New Rating For Companies' Equity Efforts Seeks To Offer Road Map For Inclusion

The International WELL Building Institute, known for its health-related building ratings, has taken a step into the equity sphere, launching the WELL Equity Rating. 

The rating explores the overlap of health and equity, seeking to create a road map for workplaces where marginalized populations are accommodated and can thrive, and also where companies can achieve their DEI goals. Systems like this are popping up more and more as companies undertake DEI initiatives, but their effectiveness has yet to be proven. 

But companies need a place to start and some guidelines to keep them on track, IWBI said.

“What we have heard over and over is that people want to do something, but they don't know how to go about doing it,” said Angelita Scott, International WELL Building Institute director and community concept lead. “They feel paralyzed at times, because it is so overwhelming.”

The rating uses 43 features to assess a company’s equity progress at one location. Companies with multiple office locations must undertake the process for each one.

The 43 features fall under six categories: user experience and feedback; responsible hiring and labor practices; inclusive design; health benefits and services; supportive programs and spaces; and community engagement. In order to get the WELL Equity Rating “seal,” a company must achieve at least 21 of them. 

“We wanted to make sure that they are able to obtain the rating, that it doesn't seem too challenging, but we do want to make sure that it is not performative — we do want to make sure that people are actually stretching and evolving in their organization,” Scott said. 

The rating will evolve and change as companies do, Scott said. 

The rating, once given, must be renewed annually. Though a company’s responses are self-reported, they are verified by a third party before they are accepted and validated by the IWBI. 

The rating was in development for two years. The process involved over 200 outside advisers and input from groups representing racial and ethnic minorities as well as groups representing groups most often marginalized in workplaces, International WELL Building Institute CEO Rachel Hodgdon said. 

“Every feature of the WELL standard has research that allows us to point to one or several of the six target populations that we identified to improve outcomes for those kinds of individuals,” Hodgdon said. The populations, identified as those most often marginalized in workplaces, are first-generation immigrants, LGBTQIA and BIPOC people, neurodivergent and physically disabled people, and primary caregivers. 

Some of the actions that companies can undertake to help make workplaces more equitable and inclusive for people who fall into these categories range from having paternity and paid leave for caregivers to having an empowered chief diversity officer: one with a budget and a seat on the executive team or a direct line of reporting to the executive team. 

“That is something that, when properly construed, can have an impact on any of the marginalized and underresourced communities that we're trying to represent and lift up through the rating,” Hodgdon said. 

There are no deal-breaker features that everyone must undertake in order to get the rating. Any combination of 21 features or more is the threshold for the WELL Equity Rating seal and no specific features are mandated. The thought is that every organization is different and will have different needs, so “we do encourage people to really speak to their employees and their stakeholders first,” to see which areas need improvement, Scott said. 

These systems aren't without their potential drawbacks, however.

“My concern when we get into certifications and the measuring of things is always, if we're just going through the motions, if we're just doing it to be doing it. But is this really who we are?” career strategist and founder of Fuller Circle Consulting Garland Fuller said. 

Fuller said that sometimes certifications and ratings in general can become a designation that gives some decision-makers the feeling that there’s no additional work to be done. What’s important, Fuller said, is not to rest on designations but to maintain a commitment to improvement across the board, at all levels of an organization. 

“It's great to have it [a rating or certification] as a starting point,” Fuller said. “However, I don't want people to think, ‘Oh, well, we got the designation. The end.’"

Though the IWBI has created some checks and balances for its rating, like the annual reverification, Scott admits that it could still be misused by companies that want to see it as a stopping point instead of a place to start. 

“Yes, people can use any of these tools as performative,” Scott said. “We did not create it for that, but if an organization wanted to use it for that, they very well could.”

“We feel that with the way that we have set up the rating, you have to put in some real resources and real effort into achieving them,” Scott said. “So it hopefully will make it harder for people who want to do that to do it.”

Fuller says the increasing investor focus on ESG is helping to keep workplace diversity and equity conversations going and relevant. 

But a December 2022 ULI report on a survey of over 190 organizations indicated that any economic turbulence resulting in reduced earnings would likely mean decreased overall budgets and less money for DEI efforts. 

“It is not uncommon for respondents to report that the greatest obstacle to successful DEI implementation is that DEI is a low priority or DEI targets are not tied firmly enough to business objectives,” the report stated.

CORRECTION, DEC. 15, 3 P.M. PT: A previous version of this story misstated the number of outside advisers that contributed to the creation of the rating. The story has been updated.