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The HACR Corporate Inclusion Index (CII) is a robust benchmarking tool that helps companies create a roadmap to build upon their existing diversity and inclusion efforts. The HACR CII consists of over 150 questions created by the HACR Research Institute (HRI) over years of research and conversations with Fortune 500 companies about their diversity and inclusion practices and the measures in place to evaluate their progress.[1] The HACR CII survey assesses companies on their inclusiveness of Hispanics and allows companies to measure the outcomes of their programs and practices along each of HACR’s four pillars of economic reciprocity:
- Employment (employee demographics, ERG efforts, professional development initiatives)
- Procurement (change in spend with Hispanic suppliers, tier II supplier spend, supplier development initiatives)
- Philanthropy (contributions to the Hispanic community, volunteer hours, dollar value of volunteer hours)
- Governance (board composition, corporate leadership trends, diversity and inclusion structure)
This year, HACR is pleased to announce the release of the 2021 HACR Corporate Inclusion Index Report.
Top industry participation in the 2021 HACR CII.
The theme of this year’s report is Hispanic diversity, equity, and inclusion during crisis. The socio-political events of 2020 highlighted many of the health, social, and economic disparities experienced by racial and ethnic minorities throughout the United States. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, racial and ethnic minority groups were more likely to be employed in low-wage, non-exempt jobs with an increased risk of job loss during times of economic downturn.[2] Longstanding systemic social inequalities have translated to Hispanics and other minorities having an increased risk of contracting COVID-19, experiencing social and economic injustices, and being impacted by the effects of natural disasters. What’s more, during the COVID-19 shutdowns, 20 percent of Hispanic adults reported being laid off or furloughed, compared to 11 percent of white adults, making Hispanics nearly twice as likely to have lost their jobs in 2020 than their white counterparts.[3]
Women and minority-owned businesses have also suffered significant challenges throughout the year, impacting supplier diversity. Existing systemic disadvantages, such as scaling and limited access to contracting opportunities, were exacerbated by the pandemic and other disruptive social and economic events. Because these events brought social and economic disparities to the forefront of a national discussion, the implications and impact of these events on Hispanics in Corporate America serve as the focus of this year’s HACR CII report.
"Outcomes for companies’ DEI practices on the 2021 survey show decreased Hispanic inclusion across all four of our focus pillars."
This regression is also evident when controlling for new participant responses. The trendline in this year’s results is a troubling sign for the resilience of Hispanic inclusion efforts during tumultuous national events. Measures that had historically presented persistent gaps in Hispanic representation remain so, with only moderate progress in some cases, and decline in others, when compared to data from 2020.
The inequitable outcomes of the events of 2020 should prompt companies desiring to be on the vanguard of diversity, equity, and inclusion to question their fundamental beliefs about the efficacy of their diversity and inclusion practices. The lack of progress revealed in this year’s survey signals an opportunity for corporations to reevaluate their DEI practices and metrics at the most foundational of levels and consider what might be needed to build resilience in the event of future crises.
To see what else our data showed, download a copy of the 2021 HACR Corporate Inclusion Index report here.
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