Recently, the KLPA Research team completed a piece of research into global labor force demographics for one of our clients. Our Research team also created a guided process and training format that our client can continue to use to update the research on a regular basis.
A couple of findings from our research:
Each country’s (and region’s) population demographic is unique and not recorded in a consistent manner
Even data sources that are considered reliable, such as censuses and national statistics, are impacted by trust and disclosure issues.
Even the most common data sources, like the census, are challenging to access.
Data from different sources cannot be compared one-to-one; we encountered variations in Research Methodology and variations in Word Choice.
69 countries in the world currently have laws that criminalize homosexuality, and therefore it is not possible to access any official data on this diversity group.
Reviewing labor force data also led us to insights on what cultural levers come into play:
Career progression for historically marginalized or underprivileged groups continues to lag behind employees of the demographic majority groups.
A lack of understanding or knowledge about challenges for historically marginalized groups is a main inhibiting factor.
An organization needs to invest in a culture of openness and a growth mindset is key to improvement.
Metrics and benchmarking can help measure progress.
Comparing country demographic research with employee demographics at a company is even more challenging, as without proper preparation, such as reviews of local privacy laws, an employer will not be able to collect demographic data from its employees in a data-secure and privacy-safe manner. In addition, employee engagement issues, lack of trust, or enhanced skepticism to such data gathering may also get in the way of collecting employee demographic data.