Measure Up Initiative: Fortune and Refinitiv Partnership (Methodology)
Executive summary
Following heightened international focus on social injustice and racial inequality, Fortune and Refinitiv have joined forces to help businesses across all industries address one of the most pressing challenges we face – building truly inclusive and fair workplaces.
The Measure Up initiative aims to make diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) disclosure and performance a critical metric for successful businesses. For this analysis, we leverage Refinitiv Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) data to create a relative benchmark and identify the most progressive companies in diversity and minorities inclusion.
Refinitiv Measure Up scores rank companies based on their disclosure and performance relative to the Fortune 500 companies. This assessment is initiated alongside the 2021 Fortune 500 companies and across Fortune 1000 company pages to track progress over time
Data collection
We’ve encouraged Fortune 500 companies plus others to contribute their minority group inclusion data using Refinitiv’s ESG Data Contributor tool by February 2021. Refinitiv also sourced data from public disclosures to ensure a critical mass of information was available to effectively rank performance of companies in terms of minority group inclusion. We list the 14 key metrics below that formed part of this analysis.
Ranking
Refinitiv adopted a percentile scoring approach to ranking companies as part of Measure Up. The key takeaway is that disclosure of data plays a critical role in how well a company has been ranked for this analysis. Companies that disclosed most and have the best percentage breakdowns for the numeric data measures come out better in the final ranking list.
Key points around the Percentile Ranking methodology are:
- Rankings have been calculated based on relative performance versus other companies in the Fortune 500
- All data measures are equally weighted
- Percentile scores at a data-measure level are calculated based on data reported by companies for all 14 data measures
- Non-disclosure of a Boolean data measure results in a score of zero for that item
- Data measure scores are summed up at company level
- Final percentile scores between 0-1 are derived for each company based on summed data measure scores
- Percentile scores can be converted to ranks
Ranking process steps
Step 1: Disclosure of data
The 14 data measures listed in the table below formed part of the Measure Up survey and have been considered when ranking the Fortune 500 companies. Fortune 500 companies were encouraged to contribute three years of data for these measures to support trend analysis.
| Metric | Data type |
| Policy Board Diversity | Boolean |
| Policy Diversity and Opportunity | Boolean |
| Targets Diversity and Opportunities | Boolean |
| Day Care Services | Boolean |
| Employee Resource Groups | Boolean |
| Minorities board Percentage | Percentage |
| Women Employees | Percentage |
| New Women Employees | Percentage |
| Women Managers | Percentage |
| Employees with Disabilities | Percentage |
| Gender Pay Gap Percentage | Percentage |
| Minorities Employees Percentage | Percentage |
| Minorities Managers Percentage | Percentage |
| Minorities Salary Gap | Percentage |
Step 2: Percentile scoring formula applied at data measure level
For each of the 14 data measures listed above, a score was generated using the percentile formula below.
- How many companies are worse than the current one?
- How many companies have the same value?
- How many companies have no value at all?
A percentile rank score is based on the rank and therefore is not very sensitive to outliers.
| Boolean data measure | Yes = 1, No = 0 | Boolean data measures are typically answered with Yes/No. Yes, denotes that the company has a Policy for a particular data measure & No denotes that the company does not have a policy. Companies that answered with a ‘Yes’ get a percentile score and answered with a ‘No’ get a score of zero. |
| Numeric data measure | Higher the percentage, better the percentile score | If a numeric data is reported by a company, then a relative percentile ranking is applied considering all the companies reporting the respective data measure. |
Illustration—Boolean data measure percentile ranking
The illustration below focuses on the Day Care Services data measure for 10 sample companies = “Does the company claim to provide day care services for its employees?”
