4 ways to make your tech startup more diverse

Nishu Thukral | TheNextWeb | 30 January 2017

“Check any tech company’s ‘About Us’ page and you’ll likely see diversity highlighted as a pillar of the company culture. Today, it’s no secret there’s incredible value in having differences in gender, race, sexual preference, age and background on a team.

Companies are stronger when different ideas come together, and studies show non-homogenous groups have a better balance of leadership skills.

But building a multicultural team goes beyond touting it on the website or employing various recruitment strategies – it’s grounded in putting a structure in place that allows specific individuals and communities to thrive, making your company somewhere they want to work and stay.

You’d be hard-pressed to find an organization that doesn’t claim to strive for inclusion, but there’s a difference between talking the talk and walking the walk.

Here are some tips for building a framework that bolsters diversity and creates a welcoming environment for people of all walks of life.”

Read more here.

 

Diversity in tech: Lots of attention, little progress

Barbara Ortutay | Yahoo! Finance | 29 January 2017

“The tech industry brought us self-driving cars, artificial intelligence and 3-D printers. But when it comes to racial and gender diversity, its leading companies are no trailblazers.

Despite loudly touted efforts to hire more blacks, Latinos and women, especially in technical and leadership positions, diversity numbers at the largest tech companies are barely budging.

In 2014, 2 percent of Googlers were black and 3 percent were Hispanic, numbers that have not changed since. The picture is similar at Facebook and Twitter . Microsoft is slightly more racially diverse (though not when it comes to gender) and Apple even more so, though still not reflective of the U.S. population. Amazon is more racially diverse still, although it counts a large, lower-wage warehouse workforce in its totals.

Women, meanwhile, make up less than a third of the workforce at many companies — even less in engineering and other technical jobs.”

Read more here.

 

Convicted Marijuana Grower Turned Successful Web Developer

Laurence Bradford | Forbes | 20 January 2017

“When Chad Latham was convicted to spend 15 years behind bars for growing marijuana, he couldn’t have predicted what the future would hold for him. A decade into his sentence, marijuana was legalized in his state (Washington), and shortly afterward he received clemency from President Obama.

Sent out into the world a free man, Latham had some recalibrating to do. The looming question, of course, was “What now?”

In his teenage years he’d been interested in computers, and it had stuck. He’d managed to keep up with his computer skills in prison…even without access to the Internet. He read books and worked at the computer lab in prison, where devices were outfitted with approved programs. A few other inmates that were passionate about computers got together and had private sessions, learning how to code.

Upon his release, Latham enrolled in Galvanize’s 6-month Web Dev Immersive in Seattle, after reading about the coding camp phenomena while in prison.”

Read more here.

 

Oracle faces Labor Department lawsuit over job discrimination

Jon Fingas | Engadget | 18 January 2017

“It allegedly pays white men more, and favors Asian workers for technical roles.

Google isn’t the only Silicon Valley staple facing a lawsuit over the fairness of its hiring practices. The US Department of Labor has sued Oracle for allegedly conducting discriminatory employment practices. The enterprise tech giant is accused of paying white male workers more than minorities and women in similar positions, and of favoring Asian people for “technical roles.” The lawsuit isn’t coming out of the blue, though — it’s really the culmination of a battle that started when an investigation began in 2014.

The Labor Department says that Oracle has refused to obey requests for employment data, such as discrimination complaints, hiring data and prior-year compensation levels. Compliance officials say they spent “almost a year” trying to solve discrimination issues before the lawsuit came about.”

Read more here.

 

Boeing’s difficult journey from racism to diversity

Dominic Gates | The Seattle Times | 16 January 2017

“I will not recommend for membership in this union any other than members of the white race.”

That may sound like some old declaration from the Deep South. But until after World War II, that was part of the oath sworn by members of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) union, which represented Boeing workers in the Puget Sound region.

The union, which organized the Boeing workforce here in 1935, was hardly the sole barrier to racial integration at Boeing. From the company’s founding in 1916, management had not hired a single black person.

Prewar, such employment bans were pervasive throughout U.S. industry, even here in what’s now one of the country’s most politically liberal regions.

Boeing hired its first two black “Rosie the Riveters” in 1942 to build bombers for the war effort — more than nine months after a presidential order banning discrimination at defense companies — and afterward progressed only slowly toward equality.

