The workplace diversity research project
Essity approached OnePoll through sister agency 72Point at the start of 2022, looking for the agency to run a piece of international research, examining the state of diversity in the workplace from the perspective of employees, across Europe and selected markets in the Americas. There was a focus on perception of diversity and inclusion in the workplace in general, equal pay and chance for progression (by gender, as well as race/ religion/ disability/ nationality), treatment of expecting/ new parents, and actual policies in place (including employee thoughts on those policies) as well as other topics.
The research
OnePoll assisted with the design of the workplace diversity research questions, to ensure they were appropriate to the audience being polled, and due to the slightly sensitive nature of the topic (questions related to personal experience of discrimination in the workplace) to ensure that these were compliant with the MRS code of conduct. 1,000 interviews were conducted per market in January and February 2022, in the UK/ ROI/ Spain/ Italy/ France/ Germany/ Sweden/ Netherlands/ US/ Mexico/ Columbia, with data splits by age, gender, sector, company size, and time at company – further analysis was carried out by country in a merged report. An online quantitative approach was chosen to reach a reasonable number of employees from different companies across the markets.
The results
Across all markets, the majority felt they have a relatively diverse workplace (82%), with those in Mexico (96%) reporting this most, and in the UK the least (70%). 83% said that it was important to them that they work in a diverse workplace. Interestingly 30% think their employer actively discriminated on one of the listed categories, with age (12%) being the most reported area of discrimination.
Individual and merged excel tables were delivered, along with individual and merged executives summaries. The merged reports included all markets other than Columbia which was a later addition. The merged executive summary looked at country level comparisons, and data from this was used by sister agency Oath Design to create further collateral, including a microsite.
This project is part of a larger research programme that OnePoll is working on with 72Point and Essity, which contributes towards Essity’s brand purpose to ‘Break Barriers to Wellbeing’.