Technology

Twitter Aims to Improve Diversity by Following in Pinterest’s Footsteps

By Ricky Riley | Published on September 6, 2015

Janet Van Huysse, Twitter’s VP of Diversity and Inclusion

Pinterest was one of the first companies to come out publicly and address its lack of diversity. The social media company has obtained the help of Paradigm, a company that specializes in diversity training.

Since the beginning of the year, Pinterest and Paradigm have hosted a variety of workshops and networking events that should actively and quickly diversify the company. Now Twitter wants to address its lack of diversity in a similar fashion.

Currently, Twitter’s demographics are extremely white and male dominated. As of 2014, the company was 70 percent male and 58 percent white. The numbers for the company’s leadership positions were no better—78 percent male and 72 percent white. Additionally, Black workers only composed 2 percent of Twitter’s workforce in 2014.

According to a blog post by Janet Van Huysse, vice president of diversity and inclusion, the company has set 2016 goals that will:

Increase women overall to 35 percent
Increase women in tech roles to 16 percent
Increase women in leadership roles to 25 percent
Increase underrepresented minorities overall to 11 percent
Increase underrepresented minorities in tech roles to 9 percent
Increase underrepresented minorities in leadership roles to 6 percent

One of the main strategies Twitter will employ involves active recruiting practices that target historically Black colleges and universities. Twitter will head to several HBCU campuses to search for talented individuals to fill open positions. The company also plans to partner with student groups on campuses to help network and address its diversity goals.

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