Uber has released its first-ever diversity report, outlining a number of ways it vows to improve its culture and diversity.
Women make up 15.4% of the technical positions at Uber, 22% of leadership positions and 36.1% of the overall workforce, according to the ride-hailing company's first-ever diversity report, issued Tuesday after weeks of scandal and bad press.
The split puts it behind many of the other tech companies, but not drastically so. For example, in tech roles, Facebook employs 17% women, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) employs 19% women and Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) employs 23% women. But, women make up only 32% of the overall workforce at both Apple and Facebook, less than Uber's 36%.
In releasing the diversity report, which CEO Travis Kalanick promised to do after former Uber engineer Susan Fowler wrote a scathing blog post about rampant sexism in the company, Uber vowed to make improving these numbers a priority. (See Uber's HR Nightmare: Company Investigates Sexual Harassment Claims.)
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Uber has been undergoing an "internal investigation" of its culture led by former US Attorney General Eric Holder since Fowler's report of the company, detailing sexual harassment, institutionalized sexism and an HR department that refused to do anything about it. Since her takedown, more engineers have come forward with similar reports of a toxic work environment, and Kalanick especially has been under fire for creating and encouraging such a culture. (See Culture in Crisis: What's Next for Uber & Tech?, Uber Engineering SVP Out as Probe Continues and Uber & Out.)
Today's diversity report outlined a few ways Uber says it has or will begin to improve, including:
Hired a Chief Human Resources Officer and Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion
Hired 41% women last year
Investing $3 million over the next three years to support organizations that bring more women and underrepresented people into tech
Going on a college tour for recruitment, including to a number of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs)
Diversifying interview panels
Enhancing benefits to make Uber more welcoming to parents
Educating its workforce on "actionable, inclusive behaviors" in hiring and work life
Updated job descriptions to remove potentially exclusionary language
Running interview training to make hiring processes more inclusive for women
Introducing gender and diversity training for employees
Uber stopped short of setting any diversity hiring targets, however. The report also accounts for other forms of diversity including race, religion, sexual orientation, veteran status and employees on work visas. You can view the complete report here.
Releasing a diversity report was a necessary step in improving Uber's image. Fowler's account of life at the tech company, and the subsequent fall-out, has cast a huge spotlight on the problem of gender discrimination across the Valley. Uber, in a lot of ways, is the archetype for all that is wrong with the tech industry when it comes to its treatment of women. Few women in tech were surprised by Fowler's post, and there has since been a mix of sentiments that this will be the last straw that finally sparks change and skepticism that things will ever change. (See Silicon Valley Writer Foresees End of Bro Culture.)
Right now Uber is talking a big game, but it remains to be seen if it can deliver on all of its promises and transform what is a deeply engrained company culture at the eight-year-old company. At the least, transparency in the form of diversity reports like the one it released today is a good start.
— Sarah Thomas, 
, Director, Women in Comms
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