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CONFIDENTIAL Workshop: Corporate Religious Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (REDI) Index

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Tuesday, May 11 – 8:00-10:00am Pacific / 10:00am-noon Central / 11:00am-1:00pm Eastern

Thank you for being willing to discuss the next generation of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation’s REDI Index©. This workshop has three components:

  • (1) Brief overview of the REDI Index Criteria from 2020 and 2021
  • (2) Brief overview of the Corporate Religious Diversity Assessment (CRDA) (a separate online tool we created in collaboration with Tanenbaum)
  • (3) Discuss a more streamlined and participatory next-generation REDI Index

PROBLEM: (a) The current REDI Index is labor-intensive for the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation and limited to what companies make public; (b) the CRDA imposes high demand for companies to disclose internal information and focuses on corporate policy rather than ERG activities.

OBJECTIVE: The Religious Freedom & Business Foundation values your thoughts on what to include (and/or not include) on a more streamlined and participatory next-generation REDI Index. Our hope is to have an online survey that faith-oriented ERG leaders can complete that provides information on the size and activities of the ERGs or other faith-initiatives of the company, e.g., corporate chaplains, external partnerships with faith-oriented groups, volunteer service with faith communities, core business activities supporting faith communities, etc.

DESIRED OUTCOME: The ideal outcome of the workshop will be a list of questions/metrics to include on a Simple, Scalable, Self-reported REDI Index that allows companies to clearly see benchmarks for success on the index.

(1) REDI Criteria in 2020 and 2021

The 2021 REDI Index provided a measure of the degree to which companies publicly acknowledge religion as part of their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The first chart below shows the points awarded in 2021 by Religious Freedom & Business Foundation staff based on their content analysis of the companies’ main diversity landing pages:

First, they get points for including religion in videos and images on the page (main page only for comparability across companies) as well as points for each mention of religion-related terms on the page.

Second, companies also get points for each faith-based ERG mentioned on the company’s website (which may be elsewhere than the diversity page).

And third, companies received 10 points if they have carried out a public program to help train or orient other companies on setting up, operating or engaging faith-oriented ERGs.

The main differences in the 2020 REDI Index calculations (shown below) from the 2021 calculations (above) are (a) the inclusion of points for a company signing the Corporate Pledge on Religious Diversity & Inclusion and (b) points related to the Corporate Religious Diversity Assessment (CRDA).

These we excluded from the 2021 REDI Index because no companies had made the Pledge and the few companies that took the CRDA did not want their scores published.

(2) Corporate Religious Diversity Assessment (CRDA)

In 2016, the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation issued the Corporate Pledge on Religious Diversity & Inclusion and invited companies to sign on (View More About the Pledge).

The CRDA is a 100-point assessment based on the aspirations of the Corporate Pledge intended both to help companies reflect on where they are on the road toward implementing the Pledge and proactively addressing religious diversity, to consider what they may want to engage in, and to inspire future activities and concrete next steps.

The Pledge and the CRDA utilize overlapping criteria to encourage companies to foster religiously inclusive workplaces.

THE FOUR CRITERIA OF THE CRDA

  1. 1. Non-Discrimination and Non-Harassment on the Basis of Religion or Belief
  2. 2. Religious Accommodation and Inclusion
  3. 3. Promoting Sustainable and Innovative Business through Protecting Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB)
  4. 4. Protecting and Promoting Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) in Our Communities
Your company will need access to the following information to complete the CRDA. You will not need to share these documents in order to do the CRDA, but will need to consult them in order to respond to questions.
  • – Anti-discrimination and equal employment policies and statements
  • – Records of religious EEO and/or religious discrimination or harassment complaints
  • – Public statements / statements of values, i.e. Corporate Social Responsibility statements
  • – Annual reports and public reporting
  • – Records of corporate philanthropic/social responsibility contributions
  • – Lists of business partners, suppliers, contractors, and local partners over the past year
  • – Materials currently used in all onboarding and internal trainings
  • – Access to, and reports from, existing employee feedback mechanisms

VIEW ALL QUESTIONS: CRDA Assessment Guide (online)

Please note that smaller companies are less likely to score points in some areas because they may not have the same resources as large corporations.

(3) Discussion

How can we move toward a more streamlined and participatory next-generation REDI Index that is Simple, Scalable, and Self-reported, allowing companies to clearly see benchmarks for success on the index?