Company

Inclusion & Diversity Report December 2019

Tuesday, 17 December 2019

As 2019 winds down, we’re providing an end-of-year update on our journey to build a more diverse and inclusive Twitter:

We’ve made good progress in the past two years. We exceeded some targets for workforce representation, but fell short of others and need to do better.

The momentum we’ve gained recruiting diverse technical talent is encouraging — we must now extend that progress to senior roles, where more focus is needed.

As we approach a new decade, we’re excited to take a new approach to how we measure the diversity of our global workforce, set bold targets, and share our progress. 

In the meantime, we presented this report to our Board on December 12, 2019, and because we’re committed to working in the open, we’re sharing it with you here.

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The Data

In 2017, we set two-year diversity targets for women, Black, and Latinx representation at Twitter. 

So where are we today?

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We’re on a journey with no finish line and progress can never be fast enough. Over the last two years we’ve made progress — exceeding representation targets in some areas (Black) and falling short in others (women and Latinx).  

Next year, we’re introducing a new vision for what we want our workforce to look like in five years, and a career pathways program that will help increase representation of women, Black, and Latinx Tweeps across all levels, roles, and office locations.

Hiring is a critical driver of our progress. In the most recent quarter, we hired more women, Black, and Latinx talent compared to the previous quarter. However, we need to double down here to keep pace with overall hiring at the company, which has accelerated.

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Below are the attrition rates for women, Black, and Latinx talent, which continue to be at or below the company-wide attrition rate. While this is encouraging data, we are determined to lower attrition across these groups even further, and will be investing heavily in 2020.

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Beyond these three demographics, we continue to track and support deeper representation across our workforce. Here are the broader breakdowns:

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The true measure of diversity is more complex than what can be gathered from formal People systems. That’s why we’ve launched an anonymous internal Global Inclusion Survey to collect more robust information about our Tweeps’ lived experiences. The survey explores important topics across gender, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity and immigration, socio-economic status, and religion — to name a few. This data will guide our future I&D investments and we look forward to sharing the results in a future report.

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Hiring

We’ve doubled down on our presence at industry conferences popular with talent from diverse communities. This fall, we had our strongest presence yet at AdWeek, Women Impact Tech, AdColor, National Black MBA, Grace Hopper Conference, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers Conference, AfroTech, and Women in Product. Our Talent Acquisition teams continue to cultivate leads from these events with a focus on hiring interns, new grads, and senior-level talent.

We also made two critical hires to continue growing our I&D team. Preet Grewal (@preet_oG) is the new Head of Inclusion & Diversity for Asia Pacific who will share responsibility for Europe and Latin America and help ensure that our work maintains a truly global perspective as we scale. Donna Wright (@DJtheHRLady) is our new Head of Diversity Talent Acquisition and will lead our work to embed inclusive hiring principles throughout the hiring progress.

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Learning & Development

In August, we rolled out a new e-learning module to help Tweeps better understand what  micro-aggressions are, how to avoid them, and what to do when they occur. As a complement, we’ve taken the show on the road and hosted in-person trainings for teams that want to dive deeper.

In November, we launched mandatory unconscious bias training for all Tweeps. These trainings equip learners to recognize and address the effects of unconscious bias by challenging assumptions; encouraging diversity of experience, opinion, and expression; and supporting a workplace culture that actively and intentionally strives to be more inclusive.

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#LoveWhereYouWork

#TweepTour 

Our leaders wrapped up their world tour of our 30+ offices with visits to our spaces in Sydney, Sacramento, Miami, San Francisco, Sunnyvale, Washington DC, and their last “stop” — time with fully remote workers in a host of locations across the world. We're more confident than ever before that decentralization is the future of work and will enable anyone, anywhere to work for Twitter. A decentralized workforce also exposes us to a variety of perspectives, increased global impact, and will help us naturally unlock a truly diverse and inclusive company that reflects the reality of our service. We’re excited to put all that we’ve heard throughout the #TweepTour into action in the coming months!

Business Resource Groups

In October, we hosted the inaugural @TwitterTogether Leadership Summit — two days to celebrate and empower the 45 leaders of our global Business Resource Groups (BRGs), gathering representatives from 10 offices around the world. Highlights included strategic planning for 2020, quality time with staff, skill-building workshops, inspirational keynotes from MJ Rodriguez (@MjRodriguez7) and Nabela Noor (@Nabela), and giving back with San Francisco AIDS Foundation (@SFAIDSFound) and #TwitterForGood. 

Here’s what our BRGs have been up to:

Twitter Able (@TwitterAble) teamed up with Twitter Parents (@TwitterParents) to host a Lunch & Learn helping parents and caregivers cope with issues related to child mental health and learning disabilities. We also recognized International Day of People with Disabilities by featuring guest chefs with disabilities.

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Twitter Alas (@TwitterAlas) celebrated Latinx Tweeps around the world in conjunction with Hispanic Heritage Month, hosting events geared toward education, allyship, networking, and community service in Chicago, San Francisco, New York, DC, Boulder, and Los Angeles. This exciting month culminated with a professional development empowerment workshop hosted by LatinaVIDA (@SavvyLatinaInfo) and a Día de los Muertos celebration in Mexico City, streamed across all global offices.

