Add Twitter to the list of tech companies now busy trying to figure out how to get more diversity within its workforce as newly released data reveals most of its employees are white males.
In a blog post written by Janet Van Huysse, VP of diversity and inclusion, comes news Twitter is "joining some peer companies by sharing our ethnic and gender diversity data. And like our peers, we have a lot of work to do."
The blog provides clear statistics that Twitter is a company with little cultural and ethnic diversity among its workforce.
Huysee claims Twitter has a goal to reach everyone on the planet as a tech player and diversity as a company could help attain that goal. "At Twitter, we have a goal to reach every person on the planet. We believe that goal is more attainable with a team that understands and represents different cultures and backgrounds," she writes.
"We also know that it makes good business sense to be more diverse as a workforce -- research shows that more diverse teams make better decisions, and companies with women in leadership roles produce better financial results. But we want to be more than a good business; we want to be a business that we are proud of," she adds.
As Tech Times reported civil rights leader Jesse Jackson was loudly lobbying Twitter last week to release employment diversity data.
Jackson's PUSH Coalition as well as the civil rights group ColorofChange.org were asking Twitter to hold a forum that would enable Twitter to tell the public how it plans on increasing diversity within its walls.
The Twitter blog includes graphs noting, overall, 59 percent of the workforce is white, while 2 percent is African-American and 3 percent is Hispanic or Latino.
The diversity gap is even higher on the leadership level with 72 percent of Twitter management being white.
In terms of sex gender, 70 percent of the company is male, and 79 percent of the leadership ranks are male.
The blog notes several Twitter "employee-led groups are putting a ton of effort into the cause," including fostering the hiring of female engineers.
"We are committed to making inclusiveness a cornerstone of our culture," states the blog.
"By becoming more transparent with our employee data, open in dialogue throughout the company and rigorous in our recruiting, hiring and promotion practices, we are making diversity an important business issue for ourselves," writes Huysee.