In the illustration, 7 companies have policy for Day Care Services and 3 companies do not have a policy. Those who responded “yes” they have a policy are awarded a score of 1 and those with “no” policy is assigned a 0.
| Company-actual name | Title | Data measure value | Data measure value converted to numeric value | Category for percentile score calculation | Data measure percentile score calculations | Percentile formula calculation |
| Amazon.com, inc. | Day Care Services | Yes | 1 | Same Value | 0.65 | (3+(7/2))/10 |
| UnitedHealth Group Incorporated | Day Care Services | Yes | 1 | Same Value | 0.65 | (3+(7/2))/10 |
| AT&T Inc. | Day Care Services | Yes | 1 | Same Value | 0.65 | (3+(7/2))/10 |
| AmerisourceBergen Corporation | Day Care Services | Yes | 1 | Same Value | 0.65 | (3+(7/2))/10 |
| Ford Motor Company | Day Care Services | Yes | 1 | Same Value | 0.65 | (3+(7/2))/10 |
| CIGNA Corporation | Day Care Services | Yes | 1 | Same Value | 0.65 | (3+(7/2))/10 |
| Chevron Corporation | Day Care Services | Yes | 1 | Same Value | 0.65 | (3+(7/2))/10 |
| Exelon Corporation | Day Care Services | No | 0 | Worse | 0 | 0 |
| Northrop Grumman Corporation | Day Care Services | No | 0 | Worse | 0 | 0 |
| Plains GP Holdings, L.P. | Day Care Services | No | 0 | Worse | 0 | 0 |
Once the scores above are in place, the percentile scoring methodology is applied, as per the table below. Other Boolean Data Measures in the survey are scored in an identical fashion:
- No: of Companies with worse value = 3 companies
- No: of Companies with same value = 7 companies
- Total No: of Companies with a value = 10 companies
- Data Measure Percentile score will be (3+(7/2))/10 = 0.65
- Companies who do not have the policy will get a score of zero
Illustration—Numeric data measure percentile ranking
The illustration below focuses on the Employees with Disabilities data measure, which is the percentage of employees with disabilities or special needs.
Companies that employ a high percentage of disabled employees receive a better percentile score than those with lower percentages. To illustrate, the steps below show how the percentile score is calculated for Northrop Grumman Corporation versus the Employees with Disabilities data measure. The same percentile scoring methodology is applied as set out in Step 2.
| No: of companies with worse value = 13 | In total there are 14 companies that have reported Employees with Disabilities of which 13 companies have a lesser data measure value when compared to Northrop Grumman Corporation |
| No: of companies with same value = 1 | No other company has data measure value of 8.1, so number of companies with same value will be 1 |
| Total No: of companies with a value = 14 | Denotes total number of companies which have reported Employees with Disabilities |
Data Measure Percentile score for Northrop Grumman Corp is calculated as (13+(1/2))/14 = 0.964285714
| Company-actual name | Unit | Data measure value | Data measure percentile value calculations | Percentile formula calculation |
| Northrop Grumman Corporation | Percentage | 8.1 | 0.964285714 | (13+(1/2))/14 |
| Microsoft Corporation | Percentage | 6.1 | 0.892857143 | (12+(1/2))/14 |
| L3Harris Technologies, Inc. | Percentage | 6 | 0.821428571 | (11+(1/2))/14 |
| CMs Energy Corporation | Percentage | 5 | 0.75 | (10+(1/2))/14 |
| Kinder Morgan, Inc. | Percentage | 4 | 0.642857143 | (8+(1/2))/14 |
| Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. | Percentage | 4 | 0.642857143 | (8+(1/2))/14 |
| OshKosh Corporation | Percentage | 3 | 0.535714286 | (7+(1/2))/14 |
| Qualcomm Incorporated | Percentage | 2.7 | 0.464285714 | (6+(1/2))/14 |
| BlackRock, Inc. | Percentage | 2.4 | 0.392857143 | (5+(1/2))/14 |
| AT&T Inc. | Percentage | 2.161 | 0.321428571 | (4+(1/2))/14 |
| Waste Management, Inc. | Percentage | 2 | 0.25 | (3+(1/2))/14 |
| C. H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. | Percentage | 1.98 | 0.178571429 | (2+(1/2))/14 |
| 3M Company | Percentage | 1.4 | 0.107142857 | (1+(1/2))/14 |
| AbbVie Inc. | Percentage | 1.2 | 0.035714286 | (0+(1/2))/14 |
All other numeric data measures in the survey are scored in the same way.
