Development Best Practices

• According to Becky Cantieri, Chief People Officer at SurveyMonkey, one best practice in developing DEI surveys is to actually create two separate surveys: one focusing on diversity and one for inclusion.
• The diversity survey would focus on collecting diversity metrics for staff, while the inclusion survey would focus on if employees of all identities feel "welcome, respected, and empowered to grow."  
• Additionally, it is important to think broadly about different types of diversity and identities that employees may have, beyond the typically obvious (race and gender, for example).
• Experts recommend going deeper, from visible traits to semi-visible (like ethnicity, marital status, religion, and socioeconomic status) and invisible (like sexual orientation and personality traits, for example).

Implementation Best Practices

• Experts recommend sending out an announcement about the survey prior to sending the actual survey. This should include basic facts about the survey, like when it will be sent and from whom, but should also explain why the survey is being sent out, encourage participation, and provide a bit of explanation on how the survey was created.
• According to People Scout, companies must reassure employees that "the information requested is to help create a diversity and inclusion program" in order to create a sense of trust and gain participation and honest feedback in the surveys.
• According to Becky Cantieri, Chief People Officer at SurveyMonkey, it is best to make the survey responses anonymous, so that employees feel comfortable being honest about their identities and feelings.
• Some companies go as far as to hire an independent consulting company to create and administer the survey, so that employees are assured of anonymity.