Beginning in 2013, a handful of tech companies (including Yelp, where some of us work, Google, LinkedIn, and Facebook) began to research and release data on the diversity of their workforces. The numbers were grim. For instance, in 2014 only 10% of Yelp’s engineers were female. Seven percent of Yelp employees were Hispanic, and 4% were black. These figures were similar at other tech companies, most of which had fewer than 20% of their technical positions filled by women and had low representation of black and Hispanic employees. At Yelp and elsewhere, seeing these numbers was a wake-up call.
Lessons from Yelp’s Empirical Approach to Diversity
Yelp’s approach to improving on diversity has been based on data-driven pilots. After scouring academic research and industry reports, leaders at Yelp brainstormed tactics to try, including varying the gender composition of hiring committees, masking voices during phone interview screening, and expanding on-campus recruiting efforts to include selected historically black universities, women’s colleges, and schools with higher proportions of Hispanic students. As with many pilots, some of these approaches have yielded results while others have not. That’s all part of progress, because increasing diversity at tech companies isn’t about finding a silver bullet. It’s about following a systematic process, involving two important steps that are too often lacking in practice. First, companies should be as transparent as possible, not only about the problem but also about their experiences and obstacles. Second, companies should be more proactive about rigorously evaluating the policies they implement.