diversity
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Microsoft executive bonuses could soon be tied to diversity goals
When we graded Microsoft on its employee diversity last year, its report card wasn't exactly stellar. Despite filling out its leadership team with more women and ethnic minorities than ever in its history, the diversity of the company's general ranks fell year over year. Microsoft's final grade was a solid C. Not awful, but plenty of room for improvement. Satya Nadella seems to agree: the company's CEO plans to make diversity a core business value moving forward -- to the point that executive bonuses may hinge on the company meeting its diversity goals.
The Engadget Podcast Ep 13: A Chicken with its Head Cut Off
Editor in chief Michael Gorman and executive editor Christopher Trout are in town this week and stop by to talk Peter Thiel, Vine and online voting with host Terrence O'Brien and reviews editor Cherlynn Low. Then, after they've had their fill of beating up on Thiel, the four will explore how dating and sex have changed in the age of apps. Warning, things get a little NSFW.
Silicon Valley bro sues Yahoo for reverse discrimination
This week hasn't been particularly kind to beleaguered internet company Yahoo. CEO Marissa Mayer, former chief marketing officer Kathy Savitt and editor-in-chief of Yahoo News Megan Liberman have been accused of engaging in gender discrimination. According to The Mercury News, a lawsuit has been filed by former editorial director Scott Ard on the grounds that "Mayer encouraged and fostered the use of (an employee performance-rating system) to accommodate management's subjective biases and personal opinions, to the detriment of Yahoo's male employees."
Google's tech lab for teens sows the seeds of diversity
One of the best ways to solve the tech sector's lack of diversity is to start 'em young. New York City's mayor, Melinda Gates, and tech titans like Microsoft and Google all know that. In fact, the big G has just opened a computer science lab in Oakland called Code Next that was built specifically to teach black and Latino teens how to code.
'The Sims 4' heads to the city with its latest expansion
As much as The Sims 4 has done to expand its cultural boundaries over time, it has always been set in the suburbs -- you know, that bastion of conformity and homogeneity. What about the city, where experiences tend to be more diverse? Enter City Living, a new paid add-on for the game that (surprise!) takes place in an urban landscape. You can live in or visit four distinct neighborhoods in San Myshuno, and broaden your horizons by attending street festivals or crooning at the local karaoke bar. At first glance, it's a more varied experience -- both culturally and in terms of gameplay.
Facebook's point-based recruiting system isn't producing diversity
Two years ago, Facebook proposed a system to make its workforce less universally white or Asian and male. The plan was to incentivize its in-house recruiters to hire diverse candidates, literally giving them more points for Hispanic, black and/or female candidates that would build a score directly applying to their performance reviews and bonuses. Unfortunately, the gains for more female employees are marginal and the racial makeup of the company hasn't changed, and the method can be deemed a failure.
The historical research behind the biracial antihero in 'Mafia III'
The 1960s were a period of dramatic upheaval in the United States. By 1968, the Vietnam War was raging abroad while civil-rights activists at home were mourning the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated in April. The Civil Rights Act, Fair Housing Act and Brown v. Board of Education -- landmark rulings in favor of racial equality in the United States -- were all in effect, though racism still reared its ugly head across the nation, particularly in the South. The FBI finally admitted in the 1950s that organized crime existed on a large scale, and by 1968, the sun was setting on the Italian mob's golden age.
Apple fixes its gender pay gap, makes small diversity gains
Gender and ethnic diversity remain one of the tech industry's biggest problems, but this year more big companies are actually shaping up. In its latest Diversity Report, Apple announced today that it's fully erased the gender pay gap among men and women in the U.S. "for similar roles and performance." While a noteworthy accomplishment, Apple's previous wage difference wasn't very large, with women making 99.6 cents for every dollar a man makes, Business Insider reports. Both Microsoft and Facebook also announced earlier this year that they've erased any pay differences among genders.
Qualcomm settles gender discrimination suit for $19.5 million
Qualcomm will pay $19.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by female employees who claim they were paid less and denied promotion opportunities that were given to men. The deal stipulates that the company must implement policies ensuring that women get more promotion opportunities in science and engineering positions. Lawyers for the group told the Associated Press the settlement was a "giant leap forward toward leveling the playing field and can serve as a model of best practices for other technology companies."
Facebook isn't trying hard enough to increase its diversity
Facebook released its annual diversity report on Thursday and, sadly, little has changed from last year. Fifty-two percent of its US employees are white, 38 percent are Asian, 4 percent are Hispanic and 2 percent are black, while 67 percent of its global staff are male. New leadership hires did improve to 9 percent black, 5 percent Hispanic and 29 percent women, but in general the numbers were still quite poor. In a blog post, Global Director of Diversity Maxine Williams said this is due to the lack of diversity in the tech pipeline. She says appropriate representation "will depend upon more people having the opportunity to gain necessary skills through the public education system," and added that Facebook would pledge more money toward diversity programs. Several critics have since responded, saying that the problem lies not with the so-called pipeline, but within Facebook itself.