Step 3: Summing up percentile scores for each company
Once data measure percentile scores have been calculated, the next step in the process is for these values to be summed up. The table below uses Microsoft as an example, where the data measure values are converted to data measure percentile scores and summed up to a score of 9.498901527.
| Company-actual name | Title | Data type | Data measure value | Data measure percentile value calculations |
| Microsoft Corporation | Day Care Services | Boolean | 1 | 0.862 |
| Microsoft Corporation | Employee Resource Groups | Boolean | 1 | 0.75 |
| Microsoft Corporation | Employees with Disabilities | Float | 6.1 | 0.892857143 |
| Microsoft Corporation | Gender Pay Gap Percentage | Float | 100 | 0.729741176 |
| Microsoft Corporation | Minorities Board Percentage | Float | 39.7 | 0.889937107 |
| Microsoft Corporation | Minorities Employees Percentage | Float | 49.8 | 0.769417476 |
| Microsoft Corporation | Minorities Managers Percentage | Float | 41.3 | 0.881294964 |
| Microsoft Corporation | Minorities Salary Gap | Float | 100.6 | 0.944444444 |
| Microsoft Corporation | Policy Board Diversity | Boolean | 1 | 0.574 |
| Microsoft Corporation | Policy Diversity and Opportunity | Boolean | 1 | 0.566 |
| Microsoft Corporation | Targets Diversity and Opportunity | Boolean | 1 | 0.902 |
| Microsoft Corporation | Women Employees | Float | 28.6 | 0.345 |
| Microsoft Corporation | Women Managers | Float | 26.3 | 0.394009217 |
| Sum of percentiles of all the reported data measures | 9.498901527 |
Step 4: Ranking companies based on the sum of the data measure percentile score
The final step is to take the sum of percentiles of data measure scores for all the companies and apply the same percentile score methodology outlined in Step 2. This will give a final company level percentile score which enables the list to be ranked. The table below illustrates this with a subset of examples companies.
| Company-actual name | Sum of data measure percentile value calculations | Percentile scores | Ranks |
| Microsoft Corporation | 9.498901527 | 0.998891353 | 1 |
| Target Corporation | 8.611192875 | 0.996674058 | 2 |
| The Gap, Inc. | 8.4683225 | 0.994456763 | 3 |
| Intel Corporation | 8.220076827 | 0.992239468 | 4 |
| Centene Corporation | 7.913776724 | 0.990022173 | 5 |
| The Allstate Corporation | 7.756652542 | 0.987804878 | 6 |
| PVH Corp. | 7.70745488 | 0.985587583 | 7 |
| Amazon.com, Inc. | 7.677727947 | 0.983370288 | 8 |
| Bank of America Corporation | 7.63718004 | 0.981152993 | 9 |
| Levi Straus & Co. | 7.601921312 | 0.978935698 | 10 |
| Wells Fargo & Company | 7.595615803 | 0.976718404 | 11 |
| Verizon Communications Inc. | 7.55159666 | 0.974501109 | 12 |
Appendix 1: Single company scoring examples
Step 1: Scoring at data measure level
Fourteen data measures form part of the Measure up survey with companies awarded scores for each measure disclosed. For Boolean data measures, where a company has a disclosed the fact it has policies, targets etc, they are converted to a score of 1 and scored accordingly for that data measure. Non-disclosure, or no policy is converted to a score of 0, resulting in a 0 score for that data measure.
Example: Sample Corporation has not set targets or objectives to be achieved on diversity and equal opportunity, so was awarded a 0 score for this measure. Sample Corporation does have a policy on Board Diversity, so the data measure value is represented as 1, which equates to a percentile score of 0.574 for this data measure.
Numeric/Percentage Data is scored based on the value of the Percentages reported by the company. The higher the percentage, higher the percentile score. Sample Corporation percentile score was high for both Women Employees and Women Managers as data measure value percentages were high in comparison to other companies in the Fortune 500.
