Ranking Tech Companies on Diversity
This summer there has been a cascade of disclosures from technology companies, starting after Google revealed its workforce diversity statistics. So how do they stack up?
Fortune magazine took all of the (so-far) voluntarily released diversity data from technology companies and ran the numbers to see which companies were the most inclusive -- and which have the longest road to travel before their workforces better reflect the diversity in the United States. While none of the results are stellar -- especially when measuring the percentages of Latinos or African Americans represented in each of these major Silicon Valley firms -- but it's helpful nonetheless to get a sense of where they are.
A total of 14 tech companies have released data so far, from old companies like Hewlett-Packard to tech giants like Google and Apple, to recent upstarts like IndieGoGo and Pinterest. The numbers tell a story of a mostly White workforce that's usually dominated by men, with Hispanic, Black, and other ethnicities besides Asian represented in the single digits.
Who's The Most Diverse?
Although the "most diverse" award among these Silicon Valley companies is like finding the fastest toddler in the world -- not very impressive on a practical scale, but showing promise -- that award goes to Apple, according to Fortune's ranking.
As we previously reported, Apple's overall figures show 55 percent White, 15 percent Asian, 11 percent Hispanic, and 7 percent Black demographics in their workforce. But the overall picture includes non-tech jobs in Apple Stores, which helps boost their figures more than companies like Twitter and Google. Apple's demographics in leadership and technical positions are significantly more White and male, leading CEO Tim Cook to note, "I'm not satisfied with the numbers on this page."
When Fortune took into account a blend of overall gender and ethnic diversity, those categories in companies' leadership positions, and gender diversity in technical jobs, the professional social networking company LinkedIn came out on top.
When just looking at gender diversity, Pandora was ranked number one, as its overall workforce is comprised nearly of a 50/50 male and female split. Again, leadership positions are still more exclusive, and so the crowd funding site IndieGoGo took the top prise with 57 percent men and 43 percent women in their top brass.
More Transparency On The Way?
One could argue how much of an impact Jesse Jackson's call for more diversity in Silicon Valley in the spring of this year had on this summer's multiple disclosures of workplace ethnicity statistics, versus how much of an influence came from the fact that Google was the first to actually set the trend. But Google only released the information after Jesse Jackson turned his attention to Silicon Valley, and Jackson isn't done yet.
Earlier this summer, the long time civil rights figure promised to push for more disclosure of hiring practices in Silicon Valley, including a plan to file a freedom of information act (FOIA) request to unearth diversity data from technology companies -- like Amazon, Oracle and Qualcomm -- who haven't voluntarily disclosed that information yet.
While it seems unlikely that any tech companies that haven't disclosed their workforce statistics yet will show more impressive numbers than the 14 that have so far, the more detailed a picture of diversity in Silicon Valley the public gets, the more we'll understand the size and scope of the problem.
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