What data should I look at to evaluate if a company is trustworthy?

Review five key indicators: EEO-1 reports and pay equity disclosures; engagement survey gaps by demographic; executive and board composition, especially in P&L and power committee roles; retention and exit rates by demographic; and Glassdoor patterns by tenure and role. Companies that publish this data transparently ar

What is EEO-1 data and why does it matter when evaluating a company?

EEO-1 reports, filed by U.S. public companies, disclose workforce demographics by job category. They matter because companies that voluntarily publish this data are making a transparency commitment, while those that hide it while claiming inclusion values may signal misalignment between stated and actual practices.

How do I assess executive leadership diversity at a company?

Pull the company's leadership page and proxy statement. Look beyond headline diversity numbers to whether underrepresented executives are in line operations and P&L roles—where future CEOs are developed—or confined to staff functions like HR, Legal, and Communications. P&L absence signals inclusion language disconnected from succession planning.

What board committees should I examine for real power distribution?

Examine the Compensation, Nominating and Governance, and Audit Committees. These decide executive pay, board composition, and risk. If diverse board members are absent from these power committees and confined to advisory roles, the company has created appearance of inclusion without sharing actual governance authority.

What questions should I ask employees about inclusion initiatives?

Ask how mentorship programs work, whether sponsors are assigned or self-selected, how ERGs are funded and resourced, what percentage of senior promotions came through high-potential pipelines, and whether leaders frame inclusion as strategy or values. Real infrastructure produces specific answers; rhetorical initiatives produce vague ones.

How can I use Glassdoor and Indeed reviews to evaluate trustworthiness?

Aggregate scores are unreliable, but patterns across reviews matter. Compare current vs. former employees, different functional areas, and look for converging complaints across demographics. Reviews that show consistent specific complaints are more diagnostic than scattered grievances.

The Business Case & Insights

How to Check a Company for Trustworthiness

For employees, candidates, and people evaluating whether to relocate, the question is how to assess trustworthiness from outside the company’s HR system. The answer is that more data is available than most people realize, if they know what to look for.

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The Cost of Weak Inclusion Infrastructure

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