A Workforce Diversity Index (WDI) Score is an EEO-1 based statistical measure of the racial, ethnic, and gender composition of an EEO-1 job category compared to that same category's composition in 1997 -- the year that anchors each WDI calculation and for which all WDI scores are set at 100. There are three principal advantages of using WDI scores to analyze EEO-1 data.

First, in a single number, the WDI score quickly and independently reveals whether the job category being analyzed is more diverse, as diverse, or less diverse than it was in 1997. No additional data are needed to draw this conclusion. For example, any index score greater than 100 reveals that the race/ethnic group/gender being analyzed comprises a greater percentage of the EEO-1 job category than it did in 1997. Similarly, any index score less than 100 shows that the race/ethnic group/gender being analyzed comprises a smaller percentage of the EEO-1 job category than it did in 1997. Only the simple index score is needed to draw this conclusion; the prior years' composition percentages are not necessary.

Second, a company's own workforce composition percentages can be converted into WDI scores, thereby permitting "apples to apples" comparisons of a company's own statistics to the EEO-1 workforce benchmark statistics behind each WDI score.

Finally, for those companies that are reluctant for legal or business reasons to disclose actual headcount or percentage composition data on their workforce, the WDI scores offer a way to facilitate and communicate these important workforce benchmark comparisons without revealing these sensitive figures.