The 20 Best Diversity And Inclusion Survey Questions To Ask

We get that you want diversity and inclusion in the workplace. But wanting it is one thing, and implementing it successfully is a different ball game altogether. That’s where diversity and inclusion survey questions can help. 

See, the very first step towards bringing a culture of diversity and inclusion at work is to:

• Understand your employee’s thoughts on it.
• Conduct focused surveys on this for all of them using the right tools.

The type of diversity and inclusion questions you and your HR team include will determine how actionable the data is. These questions are exactly what we’ll talk about here. Plus, we will also share some tools and tips that you can use to make your diversity and inclusion survey better and more rewarding!

Top 20 Diversity And Inclusion Survey Questions

More than half. That’s how many employees think their companies should do more to increase diversity, according to Glassdoor. 

These stats make diversity and inclusion survey questions as crucial as possible. Because that’s how companies and leaders understand if they’re truly diverse and inclusive or not. Based on the survey results, the necessary changes can be made. 

With this in mind, we’ve developed seven key questions to measure diversity and inclusion in an organization.

Before we discuss the survey questions in detail, here’s a free diversity and inclusion survey created using SurveySparrow. Feel free to customize it according to your needs.

Diversity & Inclusion Survey For Free

Use This Template

You can create similar diversity and inclusion surveys and track diversity, equity, and inclusion trends in your organization. Try out SurveySparrow with a free account below. 

You can use these to create a diversity and inclusion survey from scratch or use one of our free survey templates.

When used in a diversity and inclusion survey, the questions below generate quality responses, based on which decisions can be made and actions taken. So, with no further ado, let’s explore them individually.

Questions On Diversity

As we mentioned in the earlier section, diversity incorporates elements that make humans unique. But at the workplace, only a handful of categories determine if an organization is diverse or not.

So here are seven questions to help you understand how diverse your company is from your employees’ eyes. 

1. How diverse do you think the executive team is?

Yes, that’s one of the first diversity and inclusion survey questions you should ask your employees.

The reason is that if your executive team values the importance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, they’ll bring initiatives to boost that further. And they’ll make sure that everyone in the organization is supporting diversity just the way they are. 

2. What does our promotion and evaluation process look like in terms of diversity?

In every organization, the promotion and evaluation process clearly shows if they believe in diversity or not.

Asking this as one of your diversity and inclusion survey questions would give clarity on whether the promotion and evaluation process is free from any bias, preferences, or choices.

3. Do we celebrate the diversity of ideas and people in our organization?

One of those diversity and inclusion survey questions shows an organization’s culture well.

This question can be open-ended or scale-based, depending on the type of data you want to collect and the changes you’re looking to make using it. 

4. How creatively does the HR teamwork to source candidates from underrepresented communities?

Just like the promotion and evaluation process, this question too shows if a company truly believes in diversity in the workplace or not.

The reason is that diverse companies always seek people from different backgrounds with unique thought processes. But organizations that don’t believe in diversity look for the ‘right’ fit during the hiring process.

You’ll get to know your employee’s thoughts from this question.

5. On a scale of 1 to 10, how comfortably can you talk about your social and cultural background in the workplace?

If you’re aiming to bring maximum workplace diversity inside the organization, you need to include this as part of your diversity and inclusion survey questions list. You can also use an eNPS survey to indirectly get the answer to this question based on the survey response.

Then analyze the results closely. Combined with sentiment analysis, it will give a clear picture of just how comfortable your employees feel about discussing their social/cultural background. 

6. On a scale of 1 to 10, how committed is the top management to supporting the needs of your colleagues with disabilities?

The answers to this will show what the employees think about you and the top management’s efforts to bring diversity into the workplace.

Moreover, keeping this question scale-based will clearly show if you need improvement here or not, with no fluff.

7. Where do you think the company can improve to become more diverse going forward?

If the answer to the previous question shows that you, as a leader and top management, need improvement with all your diversity efforts, this question will allow you to know how.

A word to the wise: keep this question open-ended. It will give your employees the chance to express their views and freely suggest probable solutions. 

