do we have a diversity policy question to fill in

Policy or practice: the difference the question makes

The question "do we have a diversity policy" usually has three possible answers, and the distinction lies in what is actually documented. An established and documented policy — a text with objectives, responsible parties and possibly targets — is something different from a practice that exists but is not recorded anywhere on paper, and that in turn is different from having no policy at all. Many customer questionnaires do not make that distinction explicit, but the supporting document that is requested (usually: the policy document itself, or a link to an internal page) does make the distinction implicit. Without a document, "yes" cannot be substantiated, even if the practice is in order.

If there is no document, the answer in practice is often "no" or "in development" — not because nothing is happening, but because the question asks for a documented policy, not for an atmosphere. This is a different matter from the question about the gender distribution within the workforce, which asks for a figure and not for a policy document; the two questions often appear next to each other in the same list but each requires their own evidence. Anyone encountering this question for the first time and wanting to know how to fill in something meaningful without an existing document will find the approach in how you complete the diversity question in the questionnaire.

Where this comes from: the VSME base module

This question appears in customer questionnaires because larger customers themselves report in accordance with the CSRD (Directive (EU) 2022/2464) and need data from their suppliers for this purpose. For SME suppliers that are not themselves subject to the CSRD, the EFRAG VSME baseline module is the standard on which these types of questions are usually based; that module asks about personnel policy including diversity as a separate section, distinct from the numerical composition of the workforce.