Following a successful Feasibility Study, Youth Futures commissioned the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) to deliver a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) with Kier Group employees, who were randomly allocated to receive one of two email campaigns asking them to share their diversity information:
The main report summarises the study, key findings, and next steps. The accompanying technical report details in full the RCT design and all evaluation findings.
Workforce diversity data can reveal where different groups are underrepresented or experiencing poorer outcomes in recruitment, retention and progression. But gaps in disclosure leave employers with an incomplete picture, making it harder to identify where barriers exist and where action is needed.
Like many employers, Kier has gaps in its workforce diversity data. To build evidence on how employers can tackle low or uneven diversity disclosure rates, Kier came on board to put their practice to the test, aiming to build an evidence based solution to this issue and to share learnings with the wider employment sector.
The behaviourally informed campaign also resulted in fewer employees providing all characteristics than the standard campaign and lower disclosure of disability, neurodiversity, ethnicity and social mobility across both disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged identities.
These insights suggest that brevity, personalisation and ease may need to be balanced with a clear organisational rationale, an appropriate messenger and confidence in the request’s legitimacy.
Interviews also highlighted broader factors shaping disclosure, including trust in how information would be handled, clarity of the questions and ease of the disclosure process. Some employees reported selectively withholding sensitive information, particularly relating to health or disability, due to privacy concerns or fears about potential workplace consequences.
Finally, both campaigns generated considerable engagement at relatively low cost, with the standard campaign and the behaviourally informed campaign costing just £1.46 and £1.47 per disclosing employee within the four-week trial period respectively. Provided that practical requirements for large-scale delivery of email communication campaigns can be met, these results demonstrate that relatively simple email campaigns can achieve substantial engagement with limited delivery resources.
The evaluation does not support adopting the behaviourally informed campaign in its current form instead of the standard approach. However, the findings offer useful lessons for employers seeking to improve diversity disclosure:
Check out more of what we’ve acheived with Understanding your workforce: diversity data disclosure trial
Understanding your workforce: diversity data disclosure trial
If you have any questions or queries, please reach out to: evaluation@youthfuturesfoundation.org