8. Do you believe that diverse backgrounds and experiences are considered an asset in our company?

This question assesses the perceived value placed on diversity within the organization and whether diverse experiences and backgrounds are seen as beneficial, reflecting the organization’s approach to diversity.

9. Do you feel our organization has an inclusive approach when it comes to creating new policies and making major decisions?

This question is aimed at understanding whether employees feel that the policy and decision-making processes in the company take into account the perspectives and needs of diverse individuals, pointing out any exclusionary practices.

10. Are you satisfied with the measures taken by the company to address and rectify instances of bias or discrimination?

This question measures employee satisfaction with the company’s responsiveness and effectiveness in addressing issues related to diversity, showcasing the company’s commitment to maintaining a harmonious workplace environment.

Questions On Inclusion

These seven time-tested questions will help to understand the level of inclusivity in your company. Let’s know about them one by one.

1. Are employee training and induction programs promoting inclusivity?

This is one of the most crucial diversity and inclusion survey questions. It will give you an idea of how well employees are responding to your training and induction programs and how well these programs are promoting a sense of inclusivity inside the organization. 

You can ask this question the way you want to, i.e. as an open-ended, scale-based, or as a Likert-scale type question. 

2. On a scale of 1 to 10, can you communicate concerns safely within the organization?

Employees can voice or express their concerns only when they feel safe doing that, and when they know some changes will take place after it.

Framed as a scale-based question, this will help you understand how safe and effective your employee feedback channels are. 

3. Do you think inclusivity is one of our most important values?

This is one of those diversity and inclusion survey questions that should be asked to employees on a regular basis. Because you need it to understand whether they think the organization supports and empowers inclusivity at every level. 

If the answers are not what you expected, you can make changes to achieve the right results as a leader. 

4. Which inclusivity initiative did you like the most? Why?

This must-have question will help you understand the inclusivity initiatives your employees and teams are resonating with.

The reason they’ll give is to help better these initiatives going forward. 

5. On a scale of 1 to 10, how confident do you feel in voicing a contrary opinion in a meeting?

Over the years, we’ve observed that the answers to this question clearly show whether you have an inclusive environment in the company.

Yes, this one scale-based question is that effective! 

6. Do you have a career growth path you’re aware of in this organization?

In an organization where inclusivity is given the right attention, the answers to this question are pretty positive. And it also shows that the employees are satisfied with their association with your brand.

So, you would want to add this as one of the diversity and inclusion survey questions and analyze the results properly. 

7. How and where can we give more freedom to express ideas and opinions in the organization?

This survey question would show you where improvements can happen in your inclusivity initiatives.

Moreover, keeping this question open-ended allows the employees to express their thoughts freely.

So, this should be one of the top diversity and inclusion survey questions you’ll ask.

8. Have you witnessed or experienced discrimination, harassment, or biased behavior in the workplace?

This question can uncover potentially harmful behaviors and situations within the organization.

9. How would you rate the effectiveness of our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) in promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace?

This question can help understand the impact of ERGs in fostering diversity and inclusion in the company.

10. Do you believe our organization’s recruitment and selection processes are free from biases and promote diversity?

This question helps assess whether the hiring processes are perceived as fair and inclusive by the employees.

Effective Tools To Conduct Diversity And Inclusion Surveys

You now know the fourteen top diversity and inclusion survey questions that’ll always get you the right data.

But how can you add these questions to a D&I survey and send it? What are the different tools you could use for it? 

Let’s get you your answers here.

1. Online Survey Software

Nothing can be better than using survey software to conduct diversity and inclusion surveys. Period.

But why?

Survey software is the best way to gather reliable information quickly from your employees about diversity and inclusivity in the organization.

Moreover, analyzing feedback from these surveys will clarify where you need to improve and bring new initiatives to boost employee diversity and inclusion. 

If you want to use survey software for your D&I surveys, look no further than SurveySparrow. This Typeform alternative allows you to create engaging forms and surveys with no hassle. These surveys here are conversational, easy to use, and completely secure.

