Here’s what to expect from a QuakeLab equity audit

The title might speak for itself, but essentially, we put together this page to help set expectation for the reader about what this document is, and what it isn't. We put together our data story with the assumption that our most critical reader will be consuming this report with no access to us, and little to no context. With this lens, it becomes important to set a foundation that avoids critique based on a misunderstanding of expectations.

As a team, we've taken an obnoxious amount of time workshopping the QuakeLab methodology. We insist on being data-forward in our audits, so it's important for us to 'show our work'. The methodology pages on our equity audit reports are meant to give a comprehensive breakdown of the data we collect and use, how we collect it, and how we use it. Here, we aim to be clear about our sources, process and results to build confidence in the analysis laid out.

As part of laying out our methodology, it's important we situate our work and approach within a broader context. This includes understanding a few things:

1. Canada does not have a culture of collecting disagregated data, so our secondary sources may be few and far in between;

2. Quantitative data is often prioritized, moreover some forms of data historically used by marginalized peoples are considered unsubstantiated (stories, whisper networks, etc.), and it's important for us to use these sources;

3. QuakeLab has an internal data ethics policy that includes the insistence on not sharing raw data with clients as much as as is reasonably possible. We do this to maintain anonymity and the integrity of the data.

Lastly, we will never consider our search for the perfect methodology complete. If you have worked with us in the past, your methodology breakdown may look slightly different as we consistently workshop our process.

Organizational Snapshot

This is where we begin to dive into our findings, and although we said we don't use up valuable real estate describing what you're doing well, we do take some time capture a wide snapshot of your organization. We use this opportunity to flag what is an excellent start, but also where you can push further.

The organizational snapshot also gives us a chance to share interesting patterns we found when given the opportunity to run a cross analysis of demographic data and equity questions. Here we visualize trends we catch broken down by race, ability, gender, and more. This is a fantastic space for us to capture interesting information eg. despite having gender parity, the majority of women in senior leadership are white.

Pain Points

The Pain Point section of our equity audit report is where we lay out systematic equity challenges we have found. In our analysis, we may find a number of areas of concern, but we share in this document only what we feel is urgent, and what we feel we can make a comprehensive and clear argument about. Our goal is to give you as much relevant information as possible for you to begin moving into solution building. Two key things to note:

• These pain points try as much as possible to focus on a tangible area (eg. in the image above we cover benefits).

• At face value these areas may seems unrelated to what you may understand as traditional DEI, we put in a lot of work into creating a throughline from work systems, to who they work for and who they disenfranchise. In the example above, we tie a lack of satisfaction with benefits with a significant number of disabled employees.

Our pain points are a masterclass in our methodology because they illustrate each piece of our approach:

• Document review - exploring the systems that govern your organization (benfits)

• Survey - cross analysis of identity and areas of interest (% of disabled staff who are satisfied with benefits)

• Empathy interview - gives us a qualitative understanding (% of disabled staff who are satisfied with benefits)

• Secondary data - an understanding of how this pain point stands as part of a global phenomenon (later on in the paint point we lay out how race and disability coincide with poverty and the ways disabled people are more likely to have to pay out of pocket on top of insurance coverage, to get basic care)

Reconciliation

The way we approach Indigenous reconciliation in our audits has been iterative and full of missteps. Our goal was to offer tangible steps to move the needle, while using what already existed and has been created by Indigenous peoples. At this stage, we take calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation 94 Calls to Action, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) Action Plan and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Calls to Justice.

Our goal is to take these calls to action, and try to present the ones relevant to the client and their line of work, and explain how they are uniquely positioned to action them.

To be clear, we don't think we have perfected this section and we will be actively putting resources into getting closer in the years to come.

What Happens Next

In the past, we encouraged clients to participate in a Design Thinking for Inclusion workshop with us where they selected one pain point to tackle in six hours.

More recently, we have been exploring working closely with clients who have completed an equity audit to work through what large scale implementation looks like. An audit gives you a really solid, focused starting point for what you need to do and how to measure success. We have seen clients create action plans, strategies, tactics, and hire a team specifically from the results of these equity audits.

We look forward to the opportunity of working with you and your team!