Glossary Of Terms
Explore our glossary of specific terms related to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) and commonly used terms within the
EDGE Certification process.
Action Plan
A written plan created by the client containing objectives, intended actions, milestones and outcomes, budget and people responsible for implementation, designed to result in the client achieving a higher EDGE Certification Level or qualifying for recertification; approved by a senior leader with the remit for the actions in the plan.
Asexual
Often called “ace” for short, asexual refers to a complete or partial lack of sexual attraction or lack of interest in sexual activity with others. Asexuality exists on a spectrum, and asexual people may experience no, little or conditional sexual attraction.
Audit
Systematic, documented process for obtaining records, statements of fact or other relevant information and assessing them objectively to determine the extent to which the requirements of the EDGE Standard are met.
Awareness Training
Formal training aimed at broadening people’s perceptions and increasing their understanding about potential gender bias in the workplace and how to avoid or eliminate such bias.
Bias
Prejudice in favour of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in an unfair or negative way.
Bisexual
A person emotionally, romantically or sexually attracted to more than one gender or gender identity, though not necessarily simultaneously, in the same way or to the same degree. Sometimes used interchangeably with pansexual.
Certification
Process by which a third party gives written or equivalent assurance that the client conforms to the requirements of the EDGE Standard.
Certification Body
Third party, accredited and EDGE-approved organization that performs audits and certification processes in relation to the EDGE Standard.
Cisgender
From the Latin cis-, meaning “on this side.” A person whose gender identity corresponds with the sex the person had or was identified as having at birth. For example, a person identified as female at birth who identifies as a woman can be said to be a cisgender woman.
Customized Regression Analysis
EDGE-compliant regression analysis that measures salary and pay against a common set of explanatory variables described in the EDGE Unexplained Gender Pay Gap Methodology, and additional organization specific variables.
Disability
A physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities of an individual; a record of such an impairment; or being regarded as having such an impairment.
Diversity
Any variable that may be used to differentiate individuals and/or groups from one another. Some describe organizational diversity as social heterogeneity.
EDGE Assess
First Level of EDGE Certification. A certifying organization attaining EDGE Assess is rewarded and recognized for making a public commitment to aspire to a strong gender representation across the talent pipeline, to proactively manage gender pay equity, to create an effective framework of policies and practices that ensures equitable career flows, and to foster an inclusive workplace culture for all employees.
EDGE Assessment Methodology
Standardized framework owned by the EDGE Certified Foundation which is designed to assess gender and intersectional equity in the workplace, enabling client companies to track and benchmark progress in the application of relevant policies, practices and outcomes. The Assessment Methodology forms the basis of the EDGE Standard and clients must have applied it before certification and recertification.
EDGE Certification
EDGE is the leading global assessment and certification that can be applied across industries and regions to measure, accelerate and certify gender and intersectional equity. The certification process involves a rigorous third-party review of representation across the pipeline, pay equity, effectiveness of policies and practices, and inclusiveness of an organization’s culture.
EDGE Certification Levels
The three (3) categories of certification that may be awarded under the EDGE Standard:
- First level of engagement: EDGE Assess
- Second level of conformance: EDGE Move
- Third level of conformance: EDGE Lead
EDGE Certification Seal
Logo or label awarded to successfully certified organizations; EDGE registered trademark. Also referred to as the EDGE Certification Mark.
EDGE Certified Foundation
The EDGE Certified Foundation is the guardian of the Assessment Methodology and the EDGE Standard; accredits, approves and trains the independent Certification Body auditors and Scheme Managers; oversees the quality, consistency and robustness of Certification Body performance; and oversees the use of the EDGE Seals, labels and logos by certified organizations.
EDGE Empower®
An integrated SaaS-based DE&I solution, incorporating the Assessment Methodology, providing Insights, Knowledge, Connections and Certification, used by clients of EDGE Strategy or of one of EDGE Strategy’s Licensing Partners. The solution is used by clients before certification and recertification.
