Diversity & Inclusion Report 2020
A special diversity and inclusion report from the Global Leadership Forecast series with critical data on gender and minority leadership.

Improve Diversity and Inclusion Efforts
This special diversity & inclusion report from the Global Leadership Forecast series examines responses from 2,102 human resource executives and 15,787 leaders around the world to answer key questions to guide diversity and inclusion (D&I) efforts.
The health and economic crises of 2020 have shed further light on racial and social injustice, leading to deeper calls for equality and inclusion. With this in mind, we examined the data to answer questions like:
- How do leaders feel about the state of D&I at their organizations?
- Which industries are leading the way in D&I?
- What are the best practices at organizations with more diversity?
Your organization can benefit from this research to improve D&I at your workplace.
Research to Fuel Your D&I Strategy
Here are just a few of the data points you’ll see in this special diversity and inclusion report:
- Companies with above-average gender and racial/ethnic diversity in leadership roles are eight times more likely to be in the top 10% of organizations for financial performance.
- Fewer than 1 in 4 leaders (24%) reported their organization consistently recruits and promotes from a diverse talent pool.
- Globally, leaders from minority racial/ethnic backgrounds occupy just 22% of all leadership positions.
Our data on promotions is especially compelling. Companies are advancing leaders from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds at a faster rate, but there’s a much higher retention risk. This makes inclusion more important than ever.
— Stephanie Neal, Director of DDI’s Center for Analytics and Behavioral Research and General Manager of the GLF
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