Submitting a public report on employee diversity is becoming more and more common among companies. Pressure has been put on tech companies in particular to produce an overview of the employee demographics due to the lack of diversity among those hired. The documents include information such as the percentage of each race and gender that works at these companies, as well as the pay gap between races and genders. Google, Twitter, Apple, and Facebook are just a few participants that have reportedly been analyzing these reports to see how they can improve on creating a more diverse team.
Leigh Honeywell, an engineer at Slack, said in an email to Fast Company that these diversity records can “put pressure on the companies to do better” and also “enable individuals to make decisions about the environments they want to go work in.” But she also mentioned that companies tend to neglect these key factors that could greatly assist in the diversity of the staff and even the effectiveness of the businesses:
- The rate at which minorities receive promotions
- How long minorities stay with the company
- Which positions minorities are filling
Leaving the first two points off a report could hide other important issues occurring within the company, such as non-White and female employees leaving quickly due to low pay and lack of promotions. Because after all, it’s not enough to simply hire a minority. The minority worker is also expected to be treated as being just as valuable as any other employee.
The third diversity factor being neglected by companies is absolutely vital to a business’s overall success. For three years, McKinsey and Company analyzed executive teams that had diverse backgrounds. What they found was that the companies that excelled the most and had a competitive advantage were those whose teams consisted of the most women and non-White people from an external perspective and those that embraced a variation of perspectives. This is likely because a balance in regard to user and employee demographics matters, but many of today’s tech giants miss the mark here. For instance, Twitter has a large population of African American users, yet its board is largely non-Black.
Not only would companies be more efficient if they looked at making minorities an integral part of their company, but making sure that employees are treated as equals would add to the employee’s longevity in their position and to the overall success of the business.
