Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR), like other new world tech companies, admitted it does not employ enough women and minorities. It will try to erase that with programs to increase the representation among these groups. It has even set specific, detailed goals. The plans to move toward diversity are, intelligently, a “commitment” and not a promise. Twitter, in other words, will try its best.
Janet Van Huysse, VP, Diversity and Inclusion, wrote in a blog post:
We want the makeup of our company to reflect the vast range of people who use Twitter. Doing so will help us build a product to better serve people around the world. While we’ve already been working towards internal diversity goals at different levels of the company, I’m very pleased to report that we are now setting company-wide diversity goals — and we’re sharing them publicly.
We considered simply setting company-wide hiring goals, but we don’t want to stop at that. If our aim is to build a company we can really be proud of — one that’s more inclusive and diverse — we need to make sure it’s a great place for both new and current employees to work and to grow. That’s why these new goals focus on increasing the overall representation of women and underrepresented minorities throughout the whole company.
Furthermore, it’s important to define what these changes will yield a year from now. We’re holding ourselves accountable to these measurable goals, as should you.
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The fact that a company has an executive to handle diversity and inclusion says something in and of itself.
The goals boil down to targets by race and sex, which Twitter has the ambitious goal of reaching by the end of next year:
Increase women overall to 35%
Increase women in tech roles to 16%
Increase women in leadership roles to 25%
Increase underrepresented minorities overall to 11%*
Increase underrepresented minorities in tech roles to 9%*
Increase underrepresented minorities in leadership roles to 6%*
*US only
To meet these marks, Twitter will either have to grow its employment total at a rapid pace or lay off people and replace them.
Since Twitter is in trouble due to lackluster results and what is perceived as poor management, layoffs are as likely as not. It is one way to approach diversity, although likely not the preferred one.
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