The data in this report shows that despite significant effort, and some pockets of success, we need to do more to achieve our desired diversity and inclusion outcomes. We care deeply about improving workforce representation and creating an inclusive culture for everyone. While we’re moving in the right direction, we are determined to accelerate progress. That’s why we’re making some changes to how we approach diversity and inclusion at Google.
First, the responsibility and work to achieve a more diverse and inclusive Google is shifting from a primarily People Operations and grassroots-led model, to one of shared ownership with Google’s most senior leaders. Google’s leaders are focused on, and committed to, accelerating our progress.
Second, we are further increasing transparency. Google’s publication of workforce representation data in 2014 helped shape the current industry conversation on diversity in tech. We aim to take the conversation—and our work—to the next level as we further refine our approach, so this year we’ve published new and more detailed workforce representation data.
Third, we are taking a more systemic approach to improve outcomes in workforce representation, and to create an inclusive culture. Our company-wide strategy is anchored in further operationalizing four longstanding commitments:
Although hiring and investing in the talent of tomorrow is critical—and we’ll continue our work here—it’s not enough. We must also renew our focus on development, progression, and retention, and ensure Google's culture is inclusive for everyone. Our leadership will share ownership for improved outcomes, taking actions based on the current state of their organization.
We are determined to change our workforce representation numbers, because they reflect the career prospects of real people: Googlers and future Googlers, students, communities, and families. Diversity is a business imperative because Google builds for everyone—and diverse teams produce better products and services. And it aligns with our mission: to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
We don’t expect you to simply take our word for it, so this year we’re offering more data. We will report back in 2019 to share what works and what doesn’t.
It’s been a year since we last reported Google’s workforce representation numbers, so where are we today1? Women make up 30.9% of our global workforce, and men 69.1%.2 In terms of race and ethnicity (U.S. data only) 2.5% of Google’s workforce is Black; 3.6% is Hispanic/Latinx; 3 36.3% is Asian; 4.2% is multiracial (two or more races); 0.3% are Native American,4 Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander; and, 53.1% is White. Representation for women, Black, and Latinx Googlers is similar to last year, increasing by only 0.1 percentage point (ppt) for each of these groups. However, we saw progress in several key areas
* Native American includes Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders as categorized by government reporting standards
We have made progress in our leadership ranks, by gender and ethnicity. Women hold 25.5% of Google’s leadership positions today. Over the last four years, the percentage of women in leadership globally has increased from 20.8% to 25.5% (+4.7 ppts).
In the U.S. in 2017, leadership hires were 5.4% Black, and Black representation in leadership increased from 1.5% in 2017 to 2% in 2018. Latinx representation in Google’s leadership is 1.8% (up from 1.7%).
* Native American includes Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders as categorized by government reporting standards
There are modest but hopeful signs of success in hiring, where our focus is on reaching greater workforce representation of women globally, and for Black and Latinx Googlers in the U.S.
In 2017, women hires in tech positions rose to 24.5% (+1 ppt), although overall hiring of women dropped from 31.4% to 31.2% (-0.2 ppts). Since 2014, women hires in tech have increased from 20.8% to 24.5% (+3.7 ppts), which shows that our focus on hiring more women into technical positions is having impact.
In 2017, overall Latinx hires increased to 4.2% (+0.4 ppts), while Latinx hires in non-Tech roles increased to 7.2% (+1.5 ppts).
Black Googler hires (3.2% of all U.S. hires) remain above current representation (2.5% of all U.S. Googlers), and hires of Black Googlers in tech positions increased from 1.9% to 2.0% (+0.1 ppt).
* Native American includes Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders as categorized by government reporting standards
We’re sharing a weighted attrition index 5 for the first time, where the overall attrition rate is 100, and weighted attrition for each demographic group is scaled up or down accordingly. Attrition rates indicate how many employees leave a company annually. Overall, outcomes are mixed. Google’s attrition rates are lower for women globally than for men (both for women overall, and even more so for women in tech roles).
