Jul 11 / Kelly Adams

How Inclusive Is Your Business? Let our DEI Checklist help you to find out.


Only 1 in 4 CEOs say they are confident in their organization’s DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) maturity—despite 87% agreeing that diverse teams drive better business outcomes.

This gap between intention and impact is now under increasing scrutiny from investors, regulators, and others alike. The question is no longer whether DEI matters, but how deeply and consistently it is embedded across your operations.


In our learning series in Strategic Corporate Sustainability, we offered a non-exhaustive self-assessment checklist to enables DEI leads, ESG officers, and HR strategists to rigorously assess how DEI is applied across Governance, Workforce & Culture, Products & Services, Supply Chains, Community Engagement, Data & Accountability.


The checklist covers areas including:

  • Governance: Board and C‐suite oversight of DEI, risk management, budgets and policies. It asks whether DEI goals drive capital allocation and fiduciary decisions – for instance, whether diversity of thought informs investment policies (as noted in financial-sector best practices).

  • Workforce & Culture: Recruitment, promotion, pay equity and inclusive culture. Questions probe unbiased hiring/promotion practices, systematic pay‐gap audits, and how “belonging” is defined and measured in employee engagement.
  • Product/Service Design: Inclusion in offerings and marketing. For example, the checklist asks if products/services are tested with diverse users and designed to eliminate biases (accessible design, diverse advertising).

  • Supply Chain: Supplier diversity and labor practices. It examines whether procurement targets minority- or women-owned businesses, and whether all suppliers meet consistent DEI and human-rights standards.

  • Community Engagement: External stakeholder inclusion. The tool evaluates if the company maps and listens to underrepresented community groups, and whether CSR programs equitably serve all community segments.

  • Accountability & Data: Metrics and reporting. It emphasizes the need for clear DEI KPIs (e.g. diverse hiring targets, pay-gap metrics) and transparent reporting. Senior leaders are asked if DEI outcomes are tied to performance reviews and if deep data analysis (intersectional metrics) is used to guide action.
Interested in knowing the recent U.S. DEI policy changes and how corporations are adapting their strategies? Check out our April 2025 Bi-monthly Executive Brief and subscribe to our mailing list to get notified of the June Issue coming out soon!