Yahoo Finance Google struggles to retain Black and Latino workers
Google is struggling to retain employees from ethnic minorities because they do no feel included in the workplace, the company's annual diversity report has revealed.
Black employees make up just 2.5 percent of the US workforce and Latino employees make up 3.6 percent and the statistics from the report have hurt Google's ability to make progress in representation. Danielle Brown, chief diversion and inclusion officer said: “We are working hard to better understand what drives higher attrition and taking focussed measures to improve it.
“Feeling included is associated with lower attrition. We must focus not only on hiring but also developing and retaining members of underrepresented employees and creating an inclusive culture.”
It comes following the tech giant pledged to focus on diversity and inclusion following James Damore’s memo last year.
The Harvard graduate ignited a sexism debate last year, when he said that the gender gap in terms of pay and jobs was partly due to biological causes and called for an end Google’s initiatives to promote minorities.
Men appear to be leaving Google at a slightly higher rate than women according to its report. However, there is no explanation as to why people are leaving and why certain groups are leaving more frequently than other groups.
Despite considered measures being put in place over the last year the company’s American offices are still mainly white men. There has been a slight increase in underrepresented groups but this is not significant.
Ms Brown acknowledged that more work needs to be done to achieve Google’s “desired diversity and inclusion outcomes.” She said: “If we want a better outcome, we need to evolve our approach.
There are however more women in leadership positions. Since 2014, there has been a 5 percent increase in the number of women in these positions, the figure currently sits at 25.5 percent.
Earlier this year Google revealed a 17pc gender pay gap in the UK, although the technology giant says it pays men and women equally for the same work.
