Staffing Industry Insurance: Diversity Still Lacking In Tech Industry
Google recently exposed one of their greatest weaknesses as an organization by noting an extreme lack of workforce diversity. Their self-reported statistics reveal that over 91% of Google employees are of white and Asian heritage; with individuals of Hispanic and Black decent making up a combined 5% of the workforce. In line with historical tech and sciences industry trend of being a male dominated workforce, seventy percent of Google workers are men. Furthermore, women hold only 17% of technology related positions, and Black and Hispanic individuals hold a combined 3% of tech roles. Google denies any discriminatory practices, citing a lack of qualified minority and female candidates available to fill their positions.
This claim is actually somewhat accurate. Women earn only 18% of all computer science and related degrees according to reports and minorities earn little more than 5% of the same degrees. In fact, Black and Hispanic students make up a mere 10% of U.S. college graduates. Google followed up the release of their workplace statistics by pledging to continue outreach efforts to entice women and minority groups into the technology industry. To date they have given 40 million dollars to provide computer science education to women and are working closely with education institutions with strong minority prevalence. Google representatives have expressed their deepest commitment to further incorporating diversity into their corporate culture and providing safe, supportive work environments free of discrimination for all their employees.
Google is not the only Silicon Valley giant interested in increasing workplace diversity. Facebook and Yelp, among others, have recently adopted a new staffing application developed by Entelo. The program is designed to utilize algorithms to analyze social media and other online data to investigate a candidate’s strengths. The primary goal of the Entelo Diversity app is to remove bias and potential discrimination, or reverse discrimination, from the hiring process.
The role of staffers is to ensure that the best candidates are selected to fill positions, but in a competitive climate staffing personnel can’t afford any mishaps regarding their selection practices. At World Wide Specialty Programs we specialize in ensuring that staffing industry members receive the best Employment Practices Liability Insurance, Professional Liability coverage and a full spectrum of other solutions to common HR and staffing complications. Our Staffing Industry Insurance programs offer your clients the most comprehensive risk management strategies available. For more information about all our offerings please give us a call today at (877) 256-0468.