Table 1 is an illustration of data for Sample Corporation, showing the data measure values and the percentile scores which are benchmarked against other Fortune 500 companies in the survey.
| Company-actual name | Category | Title | Data type | Unit | Data measure value | Data measure percentile value calculations |
| Sample Corporation | Workforce | Targets Diversity and Opportunity | Boolean | TRUE/FALSE | 0 | 0 |
| Sample Corporation | Management | Minorities Board Percentage | Float | Percentage | 29 | 0.688679245 |
| Sample Corporation | Workforce | Minorities Employees Percentage | Float | Percentage | 50 | 0.774271845 |
| Sample Corporation | Workforce | Minorities Managers Percentage | Float | Percentage | 36 | 0.762589928 |
| Sample Corporation | Workforce | New Women Employees | Float | Percentage | 73 | 0.981481481 |
| Sample Corporation | Management | Policy Board Diversity | Boolean | TRUE/FALSE | 1 | 0.574 |
| Sample Corporation | Workforce | Policy Diversity and Opportunity | Boolean | TRUE/FALSE | 1 | 0.566 |
| Sample Corporation | Workforce | Day Care Services | Boolean | TRUE/FALSE | 1 | 0.862 |
| Sample Corporation | Workforce | Women Employees | Float | Percentage | 75 | 0.961666667 |
| Sample Corporation | Workforce | Women Managers | Float | Percentage | 70 | 0.993087558 |
| Sample Corporation | Workforce | Employee Resource Groups | Boolean | TRUE/FALSE | 1 | 0.75 |
Step 2: Generation of a company level percentile values
Once data measure percentile scores have been calculated as part of step 1, step 2 is to sum up the data measure percentile values at company level. Using Sample Corporation as an example, 11 data measure values were summed up to give a company percentile score value of 7.913776724.
Table 2 highlights the data measures disclosed by Sample Corporation represented as data measure value plus data measure percentile scores and summed company level percentile score for the company.
| Company-actual name | Category | Title | Data type | Unit | Data measure value | Data measure percentile value calculations |
| Sample Corporation | Workforce | Day Care Services | Boolean | TRUE/FALSE | 1 | 0.862 |
| Sample Corporation | Workforce | Employee Resource Groups | Boolean | TRUE/FALSE | 1 | 0.75 |
| Sample Corporation | Management | Minorities Board Percentage | Float | Percentage | 29 | 0.688679245 |
| Sample Corporation | Workforce | Minorities Employees Percentage | Float | Percentage | 50 | 0.774271845 |
| Smaple Corporation | Workforce | Minorities Managers Percentage | Float | Percentage | 36 | 0.762589928 |
| Smaple Corporation | Workforce | New Women Employees | Float | Percentage | 73 | 0.981481481 |
| Sample Corporation | Management | Policy Board Diversity | Boolean | TRUE/FALSE | 1 | 0.574 |
| Sample Corporation | Workforce | Policy Diversity and Opportunity | Boolean | TRUE/FALSE | 1 | 0.566 |
| Sample Corporation | Workforce | Targets Diversity and Opportunity | Boolean | TRUE/FALSE | 0 | 0 |
| Sample Corporation | Workforce | Women Employees | Float | Percentage | 75 | 0.961666667 |
| Sample Corporation | Workforce | Women Managers | Float | Percentage | 70 | 0.993087558 |
| Sum of percentiles at company level: 7.913776724 |
Step 3: Generation of final percentile ranking score for all companies
The percentile score formula is then applied to the sum percentiles at company level for each company in the Fortune 500 to identify the best forming companies and ranked accordingly. Using Sample Corporation as an example, their summed data measure percentile value of 7.913776724 was taken along with those of all other Fortune 500 companies and the percentile score formula was applied to generate a final list of rankings. Sample Corporation came out at number 5 on the list vs. peers in the Fortune 500 list.
Table 3 shows an illustration for 5 sample companies, their summed data measure percentile scores and final company level percentile scores and ranks.
| Company-actual name | Sum of data measure percentile value calculations | Percentile scores | Ranks |
| Microsoft Corporation | 9.498901527 | 0.998891353 | 1 |
| Target Corporation | 8.611192875 | 0.996674058 | 2 |
| The Gap, Inc. | 8.4683225 | 0.994456763 | 3 |
| Intel Corporation | 8.220076827 | 0.992239468 | 4 |
| Sample Corporation | 7.913776724 | 0.990022173 | 5 |
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