Facebook says it's not negating 'great talent'
SAN FRANCISCO — Under fire for remarks that insinuated it could not hire more women and minorities because of a dearth of qualified candidates, Facebook says it's not negating "the great talent that exists in the software engineering space."
"We want more women, people of color and others who bring diverse perspectives across all of our business — both technical and non-technical," Facebook said in a statement on Friday.
The public statement was its first since Facebook global diversity chief Maxine Williams appeared to at least partially blame a lack of available talent for the company's anemic progress in increasing the ranks of African Americans, Hispanics and women.
Her remarks triggered sharp criticism from diversity advocates and minorities, who expressed their unhappiness using a Twitter hashtag #FBNoExcuses.
Facebook takes heat for diversity 'pipeline' remarks
Hispanics represent 4% and African Americans 2% of Facebook's U.S. workers, percentages that have not budged since 2014 and that fall below other industries' averages. Facebook has made slightly more progress on gender diversity, yet nearly seven out of 10 employees around the globe are men.
In a blog post last week announcing the company's latest diversity results, Williams wrote: "It has become clear that at the most fundamental level, appropriate representation in technology or any other industry will depend upon more people having the opportunity to gain necessary skills through the public education system."
Williams told USA TODAY it could take years, even decades, before any dramatic shift in demographics occurs. Citing a recent study from McKinsey & Co. and LeanIn.org that found women are moving ahead so slowly that it will take more than a century for them to reach parity in top positions in corporate America, Williams said: "I hope that is not the case in the tech industry. I hope the entire country joins with us...and we will be able to see more change sooner."
The implication: The nation's education system and the recruitment pipeline had to be fixed before Facebook could recruit more diverse candidates. At the time Facebook declined to comment on the backlash to Williams' remarks.
Technology companies in Silicon Valley have been pouring resources and money into diversity efforts since Google first disclosed the lopsided demographics of its workforce in May 2014. The efforts have focused on increasing the diversity of the tech workforce and making the culture of tech companies more inclusive.
"I'm glad Facebook's latest comments reflect a shift in focus. Blaming a lack of diversity on the educational pipeline — whether doing so explicitly or doing so by talking primarily about pipeline-related strategies in addressing demographic numbers — is harmful and out of touch," said Joelle Emerson, founder and CEO of Paradigm, a strategy firm that consults with technology companies on diversity and inclusion. "I hope to see Facebook devote more focus to understanding and investing in the problems over which it has most immediate control — its own processes, practices and culture."
Facebook makes scant progress on diversity
Black and Hispanic students are underrepresented in computer science and engineering programs relative to the population while Asian students are overrepresented.
Yet data show many more black and Hispanic students major in computer science and engineering than work in jobs in the tech industry. Nine percent of graduates from top engineering programs are black and Hispanic, according to a recent report from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Representation for blacks and Hispanics at major technology companies is about 5%.
USA TODAY analysis of the employment records of Facebook, Google and Yahoo revealed that minorities are also sharply underrepresented in non-technical jobs such as sales and administration, with African Americans faring noticeably worse than Hispanics.
"While there is some truth to the 'pipeline' theory and anxiety over the ability of the U.S. educational system to provide a sufficiently large, well trained, and diverse labor pool, there are additional factors at play," the EEOC report stated.
Observers say those factors are the recruiting methods and corporate cultures of tech companies, especially in Silicon Valley, which has historically been dominated by white and Asian men. People of color aren't landing these jobs, staying in these jobs or even applying in the first place, after hearing negative things about the culture of the companies and the experiences of the few blacks and Hispanics who work there.
Follow USA TODAY senior technology writer Jessica Guynn @jguynn Read more of our coverage of diversity in tech here.