Some good news to share from the world of technology and inclusion.
A little over a year ago, 33 technology companies signed a commitment at the behest of the Obama White House, pledging to make their workforces reflect the diversity of the U.S. population. Among the companies were Airbnb, Box, GitHub, Intel, Lyft, Medium, Pinterest, Spotify, and Zynga. (Since then, more businesses have added their names to the pledge, bringing the total number to eighty.)
While benchmarks were left up to the individual companies, part of the agreement was to release diversity data on an annual basis. In an update published on the one year anniversary of the pledge, Fortune found that only seven of the original 33 companies published any information at all, and only two released the complete EEO-1 data that companies provide to the U.S. government.
Now, in an update to the update, another company has posted a partial diversity report. UnifyID, a product which uses machine learning to help authenticate users on websites and devices, is still in start-up mode. Yet, they seem to be – fingers crossed – turning into a case study in inclusion. Specifically, how much easier it is to build diversity into your thinking while you’re growing, instead of tossing it in remedially, after you’ve conquered the world.
From UnifyID’s announcement:
On our team, 70 percent are people of color and 24 percent are women. Immigrants make up a significant part of the American workforce, and we are also proud to call UnifyID the workplace of immigrants who collectively represent 17 nationalities (including our interns). Paulo, one of our machine learning engineers, has quipped, “the office sometimes feels like a Model UN conference!” While our size makes us unable to release more detailed breakouts (we respect employee privacy), we will continue to release diversity data in a timely and transparent fashion.
On our team, 70 percent are people of color and 24 percent are women. Immigrants make up a significant part of the American workforce, and we are also proud to call UnifyID the workplace of immigrants who collectively represent 17 nationalities (including our interns). Paulo, one of our machine learning engineers, has quipped, “the office sometimes feels like a Model UN conference!” While our size makes us unable to release more detailed breakouts (we respect employee privacy), we will continue to release diversity data in a timely and transparent fashion.
Collecting employee demographic information is always more complicated than it appears, and change takes time. “[T]his report is our first attempt at this, and we hope to make future updates more frequently,” the company said. Noted. But the outlook is promising. For one, UnifyID has opted to mitigate bias in its recruiting efforts by using guidelines from Code2040. For another, the company is actively networking at LGBTQ and women-oriented technology conferences.
UnifyID is talking about diversity early, and often. As the startup, along with other companies that have made the pledge, collects and publishes more information, we’ll be able to see what’s working both for individual businesses and the ecosystem as a whole. While this might feel like one small step for tech, the consistent elevation of these types of conversations, framed by data and amplified by best practices, helps normalize the idea that inclusion works for everybody – employees, investors, and customers.
And that is good news.