Editor’s note: Today, Melonie Parker sent the below email to Google’s employees around the world.
Building for everyone requires vision, and constant revision. We’re continually iterating, examining data-driven outcomes, and learning from both our successes and failures. Our focused efforts in diversity, equity and inclusion are no different.
As we prepared to report on how our DEI work is progressing, we found ourselves once again in the midst of a particularly painful time. I’m personally grappling with the recent hate crimes targeting Black and AAPI communities because of their identitiesTo me, it seems, our wounds are never fully allowed to heal. They’re reopened over and over again by these senseless acts. This signals the seriousness of the work we have to do to advance equity and understanding across differences. At Google, I’m inspired by the work we continue to do: We’ve resolved to do better every day and to contribute to a world that is equitable, safe and just.”
Since we shared our first Diversity Annual Report in 2014, we’ve built on what we’ve learned to increasingly make Google a place that better represents and embraces the diversity of our world. Our 2022 Diversity Annual Report, released today, shows the positive progress we’re making. We’re encouraged by what the data is telling us: it shows we’re on the right track.
Some highlights:
- Last year, we achieved our best hiring year yet for women globally (37.5% of hires) and Black+ and Latinx+ hires in the U.S.
- The number of Black+ and Latinx+ Googlers in the U.S. is growing faster than the Googler community overall, and as a result, we saw our largest increases in representation of Black+ and Latinx+ Googlers in the U.S. ever (20% and 8% respectively year over year).
- We also improved leadership representation of Black+, Latinx+ and Native American+ Googlers in the U.S. by 27%. Representation of women in leadership is also up 9% year over year.
- Overall, Black+ attrition in the U.S. was comparable to Google-wide attrition levels for the first time ever. We are also seeing promising progress in the improved attrition for many of our intersectional communities, including Black+ women.
- The data from our Diversity Annual Report also shows us areas where we’ll work to do better, and we remain focused on improving hiring and retention for Native American+ Googlers, and retention for Black+ and Latinx+ men outside of tech.
- We’re also encouraged by what we heard from our employees this year: 87% of Googlers say they feel comfortable being themselves at work (up 3% year over year), and 91% say their work groups value diverse perspectives (up 2%).
Behind all these stats are programs and strategies that are helping us make real progress. In 2021, we focused on building belonging through learning opportunities like the Racial Equity Learning Platform, and by offering career development and mentoring programs like our Noogler onboarding for Black+ employees at all levels. We also tripled our Retention and Progression team so every organization within Google has someone dedicated to supporting employees from underrepresented communities.
As we move to hybrid work, we want Googlers entering physical spaces to feel valued and respected so they can do their best work. The Diversity Annual Report notes how we’re making our workspaces more inclusive and accessible across all Google sites — especially notable today as we celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day.
A broad industry focus on representation and access is also important to us. That’s why we continue to invest in communities and efforts such as the Latino Founders Fund, awarding non-dilutive funding, paired with deep mentorship from Google experts, to help Latinx founders retain ownership of their companies. And in 2021, Grow with Google launched a series of Asian-owned small and medium business workshops in partnership with the U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce.
We’re also thinking long-term about representation, as we build pathways into tech and digital skills for people from underrepresented communities. Also in 2021, we expanded Mind the Gap, an initiative that encourages women and girls to pursue STEM careers. Additionally, we expanded support for Native American and Indigenous job-seekers in the U.S. and Canada.
I see our 2022 Diversity Annual Report as a powerful reflection of how we are reaching critical “near stars” on our journey toward the North Star of building an inclusive workplace at Google.
I hope you will check out this year’s Diversity Annual Report to share in our progress and what we’ve learned.
Thank you,
Melonie
