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DEI Demographics

  • July 14, 2023
  • 3 replies
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brookel
Groups Administrator
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We know that governments often want to build authentic and actionable DEI programs, and a critical part of that is making sure the data you are collecting is able to be segmented by demographic factors in order to get insight into differences in experience and access.

Demographic questions can be challenging, as there are many different definitions and standards for them. Based on our own research and feedback from our customers, attached below are some recommended best practice ways to ask several popular demographic questions.

This list is not exhaustive - feel free to add other questions that make the most sense to you and your agency.

Please note that it's very important to establish credibility and trust with the respondent before asking these questions, so we recommend 1) including the demographics questions at the end of the survey and making every single question optional and 2) including SOME sort of "why we're asking these questions" section (example provided above).

 

    3 replies

    AdamK12
    Level 5 ●●●●●
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    • AdamK12
    • Level 5 ●●●●●
    • July 14, 2023

    This is a very valuable post and resource. In my world (U.S. federal government), there is a well-established Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) that goes into the field once a year. For our public surveys, we have just received guidance from OMB, which governs survey clearances, that we are able to ask demographic and gender identity questions, and other questions of a more sensitive nature (such as sexual behavior, income, etc.) as long as the questions are germane to the research and receive clearance.This represents a significant change for federal surveys -- agency researchers should check with their clearance staff for specific information, but it’s definitely a positive development.

    Adam Korengold, NLM/SCI (he/him/his)
      colehammond
      Qualtrics Employee
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      • colehammond
      • Qualtrics Employee
      • July 14, 2023

      Wow! This is incredible news @AdamK12! I can’t wait to see what your and your org are able to achieve with this new guidance. Definitely a game-changer for those operating in the federal space. 

      This is a very valuable post and resource. In my world (U.S. federal government), there is a well-established Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) that goes into the field once a year. For our public surveys, we have just received guidance from OMB, which governs survey clearances, that we are able to ask demographic and gender identity questions, and other questions of a more sensitive nature (such as sexual behavior, income, etc.) as long as the questions are germane to the research and receive clearance.This represents a significant change for federal surveys -- agency researchers should check with their clearance staff for specific information, but it’s definitely a positive development.

       

        brookel
        Groups Administrator
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        • brookel
        • Author
        • Groups Administrator
        • July 14, 2023

        This is a very valuable post and resource. In my world (U.S. federal government), there is a well-established Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) that goes into the field once a year. For our public surveys, we have just received guidance from OMB, which governs survey clearances, that we are able to ask demographic and gender identity questions, and other questions of a more sensitive nature (such as sexual behavior, income, etc.) as long as the questions are germane to the research and receive clearance.This represents a significant change for federal surveys -- agency researchers should check with their clearance staff for specific information, but it’s definitely a positive development.

        So glad to hear that. Thanks for sharing!

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