EDGE Lead
Third Level of EDGE Certification. A certifying organization attaining EDGE Lead is rewarded and recognized for successfully demonstrating strong gender representation across the talent pipeline, for proactively managing gender pay equity, for effectively implementing a framework of policies and practices that ensures equitable career flows, and for fostering an inclusive workplace culture, as revealed by the (gender-disaggregated) ratings of employees about career development opportunities. An EDGE Lead Certified organization is celebrated for achieving gender equity as part of a sustainable business model.
EDGE Move
Second Level of EDGE Certification. A certifying organization attaining EDGE Move is rewarded and recognized for achieving certain milestones in their pursuit of gender equity in the workplace, such as a strong gender representation across the talent pipeline, proactively managing gender pay equity, creating an effective framework of policies and practices that ensures equitable career flows, and fostering an inclusive workplace culture for all employees.
EDGE Scoring Grid
The specifications for each certification level that may be awarded under the EDGE Standard.
EDGE Standard
The requirements, specifications, and the EDGE Scoring Grid set are reproduced in EDGE Empower®, against which conformance is audited.
EDGE Strategy
An enterprise with which EDGE clients contract to access the EDGE Empower® solution, which helps them prepare for EDGE Certification audits, and consults on gender and intersectional equity related employment and governance matters.
EDGE Unexplained Gender Pay Gap Methodology
The method prescribed by the EDGE Certified Foundation to determine whether there are unexplained pay gaps between women and men in an organization.
A quantitative approach using ordinary least squares (OLS) linear regression allowing an organization to assess the extent to which an employee’s salary or pay is influenced by gender after accounting for a set of other explanatory factors.
EDGEplus
EDGEplus is an extension of the EDGE Assessment and Certification Methodology, which provides the possibility for certifying organizations to deepen their understanding of gender-related matters and to measure and analyse the intersectionality of gender and other aspects of diversity, for example, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, working with a disability and nationality.
Equal Pay for Equivalent Work
Principle, according to which, individuals who perform jobs that require substantially equal skill, effort and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions within the same organization, should receive the same remuneration, including base salaries and other benefits.
Equality
The state of being equal, especially in status, rights, or opportunities.
Equity
Fair treatment for all while striving to identify and eliminate inequities and barriers.
ESG Investing
The consideration of Environmental, Social and Governance factors alongside financial factors in the investment decision-making process.
Ethnicity
A dynamic set of historically derived and institutionalized ideas and practices that allows people to identify or to be identified with groupings of people based on presumed (and usually claimed) commonalities including language, history, nation or region of origin, customs, ways of being, religion, names, physical appearance and/or genealogy or ancestry.
Flexible Working
Practices that give employees choices about how long, where and/or when they work.
Gay
A person who is emotionally, romantically or sexually attracted to members of the same gender. Men, women and non-binary people may use this term to describe themselves.
Gender Identity
One’s innermost concept of self as a man, a woman, a blend of both or neither – how individuals perceive themselves and what they call themselves. One’s gender identity can be the same or different from their sex assigned at birth.
Gender Inclusive Language and Visuals
Written, auditory and visual communications that use masculine, feminine and undifferentiated (neutral/non-binary/diverse) forms, words and images.
Gender Pay Gap
The difference between the average remuneration for working men and women within an organization.
Gender Pay-Gap Assessment
Assessment of the difference between men and women’s pay within the same organization.
Heterosexual
Person who is attracted to someone of a gender other than one’s own.
Inclusion
A state of being valued, respected and supported. It implies that organizational policies and practices focus on the needs of every individual and ensure conditions are in place for each person to achieve their potential.
Intersectional Equity
Intersectionality brings our understanding of systemic injustice and social inequality to the next level by attempting to untangle the lines that create the complex web of inequalities. It is also a practical tool that can be used to tackle intersectional discrimination through policies and laws.
Intersectionality
Intersectionality operates under the premise that people possess multiple, layered identities, including race, gender, class, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and ability, among others. Intersectionality refers to the ways in which these identities intersect to affect individuals’ realities and lived experiences, thereby shaping their perspectives, worldview, and relationships with others.
