Diagnosing what your organisation is doing to its people and building the framework to change it.
The Starting Point.
Many organisations already have a plethora of data: from engagement surveys to attrition figures, grievance records and sickness absence rates. However, most of this data tends to sit in dashboards and quarterly reports, reviewed periodically, occasionally discussed at Board meetings, and then filed. While the numbers are known and jotted down, what is seldom addressed is the daily reality of the people behind the numbers. The people who are navigating the organisation’s culture and processes, and what that’s doing to their health, wellbeing, and lives in and outside of work.
This diagnostic maps where structural inequity exists across the organisation and measures the impact of those conditions on the people experiencing it, using validated and peer-reviewed psychometric instruments that produce quantifiable evidence. We then translate those findings into an Accountability Framework with governance, milestones, and measurement that holds the organisation to account for affecting structural change.
Why the Human Cost Matters.
Public health research has extensively documented for decades that chronic exposure to discriminatory environments produces measurable physiological and psychological effects. From elevated cortisol and disrupted sleep, to cardiovascular impact, increased allostatic load, higher rates of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress; in addition to accelerated biological ageing - a phenomenon also referred to as “weathering'“ by public health researchers. These clinical findings have been replicated across studies and populations.
Yet, what has been less thoroughly examined is how these effects manifest specifically in workplace settings - despite the workplace being where most adults spend the largest share of their waking lives, and where chronic, repeated exposure to discriminatory conditions can be most concentrated. Thus, this diagnostic brings the public health tools and evidence into the workplace context, measuring not only where inequity exists, but what it is doing to the people living inside it.
The instruments used for this measurement are peer-reviewed psychometric tools that quantify the frequency and impact of discriminatory experiences, the mental health burden across demographic groups, and the chronic cumulative stress of working in an inequitable environment. They produce evidence that can be presented to a Board, benchmarked against published research, and used as a baseline against which genuine progress can be tracked.
What the Diagnostic Examines.
The diagnostic has three integrated components:
Structural analysis
Human cost assessment; and
Qualitative insight
Together, they produce a complete picture of the structural conditions, their measurable impact on people, and the lived experience that gives the data its meaning. This then informs the Accountability Framework.
Please note, the Diagnostic and Accountability Framework is delivered as one integrated engagement.
What’s Included.
-
Including but not limited to:
Policies, processes and procedures: a forensic review of how recruitment, promotion, performance, management, discipline and grievance processes operate, and whether they produce racially inequitable outcomes regardless of individual intent.
Headline pay gap: ethnicity pay gap calculation (mean and median) as part of the structural picture, providing an initial indication of where pay inequity exists. For organisations requiring full intersectional disaggregation, a pay process audit, and detailed remediation and systemic recommendations, the dedicated Ethnicity Pay Gap Analysis and Reporting service provides this in depth.
Representation and progression mapping: across grades, functions and length of service, examining where people sit, who progresses and who does not.
Leadership attitudes and engagement: assessing how senior leaders engage with race equity, and whether leadership behaviour matches organisational commitments.
Engagement survey data and colleague sentiment: reviewing existing survey results through a race equity lens, including disaggregation by ethnicity where available.
Existing DEI provision: reviewing current training content, delivery and engagement.
Communications: reviewing internal and external communications regarding how race equity is discussed, what tone is set and what is conspicuously absent.
Sickness and absence data: disaggregated by ethnicity, with particular attention to workplace stress-related absence patterns.
Cultural competence of existing wellbeing provision: assessing whether Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP), mental health first aiders, and occupational health services are equipped for and accessed equitably by minoritised ethnic employees.
-
The human cost assessment uses a suite of peer-reviewed, validated psychometric instruments, selected and tailored to each engagement based on the organisation’s demographics and the specific intersections that need to be examined. Instruments include:
Everyday Discrimination Scale (EDS)
Major Racial Discrimination Scale (MRDS)
Racial Microaggressions Scale (RMAS)
Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21)
Gendered Racial Microaggressions Scale (GRMS)
Intersectional Discrimination Index (InDI)
LGBT People of Color Microaggressions Scale
The specific combination of instruments is discussed during the scoping conversation and depends on the workforce composition and the questions the diagnostic needs to answer. Further detail on the methodology, including what each instrument measures and how it is administered, is available during the scoping process.
All instruments are administered anonymously. No names or identifying information are collected. Respondents enter demographic information in categories broad enough to prevent individual identification. Only aggregate, population-level findings appear in any report.
-
Including but not limited to:
Trauma-informed focus groups with minoritised ethnic employees: confidential, carefully facilitated conversations designed to surface structural experiences and its impact on health, wellbeing and life in and outside of work. Groups are conducted with full anonymity, no organisational representatives present, and a clear protocol shared with all participants in advance. Where colleague or staff networks exist, they serve as the trusted entry point for communication and engagement.
Interview, focus groups and questionnaires with HR and People teams, senior stakeholders, staff networks, and other engaged and non-engaged colleagues: capturing perspectives from across the organisation, awareness and appetite for change.
-
Following the diagnostic findings, the Accountability Framework translates evidence into structured and clear commitment:
Prioritised recommendations: addressing the structural conditions identified and the human cost they are producing, with clear ownership at the right level of seniority.
Governance structure: defining who is accountable for what, how progress is overseen, and what happens when commitments are not met.
Milestones and measurement: specific, time-bound targets to track differences over time in structural change and human cost, using the same instruments administered as a baseline.
What You Walk Away With.
A complete, evidence-based picture of where structural racial inequity exists within your organisation and what it is costing the people experiencing it - quantified through peer-reviewed instruments, contextualised through the voices of the people affected, and grounded in both organisational data and public-health evidence.
An Accountability Framework that commits the organisation to specific, measurable, and governed change - with a clear baseline for tracking progress, so that the question of whether anything has genuinely improved is answered by evidence rather than assumption.
A foundation for ongoing work. The diagnostic and framework are designed to be engaged with and revisited to drive sustained improvement - marking the onset of ongoing and accountable work.
A Note on How the Focus Groups Work:
The Human Cost Assessment and qualitative elements of the diagnostic is designed with particular care. Minoritised ethnic employees have legitimate reasons to be cautious about institutional processes, including those commissioned by their employer. Trust should not be assumed - it is earned through the design of the process itself and its facilitators.
Participants are always volunteers. The invitation comes directly from Unitea - not from their manager or the People team. Where colleague or staff networks exist, they are engaged as trusted intermediaries before the process begins. The full protocol, including what will be asked, what will happen to the responses, and what will (and won’t) appear in any report, is shared with participants in advance. Groups are small, conducted without any organisational representatives present, and nothing is attributed to individuals.
All instruments and focus groups include clear, pre-arranged access to culturally competent support for anyone who needs it. As the instruments are fully anonymous, individual follow-up is not possible. Therefore, the support pathway is self-directed and clearly signposted before, during, and after participation.
Timeline.