Google is inching its way to diversity
Google vowed to spend $150 million in 2015 to diversify its workforce, and the company did hire more women, Black and Hispanic employees last year. Unfortunately, its efforts aren't enough to cause a big shift -- the company is still overwhelmingly white and male. According to the latest data Mountain View released, women make up 31 percent of the current workforce, which is only one percent higher than 2014's. Four and five percent of its hires in 2015 are Black and Hispanic, respectively. But just like in 2014, African-Americans still only make up two percent of company, while Hispanics only make up three percent.
Twitter appoints BET CEO Debra Lee to Board of Directors
Following through on an earlier promise to diversify the company and better reflect its user base, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced today that BET CEO and Chairwoman Debra Lee will join the company's board of directors. Lee will also head up the company's Nominating/Governance committee.
High-profile women in tech push diversity with Project Include
Take a look at the diversity statistics from many tech companies, as we did with our 2015 Diversity Report Card, and you'll notice a consistent issue. The tech industry, for all of its meritocratic grandstanding, has a big inclusion problem -- and many companies are only now beginning to take that seriously. Now several women with significant clout in the tech world are launching Project Include, a non-profit that aims to tackle the diversity dilemma in tech with -- you guessed it -- data.
Intel execs received threats over the company's diversity push
Intel's bid to promote company diversity is running into opposition... and some of it is particularly vicious. CEO Brian Krzanich told guests at a technology conference that it has received some hostility, including a "bit of a backlash" from within the company. There have even been threats against executives -- yes, the company that's trying to fight harassment is enduring some harassment of its own. It's not certain how serious those threats are, but it's safe to say that these weren't polite complaints.
Snapchat's 420 Bob Marley filter is just digital blackface
Today is April 20th, and you now what that means -- time for everyone to celebrate marijuana! Snapchat is paying tribute to 420 with a few new filters. Sure, the "traveling bong" one is innocent enough, but the Bob Marley filter, well... see above. Not only does it replicate all the creepiness of face-swapping, but it adds a dash of racial insensitivity to the mix. Basically, Snapchat is giving everyone the ability (and an excuse) to put on digital blackface.
Twitter offers 20 weeks paid leave for all new parents
Twitter is joining social network rival Facebook by offering 20 weeks of gender-neutral parental leave starting May 1st. The company told Fortune it made the move both to set an example and assure adopting and birth parent employees ample time to bond with their new offspring. "We're a very watched industry because of the products and services we offer," says VP of inclusion and diversity Jeffrey Siminoff. "We want to lead by example and by doing so we can influence the decisions of others."
Microsoft's diversity should mirror its keynote
At Build 2016, Microsoft offered a glimpse at the company's future. We saw a preview of new universal apps, Linux development within Windows 10, a HoloLens update and its brand new Cortana-fueled AI strategy. But we might have also had a peek at another side of Microsoft, one that is attempting to acknowledge and perhaps overcome its diversity issues.
Indiegogo launches push to support female entrepreneurs
Indiegogo wants to do more to help women become entrepreneurs in the technology industry across the next year. To coincide with International Women's Day,* the crowdfunding site is launching a program to push women-run campaigns between now and March 2017. The site has partnered with organizations like Girls in Tech and Blooming Founders to help novice creators get their projects onto the site. If they sign up with the program, they'll also receive "additional campaign mentoring" from Indiegogo staffers. Indiegogo also wants to remind people that it's already hosted some blockbuster female-fronted campaigns, such as the Jibo social robot and Axent Wear's cat-ear headphones.
Intel's diversity report shows change is slow, but important
Intel has made a big deal about its commitment to fostering a more inclusive workplace and now wants us all to see how well it did in 2015. The firm is celebrating the fact that it was just about able to exceed its goal of hiring 40 percent of new employees from diverse backgrounds and plans to push that to 45 percent this year. Overall, women now comprise 24.8 percent of Intel's workforce, up from 19 percent in 2014, with the number of African American, Hispanic and Native American hires generally trending upward. That's not even mentioning the chipmaker's outside projects like teaming up with Lady Gaga to tackle online harassment.
Apple is (very) slowly improving its employee diversity
Apple mildly improved employee diversity this year, but voted against a proposal to improve it where the problem is worst -- the executive suite. According to the company's latest EEO-1 Federal Employer Information (FEI) filing, it had a net increase of 1,475 black employees, 1,633 hispanics and 4,586 women. That bumped the overall percentages slightly for black and hispanic people, while the number of female employees rose from 28.7 to 30 percent. Earlier this year, Tim Cook said that the company hired 11,000 women in 2015, 65 percent more than last year. If that's accurate, then the EE0-1 reports shows that a lot of women and minority employees also left the company in 2015.