More importantly, it offers powerful features like Likert scale questions, interactive dashboards, customization, embedded surveys, recurring surveys, and more. You can use and test all of these features in your 14-day free trial.

2. 360-Degree Feedback Software

You can spend all your dollars on your customers to make them stay. But without your employees’ efforts, it just won’t last.

We want to conduct market research to learn about customer preferences, insights, and opinions. But what about conducting diversity and inclusion surveys to determine employee satisfaction levels? 

Recently, employee satisfaction and experience have become popular and crucial topics. No matter the industry, people like to do business with people, and satisfied employees are the best people to attract customers and keep them engaged.

That’s why using a 360-degree feedback tool like SurveySparrow’s 360-degree feedback solution is important. With this, you can conduct an employee assessment, increase their satisfaction levels and drive growth.

Trust us; you need to conduct such assessments, especially to understand what they think about your diversity and inclusion initiatives.

3. Offline Surveys

We’re no strangers to network issues. So consider using this tool to make your diversity and inclusion surveys convenient for your employees. 

Using SurveySparrow’s offline survey tool, you get to create a survey that does not need an active internet connection to access and answer. As a result, it’s easier for your employees to take the survey on the go.

The response rates of our clients using this tool have increased massively, and the same could happen for you. So, try it.

Tips To Improve Your Diversity And Inclusion Initiatives

According to a 2018 Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report, organizations that had diverse management saw their overall revenues increase by up to 19%.

…And this is a report from 2018. We’re at 2023. Despite the pandemic hit last year, this percentage must be way above 19% now! 

We can give you more stats to show how big a difference diversity and inclusion initiatives are bringing to an organization’s bottom line. But that would be of no use.

Instead, we want to give some time-tested tips that will help you massively with these initiatives.

Most of these tips are what our clients started using after analyzing the results from their diversity and inclusion surveys. Some of these tips are what we at SurveySparrow use every day.

10 Tips to Improve Diversity and Inclusion at Your Workplace

• Survey your executive team and top management for diversity and inclusion. Because for any diversity and inclusion initiative to be successful, the leaders have to believe in it. 
• Set up discussion forums and open meetings for your employees. Everyone can share their opinions freely, irrespective of their position. As a leader, reward their honesty in these forums or meetings. 
• Be a multilingual organization and invest in translation services. It might look costly now, but this is the best way to propel your inclusion initiatives to the next level. 
• Revamp your office to support bipolar or autistic employees. They work brilliantly when given the right environment. Through your diversity in the workplace initiatives, you have the power to help lessen the stigma that comes with mental illness.
• Eliminate bias in the hiring/promotion process, especially toward working mothers. For example, one of our clients promoted a young mother to the position of regional head in March of this year. She has already hit the ground running with increased sales and new orders for the company.
• Segment all the employee engagement & satisfaction surveys for different groups. Don’t miss out on the minority groups.
• Look at the language used in your company’s website, brochures, blogs, or any content. Check if it correctly shows how diverse or inclusive the organization is.
• Conduct quarterly surveys to improve on your initiatives. After all, diversity and inclusion is an ongoing process, not a one-off training. 
• Keep empathy above all the other goals. As a leader, do your best to help an employee through hard times. Your employees will be loyal to your brand for this gesture, and when the dust settles, they’ll get you the right results!
• Lastly, teams should be built on strengths, not backgrounds. That’s the best way to educate employees on the importance of diversity.

Wrapping Up

We’ve covered everything from why diversity and inclusion are important to tips that can help you improve on them. We hope you pick up all the value nuggets to create a diversified and inclusive culture going forward—one where every one of your employees thrives and succeeds, and no one is left behind. 

Diversity and inclusion are supremely important topics, especially for 2023 and beyond. If an organization is diverse in the way they hire, promote, and build their workplace culture, it doesn’t mean all is well, and the job is done. 

Diversity without inclusion is useless. The more diverse a team becomes, the more important inclusion becomes. 

Rest assured, you can start using these tips immediately and stay patient to see the results they deliver. And if you need expert help with asking the right diversity and inclusion survey questions, contact us. We’re rooting for you. Let’s raise the curtains, then!