In 2015, The New York Times reported that among S&P 1500 companies, there were more CEOs named John than there were women. That stat struck a nerve—and since then, similar analyses have shown that Davids have also outnumbered women in top leadership roles across the Fortune 500.
The comparison was cheeky. But it wasn’t just a quirky stat—it was shorthand for a deeper truth: diversity in leadership was nowhere near where it should be.
Fast forward to 2024, and while the numbers have improved, they still make the case: only 10.4% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women. That’s progress—but not parity.
The real issue isn’t about names. It’s about systems and the secrets they contain:
-Why do some candidates never make it past the first interview?
-Why does representation stall at certain levels, even when promotion rates are equal?
These aren’t just philosophical questions—they’re People Analytics challenges.
Headlines grab attention, but numbers drive change. The companies making real progress on DEI aren’t just tracking how many women they’ve promoted. They’re building systems that let them see exactly where representation drops off—and why. They’re setting KPIs that go beyond compliance. They’re giving HR and DEI teams tools to act on the data. (Vogue Business)
For instance, Neiman Marcus Group (NMG) has implemented a strategy called "bias interruption," which addresses systemic biases in hiring, engagement, and retention. This approach utilizes data-driven practices to fix biases in hiring, employee engagement, and retention by understanding how certain practices deter candidates and employees of color.
As a result, NMG surpassed its 2025 goal of having over 21% racial and ethnic diversity in leadership roles, achieving 21.4% in 2023. The new target is 28% by 2030. (Vogue Business)
This example illustrates that DEI isn’t just about ideals. It’s about data. And if you're not measuring what matters, you're just guessing.
At One Model, we’ve seen firsthand how organizations can go from intention to impact by turning diversity into something measurable—and actionable.
Consider a Fortune 100 financial services organization we'll call Company X. When they partnered with One Model in 2016, they weren’t just looking for reporting tools—they were looking for visibility, accountability, and a way to actually move the needle on workforce diversity.
Here’s what that looked like:
Company X was transitioning from SAP to Workday and had a goldmine of workforce survey data at risk of getting lost in the shuffle. Using One Model, they recovered and normalized that legacy data across multiple systems, enabling the team to report from a single, cohesive source.
This meant they didn’t have to redeploy a massive survey—and their DEI metrics didn’t reset to zero.
As the team reviewed self-ID data, they found that a significant number of employees had skipped over racial/ethnic identification entirely.
This wasn’t just a reporting glitch—it was a missing chunk of reality.
With One Model, they were able to isolate this group and launch internal processes to close the gap.
Within months, they had identified 95% of those employees—restoring accuracy to their diversity picture.
They took it a step further by setting department-level DEI hiring targets. Teams that met or exceeded their goals were studied—their processes, outreach, and interview practices documented and shared org-wide to replicate success.
The result? DEI stopped being “a nice idea” and became part of performance strategy.
One of the most revealing insights came from interview stage analytics.
Although promotions were evenly split—55% of internal promotions were women—managerial roles were still male-dominated. Digging deeper, they discovered that female candidates were only making it to the final interview stage 50% of the time.
That bottleneck became a turning point.
Company X created a new KPI: ensure that 80% of female managerial candidates reach the final interview round.
They began testing different interventions—changes to panel composition, structured scoring rubrics, recruiter training—and tracked all of it in One Model to measure what actually worked.
Company X wanted more visibility into why females had a lesser presence in managerial roles within the organization.
While, male to female promotions were equal. (This past year, 32 people were promoted. 55% of promotions (16 people) were women), there were significantly more males than females in managerial roles.
Upon reviewing the data, they learned that out of the company’s requisitions, females applicants only made it to certain stages within the interview process (namely, an in-person interview) 50% of the time. Half the time, the only applicants that made it to a particular stage were male.
They determined a hypothesis surrounding a particular KPI - that if more females made it to this particular stage, the odds were higher that more females would fill these roles.
Company X set a goal that they wanted a female candidate make it to a manager interview stage 80% of the time. They are testing different methods on how best to achieve this, and with One Model's help, they are able to measure the effectiveness of those methods. By providing this visibility, One Model’s platform is currently helping them monitor their progress towards this goal, and allows them to see the affect - the direct impact on numbers of M/F managers in real-time.
Company X is one of the many companies that has embraced the importance of diversity in workforce planning. We’re proud to be a part of the solution helping them meet their goals.
More companies are now following this lead—using People Analytics to ask better questions and close more meaningful gaps. Some of the key DEI metrics organizations are tracking today include:
Representation Metrics
(By role, level, department, gender, ethnicity, veteran status, IWD)
Recruitment Funnel Drop-off Points
Interview Progression by Demographic
Promotion and Pay Equity Analytics
Training Penetration Rates by Group
Culture & Climate Sentiment Scores
Exit Reasons by Demographic
Because if you're not tracking it, you're not fixing it.
So yes—once upon a time, there were more CEOs named David and John than there were women CEOs and probably still are. And while that point made headlines, it didn’t change the numbers.
Data did.
DEI needs more than good intentions.
It needs visibility. Targets. Measurement. Feedback loops.
And the right platform to make all of that possible.
If you're building a more inclusive workforce—and you want the data to back it up—One Model can help.
About One Model
One Model pioneered people data orchestration and flexible predictive models that empower large and
rapidly growing companies to unlock transformative insights and data-driven workforce strategies.
Built to reduce technical burdens for data scientists, engineers, and HR leaders alike, our platform is the
most flexible and secure solution available today. We are committed to ethical data practices, ensuring
unmatched security, privacy, and transparency, providing confidence in every decision powered by
One Model.