Late last week, the ever-innovating Google put their cards on the table in such a way that would make most other companies fold out of fear. In the name of transparency, progress, and "making work a whole lot more interesting", Google released detailed reports on the diversity within their ranks. And, like most tech companies, the results in this area aren't so flattering.
The data is neither pleasing, nor particularly shocking. Much has been said and researched about the topic of the gender gap in engineering, as well as a general homogeneity among young companies. As we've previously discussed, this can partially be attributed to referrals as the largest source of hires. Employees are likely to refer candidates with similar backgrounds, and before you know it, your first 20 engineers are all male. The vicious cycle then continues, as women or other minorities aren't going to want to join an organization if they don't perceive it as a well-rounded team.
It's one thing to recognize an issue, as Google has done, and quite another to begin taking the steps to alleviate the problem. Further in Google's post, they explain "Employee Resource Groups", which are segments aimed at exploring culture and career advancement for various minorities. Extra credit for their use of "Gayglers" and "Greyglers".
Surely, other similarly sized companies will feel the heat to disclose their own diversity information, but so far, none have followed suit. Were companies to reveal their own diversity inefficiency, it would beg the question of their plans to alleviate the issue. In most cases, this would involve a considerable shake up, starting at the sourcing level. Clearly, standard sourcing methods are not resulting in representative hiring funnels, so the honus is on the recruiter to be creative and finds new ways to find talent from different backgrounds. Off the top of my noggin, here's a few:
- source candidates via Meetup groups who self-identify as minorities
- x-ray sites for inclusion in organizations such as the Society of Women Engineers
- use the presence of upper-level employees who meet diversity criteria in your attempts to sell the candidate, illustrating the presence of mentors as well as the fact that your organization is well-rounded and inclusive
- Request a demo of Entelo and we'll show you Entelo Diversity, a product aimed to widen your hiring funnels and make them representative of the entire talent pool
