Facebook says will hire more Black leaders at workplace

SAN FRANSISCO: Facing criticism over its inaction to remove hateful posts, Facebook on Wednesday released its 2020 diversity report, saying it will increase the representation of people of colour in leadership positions in the US by 30 per cent.

This includes a 30 per cent increase in the representation of Black people in leadership by 2025.

Facebook said that from 2014 to 2020, US Black representation as a percentage of its workforce in non-technical roles grew from 2 per cent to almost 9 per cent.

“The US Hispanic representation in similar roles grew from 6 per cent to almost 11 per cent, Women in leadership have grown similarly from 23 per cent to 34.2 per cent,” Maxine Williams, Chief Diversity Officer at Facebook, said in a statement.

Numbers for technical roles have remained more stubborn.

“Our greatest success has been among women, with an increase from 15 per cent to 24.1 per cent. While the representation of Black and Hispanic people in technical roles has increased, from 1 per cent to 1.7 per cent for Black in Tech and from 3 per cent to 4.3 per cent for Hispanic in Tech, progress has been slower than in non-technical roles,” explained Williams.

Last year, Facebook said that by 2024, at least 50 per cent of its workforce will be underrepresented people.

“In doing this, we aim to double the number of women employees globally and double the number of Black and Hispanic employees in the US. When we announced this goal last year, people from underrepresented groups accounted for 43 per cent of our staff. Today, that number is up to 45.3 per cent,” informed Williams.

The starkness of the violence against the Black community captured global attention after African-American George Floyd’s public murder.

“We committed to spend $1 billion with diverse suppliers in 2021, including $100 million with Black-owned businesses — and we pledged another $100 million in grants and ad credits to Black small and medium-sized businesses, creators and non-profits in the US, among other financial investments,” the company said.

“Recovering from this pandemic will take years. Ending the centuries-old scourge of racial violence and xenophobia will take longer still. And we will continue to empower and give voice to marginalized people and communities, on and off our platform, in the years to come,” said Williams.