Tech industry coalition to drive diversity
A number of large tech companies have lined up for a joint project to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in the tech industry– Action to Catalyse Tech (ACT). The actionplan calls on tech companies to commit to collective action and to drive change. A coalition of DEI experts from academia and the tech industry are signatories. Among actions is to create an industrywide standard on how to report DEI. On November 3, the coalition is organizing a DEI Innovation Summit.
Among signatories are Airbnb, Apple, Dropbox, Etsy, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, Salesforce, Spotify, and Uber, have committed to being founding signatories of the ACT Report. Together, these founding signatories represent more than 500,000 tech employees.
DOMINATED BY WHITE MEN
“The tech industry remains dominated by white men,” said Vivian Schiller, Executive Director of Aspen Digital, a program of the Aspen Institute. “Justice for underrepresented communities requires sustained commitment, transparency, and accountability from leadership, and that’s what we strive toward with Catalyze Tech.
Convened by the Aspen Institute, the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), PwC, and Snap Inc., a cross-industry working group partnered for an ACT Report to promote change.
The report’s recommendations:
- Model and incentivize inclusive leadership, including by recognizing DEI as a business imperative.
- Operationalize DEI throughout the business by applying a framework to address how to spend money (supplier diversity), design and build products (product inclusion), and think about talent.
- Share DEI demographic data with a new industry partner, the Tech Equity Accountability Mechanism, incubated by the Aspen Institute, with the goal of creating industry-wide standards for reporting such data.
- Transform future pathways into tech for underrepresented talent, including by helping solve the acute lack of computer science teachers from underrepresented backgrounds.
“It is imperative that we continue to call upon tech companies to take action and contribute to making the tech industry a more accurate reflection of a broad society”, said Lucy Sanders, CEO and Founder, NCWIT.
SHOOT FOR THE STARS
“So often the tech industry moves fast and shoots for the stars — yet when it comes to diversity and inclusion, the industry’s progress has been agonizingly slow. It is long past time for urgency and accountability, and the ACT Report sets out a tangible roadmap for companies of all sizes,” said Oona King, Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Snap Inc. and the Chair of the Catalyze Tech Working Group.
The full list of companies that have signed on to commit to the report’s recommendations at launch are: Airbnb; Apple; Ariel Investments; Cisco; DoorDash; Dropbox; Etsy; Google; Headspace Health; Justworks; LinkedIn; Maven; Netflix; Nextdoor; PwC; Ro; Salesforce; Snap; Spotify; Twitter; Uber; Vimeo; Warby Parker; and Wipro; along with PledgeLA and the companies that form the Alliance for Global Inclusion: Applied Materials, Dell, Intel, Micron Technology, Nasdaq, and NTT Data.
VIRTUAL SUMMIT
On November 3, Catalyze Tech will convene the first annual DEI Innovation Summit, which will bring together CEOs and leaders from signatory companies. The Summit, held virtually, will begin at 9:00 a.m. PT, and it will be available to watch for free here.
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