Interviews with current and former employees trace a difficult journey spanning 75 years from the reluctant hiring of those black Rosies through today — when young African Americans can take advantage of Boeing’s official policy encouraging diversity and equal opportunity. (Boeing declined to share the racial demographics of its current workforce.)”

Read more here.

 

On MLK Day, here’s what 7 black tech leaders say about diversity and the state of the industry

Lisa Stiffler | GeekWire | 16 January 2017

“It’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day and nearly the end of Barack Obama’s presidency. America has made tremendous strides in improving racial equality, but clearly there’s a long way to go in many different areas — including the technology field.

Tech leaders routinely tout the importance of increasing the number of underrepresented minorities in their sector, yet huge gaps persist in employment numbers. Fewer than 9 percent of American tech workers were African American and nearly 7 percent were Hispanic or Latino, according to a GeekWire analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data from 2015. The numbers are worse for people of color in executive level positions.

So we asked seven black tech leaders in the greater Seattle area to share their thoughts on racial diversity in the industry, and we received wonderfully thoughtful, varied responses. They’re an inspiration, roadmap and a reality check for anyone concerned about this issue — and that should include everyone.”

Read more here.

 

Affordable child care shouldn’t be just for the wealthy

Ruchika Tulshyan & Tracey Whitten | The Seattle Times | 8 January 2017

“THE Seattle Times recently published an article about one local family’s financial challenges created by the high cost of child care. The family’s household income was about $195,000 — one-quarter of which went to child care for their two young children.

While this was not an insignificant cost for the couple — who earn more than twice the Seattle median household income of more than $80,000 — their struggles indicate that if child care is costly for high-earning families, imagine its devastating impact on families earning below-average incomes?

As mothers who are also focused on creating equitable workplaces for women, we believe that unaffordable child care drives rampant inequality for everyone.”

Read more here.

 

Thinking about diversity in tech in new ways

Mikey Tom | Pitchbook | 6 January 2017

“While the gadgets and gizmos at CES are enthralling, there are plenty of other storylines running through the conference that deserve attention. One topic that was consistently top-of-mind while walking around the convention was diversity. That could be because I attended talks highlighting the issue, or perhaps it’s because the tech industry is notoriously dominated by a few types of people. Either way, it’s a fascinating, complex topic.

We’ve written about diversity in the past, but mostly in regard to how it applies to the venture capital industry. We wrote about how it was a hot topic at 500 Startups’ Premoney conference in June, as well as how there’s been a slow shift in terms of who’s getting hired for early roles at VC firms.

When diversity is brought up, though, it’s often seen as only referring to the underrepresentation of women in the tech industry. That is undoubtedly an important part of the issue, and that underrepresentation is painfully apparent at CES, but there’s much more to diversity that is worth thinking about and trying to address.”

Read more here.

 

Tech Diversity Took Steps Back in 2016, Expects a Challenging 2017

Salvador Rodriguez | Inc.com | 3 January 2017

“It was a rough year for the tech diversity community in 2016. Although new leaders stepped up to push the cause forward, efforts to hire more women and minorities were hit with a barrage of setbacks.

It’s been more than two years since tech companies began releasing diversity reports. Heading into 2017 anticipating a Trump Administration that seems to not prioritize inclusion, the tech diversity community faces some big tests.

The following are 2016’s most important developments in tech diversity.”

Read more here.

 

Company hires inmates hoping to reclaim life

Alison Morrow | King5 News | 30 December 2016

“SEATTLE – For more than 50 years, a Seattle company has hired inmates who are looking for a better future.

Forever a Husky, Toalei Mulitauaopele wore his purple and gold to work on Bowl Game weekend. Once a defensive lineman for the Dawgs, he lost the chance to play professional football.

His self-esteem sacked, he quit school and almost quit life.

“Just, man, whatever it took to get high and stay high. I didn’t want to feel bad no more. I didn’t want to feel like a loser no more. I took whatever I needed to take,” he said.

Drugs, robberies, and eventually assault on police landed “T” in prison for years. Eventually, he sobered up and decided to grow up but no matter how many jobs he applied for, no one wanted to hire him.

“It’s not impossible but it’s tough. Once you’re labeled as a felon, a lot of people shut their door on you,” Mulitauaopele said.

It’s a story shared by many in Pioneer Human Services manufacturing plant in Seattle. The company gives former inmates a chance to create something more.”

Read more here.