Intersex
Intersex people are born with a variety of differences in their sex traits and reproductive anatomy. There is a wide variety of difference among intersex variations, including differences in genitalia, chromosomes, gonads, internal sex organs, hormone production, hormone response, and/or secondary sex traits.
Lesbian
A woman who is emotionally, romantically or sexually attracted to other women. Women and non-binary people may use this term to describe themselves.
LGBTQ+
An acronym for “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer” with a “+” sign to recognize the limitless sexual orientations and gender identities used by the members of the community.
Licensing Partners
Organizations that have a signed agreement or contract with EDGE Strategy and are licensed to market, use, and apply EDGE Empower® to help companies prepare for EDGE Certification.
Non-Binary
Non-binary people may identify as being both a man and a woman, somewhere in between, or as falling completely outside these categories. While many also identify as transgender, not all non-binary people do. Non-binary can also be used as an umbrella term encompassing identities such as agender, bigender, genderqueer or gender-fluid.
Non-Discrimination
Equal treatment of an individual or group, irrespective of their particular characteristics.
Paid Parental Leave
Maternity, paternity and/or parental leave paid to the equivalent of 80% or higher of an employee’s base salary through payment by the organization, or social security payment (i.e., statutory payment by government), or a combination of the two. Paid leave entitlement shall be dedicated to parental leave and shall NOT include combining vacation/holiday leave, sick leave or other leave entitlements.
Pansexual
Describes someone who has the potential for emotional, romantic or sexual attraction to people of any gender, though not necessarily simultaneously, in the same way or to the same degree. Sometimes used interchangeably with bisexual.
Parental Leave
The right to time off work for employees, following the birth or adoption of a child, to enable them to take care of that child.
Policy
A written document specifying principles or rules that guide decisions and the pursuit or achievement of specified outcomes; and/or a written statement of intent about implementing practices in an organization.
Practice
Behaviours, programmes or activities implemented within an organization; may include the actual implementation of organizational policy but can exist in the absence of policy.
Queer
A term people often use to express a spectrum of identities and orientations that are counter to the mainstream. Queer is often used as a catch-all to include many people, including those who do not identify as exclusively straight and/or folks who have non-binary or gender-expansive identities. This term was previously used as a slur, but has been reclaimed by many parts of the LGBTQ+ movement.
Race
A social construct used to differentiate and categorize seemingly distinct populations based on physical characteristics, such as skin colour and hair texture. Since race is a social construct and not a biological fact, race designations are fluid, and have changed over time as a reflection of different power dynamics and context-specific social hierarchies.
Recertification
A new certification that follows immediately after an earlier certification period, which uses data and information relevant to a new 12-month reference period. A gap of no longer than 24 months between reference periods is permitted.
Reference Period
A continuous period of 12 months for which data are entered into the EDGE Empower® software and specified in the Audit Report.
Sexual Orientation
An inherent or immutable enduring emotional, romantic or sexual attraction to other people. Note: an individual’s sexual orientation is independent of their gender identity.
Standard Regression Analysis
EDGE-compliant regression analysis that measures salary and pay against a common set of explanatory variables described in the EDGE Unexplained Gender Pay Gap Methodology.
Third-Party Certification
Certification activity that is performed by a person or body that is independent of the client seeking certification, and of user interests in that client’s products, processes or services.
Transgender
An umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or expression is different from the cultural expectations attached to the sex they were assigned at birth. Being transgender does not imply any specific sexual orientation.
Transitioning
A series of processes that some transgender people may undergo in order to live more fully as their true gender. This typically includes social transition, such as changing name and pronouns, medical transition, which may include hormone therapy or gender-affirming surgeries, and legal transition, which may include changing legal name and sex on government identity documents. Transgender people may choose to undergo some, all or none of these processes.
Unconscious Bias
Unconscious bias, also known as implicit bias, refers to associations we hold, outside our conscious awareness and control, including attitudes and stereotypes that influence judgment, decision-making, and behaviour.
Unconscious bias comes in many different forms. Please see this Catalyst article to find out more about forms of unconscious bias that are often encountered in the workplace.