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Twitter Asians (@TwitterAsians) celebrated Diwali with cultural events across nine offices in the North American and Asian-Pacific regions, featuring henna artists, performers, light and candle displays, and guest chefs. We also hosted a panel where Asian leaders at Twitter shared their experiences overcoming immigration challenges, which was streamed globally.

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Blackbirds (@Blackbirds) partnered with our Talent Acquisition teams to deliver an unforgettable experience to attendees at AfroTech (@AfroTech), including inspirational remarks from Dantley Davis (@dantley), Twitter head of product design. We also hosted events celebrating Black History Month in London (below) and Black Consciousness Day in São Paulo.

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Twitter Open (@TwitterOpen) uplifted the LGBTQIA community by recognizing #SpiritDay, #TransAwarenessWeek, #TransDayofRemembrance, and deepening partnerships with The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender (#LGBT) Community Center (@LGBTCenterNYC) and the Human Rights Campaign (@HRC).

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Twitter Stripes (@TwitterStripes) hosted 22 Puship Challenges in New York and San Francisco to raise awareness for Suicide Prevention and partnered with Student Veterans of America (@studentvets) to host a career workshop in DC. 

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Twitter Parents (@TwitterParents) co-hosted #TrickorTweet activations for parents around the US to bring their kids to the office and celebrate Halloween. We also hosted the first ever Bring Your Parents to Work Day in San Francisco so parents could experience their children’s work experience.

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Twitter Women (@TwitterWomen) hosted the cast of Charlie’s Angels (@CharliesAngels) for an empowering and inspirational Q&A, invited women business owners in partnership with our Supplier Diversity Program, joined forces with other Tech companies to launch #ConnectedWomenTokyo, and hosted deep conversations toward professional development in San Francisco, Singapore, and Tokyo.

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Product & Partnerships

#TwitterTeamUp

In October, we launched a new internal effort to identify opportunities to better protect and promote diverse voices across our company and service. #TwitterTeamUp is a cross-functional effort led by our Inclusion & Diversity team in partnership with our Business Resource Groups, User Services, Health, and Trust & Safety. The collaboration has opened new lines of communication across leaders who play an important role in shaping how the company thinks about these issues. We look forward to sharing progress in a future update. 

#TwitterVoices

In October, we hosted 30 Latinx and Afro-Latinx #TwitterVoices in New York to discuss their experience on the platform, Latinidad in the spectrum of society, trust and safety, and more. In November, we convened over 40 Black power voices in São Paulo for a #TwitterVoices “Conversation Sessions” event, as well as hosted a #SheInspiresMe “Ela Me Inspira” dinner to surface issues of Black identity, gender equality and obstacles for Black creators ensuring that our work always maintains a global lens. Insights generated from these conversations are shared cross-functionally across the organization to inform future product and policy considerations.

Global Paternity Leave Task Force

When all parents have equal access to and take their full family leave, everyone wins. That’s why we’re proud to be part of the Global Paternity Leave Task Force. The effort focuses on changing caregiving norms and driving gender equality by empowering men to take their full paternity leave so the benefits are felt at home, at work, and in society more widely.

@TechWomen 2019

Twitter is a proud partner of @TechWomen, which focuses on creating the next generation of women STEM leaders from Africa, Central and South Asia, and the Middle East. As part of a five-week program, we recently hosted five emerging leaders, sponsored a community celebration, and sent a delegation to DC who spoke at the World Bank and met with Embassy officials to raise awareness of the importance of investing in STEM education for women and girls around the world.

Building a Diverse Supply Chain

In collaboration with Twitter Women, we hosted an event to bring women entrepreneurs, professionals, community organizations, and Twitter together IRL, and two virtual workshops for diverse suppliers to empower them to do business with us. We also had a presence across a number of events for diverse suppliers including:

Diversity Partnerships

In October we hosted New York Times' 1619 Project as part of our Join The Conversation Series to empower more businesses to navigate complex discussions around topics like race in the workplace. We also deepened our work with the National Pan-Hellenic Council to empower more diverse voices across the platform.

#TwitterforGood

Giving back to our communities is part of our DNA. This quarter we conducted 90+ volunteer projects across 22 offices, spanning the globe on #TwitterforGood Day. We worked with 1,600+ volunteers who provided 4,750 hours of service in close partnership with 80 community-based organizations.

In San Francisco, we rolled out our final quarter of cash grants in 2019 totaling $1,630,000 for the year; an 80% increase from 2018. We also invested in a suite of in-kind donations and on-platform ad grants to provide holistic support to our key partners. We partnered with organizations that comprise a comprehensive workforce development pipeline for underrepresented minorities in tech. This work culminated in opening doors to employment at Twitter with the launch of our new Data Science/Engineering apprentice program.

What’s Next?

As the year winds down, we’ve got our sights set on 2025 and are asking ourselves, what will it take to become the world’s most inclusive and diverse tech company? We’re excited to share our vision with you in our next report. In the meantime, we want to hear from you! What would you like to see from us? Looking forward to the conversation — see you on @Twitter!

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