Intersectionality and data evaluation
Recommended course length: Half day
Overview
Most organisations collect information on the demographics of their employees, but many do not put this information to good use – for example, to inform EEDI strategies, improve recruitment processes, or identify potential barriers and biases in the workplace.
This workshop will explore strategies for gathering, monitoring, and analysing this data; how it can benefit your understanding of EEDI in your organisation; and how you can use it to improve outcomes for marginalised staff members.
Topics Covered
- What is intersectionality, and how does it apply here?
- Data capture and analysis
- How to review and inspect your data
- Using an intersectional framework
- to check for barriers and missing information
- ensuring that data capture and reporting is “clean” (e.g. anonymity where relevant) and organised
- Making sure that employee data is used meaningfully
Course Outcomes
- Identify gaps in organisational data
- Collect, monitor, and evaluate data with an intersectional lens
- Use employee data to improve EEDI across the business
When we look at diversity in the workplace, data is often the starting point. Organisations collect statistics on gender, ethnicity, disability, and other protected characteristics to measure representation, inform policies, or fulfil legal duties. But on its own, raw data rarely tells the full story. That’s where an intersectional approach becomes essential. By looking at how different aspects of identity interact, rather than treating them as separate, isolated categories, we can uncover the deeper patterns and inequalities that traditional data analysis might miss and help to develop strategies to improve internal processes.
From our experience working with a wide range of sectors, including NHS Trusts, schools, and private companies and industries such as the construction industry, marine industry and more, we’ve seen how important it is to move beyond surface-level metrics. Intersectional data analysis helps decision-makers understand not just who is included, but how different groups experience the workplace in distinct ways. Without this, organisations risk designing inclusion strategies that overlook some of the very people they’re meant to support.
An intersectional framework gives us the tools to move from compliance to real change. It’s a more honest, more insightful way to evaluate workplace culture, and it leads to policies that better reflect lived realities, especially for those who are often overlooked by one-size-fits-all approaches.
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What Is Intersectionality and Why Does It Matter?
Intersectionality as a theoretical framework originated in academic research. It describes how systems of inequality such as racism, sexism, ableism, and classism overlap and interact, producing unique experiences of discrimination or disadvantage for people who belong to more than one marginalised group. For example, the challenges faced by a Black disabled woman in the workplace can’t be understood by looking at race, disability, or gender in isolation.
In our work delivering Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) training, we’ve found that introducing organisations to intersectionality transforms the way they understand data. Instead of treating identity as a checklist, they begin to recognise the nuanced ways in which inequality plays out across teams and departments. That’s when data starts to become genuinely meaningful and useful.
The Limits of Single-Issue Data
Many organisations are used to looking at diversity data through a single lens. They might track the proportion of women in senior roles, or how many disabled staff are in customer-facing positions. While this is a step in the right direction, it often overlooks how those characteristics intersect. Are Black women represented in leadership roles at the same rate as white women? Are neurodivergent men experiencing the same workplace barriers as neurodivergent women?
Without using an intersectional data analysis model, it’s easy to miss these overlapping patterns. Worse still, some interventions may unintentionally reinforce inequality. A workplace initiative designed to support women may be less accessible to women from underrepresented ethnic backgrounds, if their cultural or linguistic needs weren’t considered from the start.
How Intersectional Data Analysis Leads to Better Decision-Making
This is where we can help with our intersectionality and data evaluation course. Using a diversity and intersectionality framework for data evaluation helps organisations make better decisions at every level. It allows HR leaders, EDI professionals and managers to:
• Identify who is being left behind despite overall progress.
• Design training, policies, and strategies that are genuinely inclusive.
• Measure the effectiveness of interventions more accurately.
• Prevent unintended consequences that come from overlooking complexity.
Our approach to Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) support is rooted in this understanding. We don’t just help organisations tick boxes, we guide them through a process that reveals deeper patterns and creates space for more meaningful outcomes. When an EIA is informed by intersectional thinking, it becomes a tool for transformation rather than tokenism.
Building Confidence in Using Intersectional Frameworks
For many professionals, the idea of applying an intersectional framework to data can feel daunting at first. It’s not always clear how to get started or what kind of questions to ask. That’s where our training makes a difference. We work with organisations to build confidence, improve data literacy, and help teams understand how to interpret findings through an intersectional lens.
This is particularly relevant in sectors like healthcare and education, where outcomes are deeply shaped by social and structural inequalities. In our Cultural Competence training for NHS teams, for example, we explore how patient experiences are influenced not just by ethnicity or language, but by the intersections of disability, religion, socioeconomic status and more. Analysing this data through an intersectional lens leads to more equitable and culturally responsive services.
From Data Collection to Inclusive Action
Collecting intersectional data is only the first step. The real value lies in how that data is used. Too often, diversity metrics are compiled into reports but never meaningfully acted on. To avoid this, we encourage organisations to treat intersectional analysis as part of a wider strategic commitment, something that informs leadership decisions, staff training, policy reviews, and resource allocation.
The EHRC (Equality and Human Rights Commission) offers practical guidance on using data to advance equality and address discrimination, and we frequently point clients to their resources as a reliable foundation. Likewise, CIPD’s guidance on diversity and inclusion provides helpful insights into interpreting and applying intersectional workforce data in a business context.
We’ve seen the difference it makes when organisations commit to this work. It’s not just about improving staff satisfaction or compliance, although those things matter. It’s about creating an environment where everyone can thrive, where policies reflect real-life experiences, and where inclusion isn’t an afterthought, but part of the organisation’s DNA.
A More Inclusive Way to Evaluate
Adopting an intersectional approach to data evaluation isn’t about making things more complicated, it’s about making them more accurate. It’s about asking better questions, listening more carefully, and being honest about the complex realities people face at work. Whether we’re reviewing an Equality Impact Assessment, delivering inclusive leadership training, or helping clients rethink their strategy, intersectionality remains at the heart of what we do.
We bring both professional insight and lived experience to every session, helping organisations move beyond generic solutions to something more meaningful. When intersectional data analysis becomes standard practice, organisations can stop guessing and start understanding. And with that understanding comes the power to create real, measurable, lasting change.
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