Executive Parity Indices (EPIs)
What are the Executive Parity Indices (EPIs) for your demographic groups?
The Executive Parity Index (EPI) is the ratio of one group’s representation at the executive level versus its representation at the professional level.
The EPI provides a simple metric to compare how different groups are faring in your management pipeline. If the EPI is equal to 1.0, then a group’s representation is the same at the top and bottom of the pipeline. If the EPI is less than 1.0 or below parity, then there are fewer at the top relative to those at the bottom. An EPI greater than 1.0 is above parity.
Suppose your company has a total of 10 Executives, including 2 women. You also have a total of 100 Professionals, including 40 women. Hence, women are 20% of Executives and 40% of Professionals. In this example, the EPI for women is 20% / 40% = 0.50, significantly below parity.
Enter the employment data for a group in the calculator and see the group’s EPI.
Compare the indices for different groups for large gaps.
* Job categories defined in your EEO-1 report filed with EEOC
** For more information on the EEOC standard definitions of various job categories and ethnicities, please click here.
What Can You Do?
Our recommendations are below:
If you find EPI disparities between different groups, you should start a more rigorous analysis of the management pipeline, possibly leading to a close examination of your processes to recognize and develop high-potential talent.
The EPI calculation only provides a high-level view of the parity through your management pipeline because the EEOC definitions include multiple employee grade levels. The next step would be to extend the pipeline analysis and use data for internal grade levels to evaluate, in detail, where the gaps between different groups begin to emerge. The evaluation will probably require separate analyses by region or function, as appropriate (e.g. the management pipeline for sales may be different than the pipeline for engineering).
To address gaps in any minority pipeline, you should engage your minority executives and the appropriate employee network groups to help identify improvements in your existing talent development processes.
For more detailed information, please download a free copy of Hidden in Plain Sight: Asian Leaders in Silicon Valley.
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