eBay’s diversity report released today reveals the online auction giant is pretty diverse but the report shows that the tech industry as a whole is still seriously imbalanced.
eBay’s diversity report shows the company hires more women, black people and Hispanics than almost all of its fellow Silicon Valley neighbours but there is the feeling it is more ‘the best of a bad bunch’ when it comes to the overall hiring policy in the tech industry.
In terms of the overall gender breakdown, eBay has come the closest to parity, with 42pc of all its 33,000 staff across the world being women, compared with 58pc being men.
In comparison, Twitter – the last high tech company to release a diversity report – showed that the overall hiring of women in its workplace accounted for only 30pc.
eBay also shows promise in terms of the breakdown of women who hold leadership positions, with 28pc being in this category. However, women comprise only 24pc of eBay’s overall tech staff.
In terms of racial diversity in tech positions, those who class themselves as Asian are in the majority at 55pc, compared with 40pc white, while black, Hispanic, multiracial and other make up the remaining 5pc.
Despite the dominance of Asians in tech roles, the familiar majority of white people in leadership roles continues, making up 72pc, followed by 23pc Asian and, again, 5pc being black, Hispanic, multiracial or other.
The eBay management team admits they’re far from happy about the findings.
“We believe sustained commitment can make a demonstrable difference. And we are far from satisfied. We will continue to strive for progress, and a stronger, better, more diverse eBay.”
