Opportunity Equity:
Why Does It Matter and How Can Your Company Achieve It?
Opportunity equity means that all employees have equal access to opportunities for hiring, promotions, advancement, and development — regardless of gender, race, or other factors of identity.
Why is opportunity equity important?
If companies don’t provide equal access to career advancement and improve inequitable attrition rates, they will never close their unadjusted pay gaps.
White men still dominate management and leadership positions.1
Likelihood of being in leadership positions
Women fall behind men at the first step of moving from entry-level to manager.2
For every 100 white men promoted, there are:
White men report better access to career-boosting projects and opportunities.
% who report fair access to career-enhancing assignments3
There’s a “leaky bucket” for women at director levels (the group next-in-line for senior leadership positions).
Director-level women are leaving at a notably higher rate than men at the same level.2
Black and Latina Women face the largest opportunity gaps of any group.1
% of white men, Black women, and Latina women in various positions
When it comes to opportunity equity, metrics matter.
Nearly 90% of companies have diversity goals, but most don’t know how (or if or when) they can achieve them.4
About 80% of companies are “just going through the motions” of DE&I and “not holding themselves accountable.” 5
Getting buy-in is just one way metrics prove essential. Metrics also can pinpoint where problems are arising… Without precise metrics, a DEI effort can spend a lot of time and money trying to fix the wrong thing."
Joan C. Williams
Distinguished Professor of Law at University of California-Hastings, the Hastings Foundation Chair, and the founding director of the Center for WorkLife Law3
What should you do to achieve opportunity equity?
01Perform a representation audit
Analyze your current workforce to understand what representation looks like across levels and departments.
“What do we look like today?”
“What should we look like?”
02Benchmark against available talent
Benchmark your employee population against both internal talent availability and external labor pool data to identify and prioritize your biggest gaps.
03Use data to set goals and forecast when you will realistically reach them.
Forecast when you’ll hit your representation goals based on current practices (including hiring, internal advancement, and attrition rates) and model different scenarios to see their impact on your trajectories.
“When will we get there?”
“How do we get there?”
04Prioritize root cause focus areas with the biggest impact.
Dig into the drivers of inequities in hiring, promotions, performance assessments, and retention. Then focus your effort and investment where you have the:
- Biggest gaps
- Highest rates of inequities
- Greatest opportunities for improvement
05Take action, measure outcomes over time, and communicate about progress.
Implement policy change interventions and track progress, then use that information to create a communication plan for each of your stakeholder audiences, including leadership, managers, employees, and shareholders. Remember to have:
- Clear and focused progress metrics
- Conversations about both gains and setbacks
“Who do we talk to about progress?”
How to get from ‘where we are’ to ‘where we should be’
OppEQTM from Syndio makes it easy to identify representation gaps and pinpoint inequities — from hiring and performance assessments to promotions and retention — so that you can build action plans customized to your specific business challenges.
Explore the platform and learn how OppEQ can quickly pinpoint where to focus to make meaningful progress towards realistic goals.
Together, let’s build a more equitable workplace.
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1. Syndio, Report:, When Will the U.S. Opportunity Gap Close?, January 2024
2. LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Company, Women in the Workplace 2023, October 2023
3. Harvard Business Review, To Build a DEI Program That Works, You Need Metrics, October 2022
4. Syndio, The 2023 Workplace Equity Trends Report, October 2022
5. The Josh Bersin Company, Elevating Equity: The Real Story of Diversity and Inclusion, February 2021