications, Semiconductors and Utilities.
The 3 industries with the lowest tenure for Women are Management Consulting, Entertainment and Consumer Electronics.
Median Tenure By Race/Ethnicity
There were no differences in tenure between White, Black/African American employees and Hispanic/LatinX employees. Only Asian employees had a lower median tenure (5 years), lower than the other groups that top 7 years.
Median Tenure By Race/Ethnicity And Industry
With the exception of Asian employees who show 5 years of median tenure across all industries, there are small differences between the industries for other racial/ethnic groups.
The 3 industries with the highest tenure for Black/African American employees are Telecommunications, Semiconductors and Aviation/Aerospace.
The 3 industries with the lowest tenure for Black/African American employees are Logistics & Supply Chain, Human Resources and Entertainment.
Internal Mobility By Gender And Industry
Across Fortune 500 companies, Men had a marginally lower level of mobility with 36% holding 2 jobs or more, compared to 38% of Women.
The greatest level of internal mobility for both Men and Women is in the Technology and Services industry. Here, women have greater mobility with 41% of Women holding more than 1 job, and 38% of men. The least amount of internal mobility is in the Healthcare and Retail industries where only 32%-34% of Men and Women hold more than 1 job.
The 3 industries with the highest internal mobility for Women are Consumer Goods, Electrical & Electronic Manufacturing and Chemicals.
The 3 industries with the lowest % of internal mobility for Women are Airlines & Aviation Services, Construction, and Management Consulting.
Internal Mobility By Race/Ethnicity And Industry
There were no significant differences between the different racial/ethnic groups as far as internal mobility. White employees have a marginally higher level of mobility with 37% holding more than 1 job, compared to 34% for all other racial/ethnic groups.
White employees show a marginally higher level of mobility across all industries.
The 3 industries with the highest internal mobility for Black/African American employees are Consumer Goods, Aviation/Aerospace and Electrical & Electronic Manufacturing.
The 3 industries with the lowest % internal mobility for Black/African American employees are Airlines & Aviation Services, Entertainment and Management Consulting.
Participation In Managerial Roles By Gender
We did not find underrepresentation in managerial roles for any specific gender, among the Fortune 500 workforce.
Participation In Managerial Roles By Gender And Industry
There are no significant differences between industries in terms of gender representations in managerial roles. However, in both the Technology and Aviation industries, Women are marginally overrepresented, and Men are marginally underrepresented.
The 3 industries with the Highest % of Women in managerial roles are Healthcare, Human Resources and Retail.
The 3 industries with the highest level of high risk churn for Women are Automotive, Semiconductors and Oil & Energy
Participation In Managerial Roles By Race/Ethnicity And industry
The overrepresentation of White employees is seen in every industry, with the greatest overrepresentation seen in Technology and Services. It can also be seen in the Technology and Services industry where Asian employees are underrepresented in managerial positions
The 3 industries with the highest % of Black/African American employees in Managerial roles are Logistics & Supply Chain, Airlines & Aviation Services and Retail.
The 3 industries with the lowest % of Black/ African American Employees in managerial roles are Medical Devices, Pharma, & Bio Tech, Information Technology & Services, and Semiconductors.
About the Data
As part of its solution to increase the representation of diverse talent in the recruitment pipeline, Talenya has developed unique technologies and a talent database of close to 1 Billion profiles. These profiles are captured from public sources, enriched and intelligently analyzed by Talenya’s AI algorithms.
Talenya Diversity AI ™
Using a suite of proprietary unbiased algorithms, Talenya Diversity AI™ is able to predict the gender and ethnicity of these profiles to a 98% accuracy.
Talent Evaluated
This report uses talent data that was collected from a variety of sources. Some talent may not have an online digital footprint and therefore may not be included Talenya’s database.
High Churn Risk %
Talenya has built an algorithm that predicts employee risk of churn based on more than 30 data points that signal a propensity to change jobs. High churn risk is associated with employees if the predicted churn is within the next 12 months.
Disclaimer:
Talenya’s analysis is based on the aggregation of publicly available data. We believe that our data provides a fair representation of employee data in the companies analyzed, and hence, a fair representation of the main diversity indicators. However, some company employees may not have enough public data that can be used for our analysis. Therefore, our analysis is by no means inclusive of all company employee data.
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