How the InkludX certification model is built

What it measures: eight core areas

The overall score comes from eight core areas. Each area counts for part of the score.

• Leadership & Anchoring · 13% of the score

  Named ownership in senior leadership, a plan covering every protected ground, a budget, and the four-step cycle: investigate, analyse, act, evaluate.

• Recruitment · 13% of the score

  Fair, accessible hiring: job ads without unnecessary requirements, structured interviews, adjustments at every stage, and tracking where candidates drop out.

• Accommodation & Universal Design · 20% of the score

  A clear, confidential and timely process for adjustments of every kind: disability, health, religion, pregnancy or caring responsibilities.

• Communication · 8% of the score

  Written alternatives to meetings, plain language, and information that works for employees with different needs and first languages.

• Onboarding · 10% of the score

  Contact before day one about any needs, and an onboarding that covers non-discrimination, raising concerns and asking for adjustments.

• Inclusive Work Environment · 12% of the score

  Preventing and handling harassment, safe ways to raise concerns, measuring experienced discrimination and belonging, and regular follow-up.

• Development, Pay & Career · 12% of the score

  Pay mapping, equal access to development, bias-checked reviews, and promotion criteria that allow different ways to show competence.

• Life Stage & Working Time · 12% of the score

  Full-time as the norm, parental leave without a career penalty, flexibility for caring responsibilities, and a plan for returning after sick leave.

Optional deep dives: five lenses

Each lens goes deeper on one group. Lenses do not count in the overall score, but Advanced needs one lens and Exemplar needs all five, each with a score of 50% or more.

• Ethnicity, Religion, Language & Social Background

  Optional deep dive: recognising qualifications from abroad, language support, religious practice and dress, and hiring refugees and newcomers.

• Age & Life Stage

  Optional deep dive: young people outside education and work, senior employees, age-neutral recruitment and caring responsibilities.

• Gender, Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity

  Optional deep dive: gender balance, name and gender changes in systems, transition at work, equal rights for every family form.

• Intersecting Grounds

  Optional deep dive: people who belong to several groups at once, and whether your mapping and measures reach them.

• Disability, Neurodivergence & Health

  Optional deep dive: physical and digital accessibility, assistive technology, fluctuating needs, interpretation, and graded positions.

Levels and how they are awarded

The employer answers the self-assessment. Before a level from 2 (Active) is awarded, the InkludX team reviews the answers and the documentation provided. Level 1 is the employer's own result and is not shown publicly.

1. 1. Self-assessed · Valid for 12 months

   • Score 40% overall and at least 20% in every core area
   • Checked by the InkludX team

2. 2. Active · Valid for 18 months

   • Score 60% overall and at least 35% in every core area
   • 2 documented inclusive hires
   • Checked by the InkludX team

3. 3. Advanced · Valid for 24 months

   • Score 75% overall and at least 50% in every core area
   • At least one deep-dive lens with a score of 50% or more
   • 5 documented inclusive hires
   • 12 months of outcome data
   • Checked by the InkludX team

4. 4. Exemplar · Valid for 36 months

   • Score 90% overall and at least 70% in every core area
   • All five deep-dive lenses with a score of 50% or more
   • 10 documented inclusive hires
   • 24 months of outcome data
   • Checked by the InkludX team

In countries where a legal disability employment quota applies to private employers, Active and higher levels also require the employer to meet it, or to be below the size where it applies.

What the model is built on

The model combines equality law, guidance from public bodies and InkludX's own earlier work. None of the bodies listed has endorsed the certification.

Country notes

For 15 European countries, the assessment shows short summaries of each country's rules, checked against official sources. They are not legal advice.

What the certification is not

• It is not an assessment of whether the employer complies with the law.
• It is not an inspection of the workplace. It is based on the employer's own answers and the documentation they provide.
• It is not endorsed by the public bodies whose laws and guidance the model builds on.