In the News : What Silicon Valley Can Do with Their Diversity Reports
In an awesome article over at Tech Crunch, Megan Rose Dickey gives some great suggestions on how Silicon Valley can start to make some real changes utilizing their diversity report data. She notes that simply having the report is NOT ENOUGH. Amen to that. Her suggestions :
There are many resources out there for large and small tech companies alike to implement processes that foster diversity and inclusion. Project Include, for example, has a bunch of free recommendations to advance diversity and inclusion at companies.
And instead of, or in addition to, providing unconscious bias training, employers could offer empathy training. It’s important that people are able to interact with those who are not like them. We also need data around retention and culture, which could be included in a diversity report, so that we can continue to hold individual companies accountable for what goes on inside their offices.
Here are some other things on my wish list:
The standard stats around employment of people of color, people with disabilities, veterans, LGBTQ people, etc.
Retention and promotion data
Hiring and retention goals
Culture surveys and results (think: employee feedback on fairness, perceived biases at company, opportunities for growth, etc)
Pay data broken down by race, age, gender, veteran status, disability status
Gender-neutral bathrooms
No prefixes in company forms i.e Mr., Mrs., Ms., etc. Yeah, none of that.
Recognition of the importance of diversity at the leadership level
Fair and transparent promotion and compensation processes
YES, YES and YES. Take a look at the full article and get to work !
