Big Tech’s pivot away from diversity efforts (rerun)

Marketplace Tech

American Public Media

Technology, News

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 24 December 2024

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This episode is a rerun and originally aired Sept. 11, 2024.

Over the last couple of years, the tech industry has slashed hundreds of thousands of jobs, many of them in recruiting and other departments working to improve diversity. Companies like Meta and Google, which earlier set ambitious hiring and investment goals, have pulled resources from those efforts. As a result, many nonprofit groups set up to train and recruit underrepresented workers are struggling to stay afloat. One prominent person in the field is Lisa Mae Brunson, founder of the nonprofit Wonder Women Tech. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino asked her how things have changed.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, everybody, it's Kai. Time is running out to give a tax-deductible donation to Marketplace before the end of the year. Donate today to support the public service journalism that you rely on.
0:10.0	Every donation and every dollar helps us plan for the new year ahead.
0:13.9	Go to Marketplace.org slash donate and invest in news you value and trust. That's Marketplace.org slash donate, or you can follow the link in the show notes.
0:24.4	What happened to big tech's big promises to improve diversity?
0:29.6	From American Public Media, this is Marketplace Tech.
0:32.6	I'm Megan McCarty Carino.
0:55.4	Thank you. Reno. Today we're revisiting a segment from earlier this year about a perennial issue in the tech sector that seems to have intensified. Over the last couple of years, the tech industry has slashed hundreds of thousands of jobs, many of them in recruiting and other departments working to
1:01.6	improve diversity. Companies like META and Google, which earlier set ambitious goals for
1:08.2	hiring an investment, have pulled resources from those efforts.
1:12.8	It's left many nonprofit groups set up to recruit and train underrepresented workers
1:17.6	struggling to stay afloat. One of them is Wonder Women Tech. Founder Lisa May Brunson
1:24.0	explained how things have changed. We saw the writing on the wall where it was like,
1:29.5	you know, it seemed like companies were performative. Despite the fact that statistically,
1:34.4	you know, companies will perform better when they have diverse teams. Their bottom line will
1:38.9	actually, you know, increase. They will make more profits. But that wasn't really what they were looking at.
1:45.7	I mean, I think they were looking at the fact that they were going to have to change culture.
1:50.0	You know, and you started to see the political climate change too. And I think when that shifted,
1:57.1	the focus on, you know, increasing representation also shifted.
2:03.1	And we've certainly seen a shift in terms of financial investment.
2:08.7	Of course, the last couple years, a lot of tech companies have been shedding jobs.
2:13.3	Many of those jobs have been concentrated in HR, recruiting, you know, diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
2:21.7	Have you felt the effect of that in the work you do?
	...

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