This post was written by Cherelle Moore, Talent Recruitment and Retention Specialist and Brenna Schmidt, Diversity Coordinator for the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
The City of Philadelphia has launched a Workforce Diversity Dashboard, an interactive tool that provides monthly insight into many aspects of the City’s workforce. The dashboard is a product of extensive collaboration by leaders within the City’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Office of Innovation & Technology (OIT), and the Office of Human Resources (OHR).
Dashboard Features
The Workforce Diversity Dashboard provides an interactive and engaging experience for users—one that offers a deeper dive into workforce data. Users will have the ability to explore the following categories:
- Race, ethnic and gender composition of the total municipal workforce
- Senior leadership
- City departments
- Salary data
- Hires and separations
- Representation progress over time
- And Zip code map
Within each category, users will also have the option to explore a host of demographics and data breakdowns.
Increasing Transparency
The Workforce Diversity Dashboard will increase transparency regarding the composition of the City’s workforce and significantly expand on previous reporting efforts like the City’s Workforce Diversity Profile and Annual Report, which provides an annual snapshot of the City’s workforce diversity.
The dashboard will also highlight progress in workforce diversity that has been achieved during the Kenney administration, while providing an opportunity to reflect on challenges relating to the improvement of diversity, equity and inclusion. Overall, this new tool encourages accountability and supports the City of Philadelphia’s commitment to building a workforce that reflects the diversity of the city.
Citywide Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
The Workforce Diversity Dashboard is the next step in the City’s campaign to improve diversity, equity and inclusion in its workforce. In 2016, Mayor Kenney signed Executive Order No. 1-16, which established a Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer to partner with City departments to develop and implement strategies to improve the recruitment, retention and promotion of diverse people, utilize training to improve the culture within the City, and to assess diversity and inclusion progress within the City’s workforce.
In 2020, Mayor Kenney signed Executive Order No. 1-20, which amended EO 1-16 to include ‘Equity’ in the Chief Officer’s title and established the framework for a Citywide Workforce DEI Strategy. This change emphasized the importance of looking beyond representation and focusing on work environments and culture. As part of the Workforce DEI Strategy, each City department is required to develop a plan to support inclusive work environments and the advancement of diversity, equity and inclusion strategies.
The Mayor’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion meets with City departments quarterly to strategize around diverse representation and culture change. The Workforce Diversity Dashboard will support these efforts by tracking employee demographic trends and employment patterns within departments.
Using Data to Make Change
The Workforce Diversity Dashboard will serve as a useful tool to inform reflection and decision-making across City departments. City leaders can use the dashboard to inform their DEI recruitment and retention strategies to build a more equitable workforce that is reflective of the city. Utilizing workforce data and analytics is a great method to identify existing gaps and areas of growth within the City’s DEI strategies. Even with the enhanced features of the dashboard, there is still much progress to be made concerning data collection. The City will continue to make strides to collect more significant and robust employee data.
Collaboration
The Office of Human Resources maintains the underlying data used to populate the dashboard. The Office of Innovation and Technology’s CityGeo team designed this tool to engage users and allow them to explore the impactful work of DEI. OIT leverages data and technology to improve government efficiency and support equity-focused initiatives. This project serves as an example of how City departments are working together to share knowledge and expertise in service of advancing diversity, equity and inclusion.
As users engage with this tool, we welcome your continued feedback and suggestions.
For questions about the data that powers this dashboard, you can contact the One Philly team in OHR at hrhelpdesk@phila.gov. For questions about data analysis, visualizations, or dashboard functionality, you can contact the CityGeo team in OIT at maps@phila.gov. And any questions about how the City is building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workforce, you can contact the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at diversityinclusion@phila.gov.
