As one of the few industries that has actually positively affected the U.S. economy over the last decade, the high tech sector has been a focus of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) efforts to expand diversity in recruiting. According to an EEOC report as a result of the high tech’s successes, having a more diverse high tech workforce is essentially to sustaining health economic growth (EEOC, 2016). However, the EEOC has found that tech companies have been failing at the task of creating a diverse work force despite the existence of a relatively broad and diverse labor pool of talent (EEOC, 2016). Accordingly, it has called on tech companies to improve their diversity in recruitment and tech companies have responded. A case in point is Google, one of the largest and most influential companies in the high tech sector, says it has spent U.S. $150 million to promote diversity (Google, 2016). The question is how can Google promote diversity without violating EEOC and American with Disabilities Acts (ADA) regulations on what questions can be asked of a potential employee during the recruitment process.
Two ways that Google promotes diversity and recruitment without violating discrimination regulations is by recruiting in diverse communities. For instance, it has a number of cooperative programs with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) that focus on attracting and recurring African Americans start internships that eventually lead to job offers (Google, 2016). Another of Google’s efforts to increase a diverse workforce without violating the law is to allow employees to use 20 percent of their work time to focus on diversity projects (Google, 2016). Accordingly, an employee from an underrepresented group, such as woman, could establish a recruitment campaign with local woman and girl’s groups to encourage them to apply for jobs at Google. Lastly, the fact that Google has been so public about its wish for a more diverse workforce has led potential employee to self-reveal any aspect of themselves that they feel would help satisfy Google’s diversity goals. This is illustrated by the fact that Google has a dedicated website to inform the public about is diversity in recruitment efforts and encouragement of any who thinks they are qualified to apply.
The only way for Google to improve its efforts is to expand it recruiting efforts to more and more communities that are unrepresented in its workforce. What was surprise to me was the amount of money that Google has invested in implementing and advancing its diversity polices in recruitment. Clearly, it understands the benefits of having a diverse workforce and it steps the appropriate steps to achieve its goals.
References
Equal Employment Opportuniy Commission (EEOC). (2016, May). Diversity in high tech. Retrieved from https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/statistics/reports/hightech
Google. (2016). Diversity: hiring diverse Googlers. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/diversity/hiring.html