* Native American includes Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders as categorized by government reporting standards
Attrition rates in 2017 were highest for Black Googlers followed by Latinx Googlers, and lowest for Asian Googlers. Black Googler attrition rates, while improving in recent years, have offset some of our hiring gains, which has led to smaller increases in representation than we would have seen otherwise. We’re working hard to better understand what drives higher attrition and taking focused measures to improve it.
Based on employee surveys, we have learned that feeling included is associated with lower attrition for all employees, especially people of color. So we are accelerating efforts to ensure all Googlers—and in particular those from underrepresented groups—experience Google as an inclusive workplace. Equally important, the data shows us that it’s critical to place an intentional focus on knowing and growing our talent from underrepresented groups, including opportunities for sponsorship, visibility, and development; we have a number of initiatives in place to do this. Put simply, to improve workforce representation we must focus not only on hiring, but also on developing, progressing, and retaining members of underrepresented employees, and creating an inclusive culture.
We know various social identities can overlap to influence the amount of bias or disadvantage someone faces. That’s why we’re releasing our workforce representation data cut by race and gender for the first time. We hope that increased transparency drives change. We want to understand everyone’s experience, including those likely to face the greatest disadvantage.
We are also using this opportunity to represent the experience of multiracial individuals. The data in this section allows people of two or more races to more accurately state their racial background. For example, Black+ includes all Googlers who identify as Black, plus those who identify as Black and any other race.
* Native American includes Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders as categorized by government reporting standards. Note that [Race] refers to individuals that identify as [Race] and 0 or more other race/ethnicities. For example, Asian+ includes individuals that identify as Asian only and those that identify as Asian and White (or another race/ethnicity). Because of this, categories will sometimes add up to more than 100%.
Unsurprisingly, this new data shows that women of all ethnicities are less represented in Google’s workforce than men of the same ethnicity. For example, between 2014-2017 the representation of Black+ men increased 0.5 ppts (to 1.8%), whereas the representation of Black+ women increased 0.1 ppt (to 1.2%). Representation of Latinx+ men in Google’s workforce increased three times more than Latinx+ women (0.6 ppts compared to 0.2 ppts).
Our gains in women’s representation have largely been driven by White+ and Asian+ women. Representation of Asian+ women increased considerably to 12.5% of Google’s workforce, up from 10% overall in 2014 (+2.5 ppts). This is lower than increases for Asian+ men who make up 25.7% of Google, up from 21.4% in 2014 (+4.3 ppts). Among leaders, we’ve seen the most growth in representation of White+ women, who make up 16.4% of leaders, up from 14.3% in 2014 (+2.1 ppts). This is followed by increases in Asian+ men and Asian+ women in leadership, which have grown to 20% and 7.3% respectively (+1.6 ppts and +1.2 ppts). Overall, White+ men make up 52.4% of leadership down from 53.8% (-1.4 ppts) in 2017.
This represents the beginning of our exploration of intersectional data in the U.S., and we invite others in the tech industry to join us in a more rigorous examination of this space. We’ll return with more data and insights in 2019.
Everyone is biased—science shows that’s how the human brain works.6 We don’t expect people to rid themselves of all bias, but we want them to recognize it. Research shows that when we are more aware of unconscious bias, we make more objective decisions. To date, 84% of Google’s people managers have taken Unconscious Bias training, and we’ve also introduced Unconscious Bias workshops into all “Noogler” (new Googler) orientations.
To help provide tools and build skills to overcome bias, we’ve taken this work further. In 2017, we expanded our Decoding Race series, which grappled with wide-ranging topics on race, reaching over 15,000 Googlers. This set the stage for our work to increase racial and social equity across Google in 2018. We know that having meaningful conversations around race can be difficult and uncomfortable. So we’ve designed and implemented a series of interactive learning labs, with the aim of expanding racial awareness and explaining the impact of stereotypes for all Googlers from all backgrounds. Changing the way we think about bias is a huge and complex task, both inside and outside Google. Our grant funding supports many organizations that tackle bias; read about them here.
We also want to do more to challenge gender stereotypes in Google’s workplace. Last year, we made parental benefits gender-neutral. New parents, regardless of gender, receive up to 12 weeks fully paid leave to bond with their child (birth mothers receive an additional 10-12 weeks of pregnancy recovery time7). In addition, all new parents benefit from a 2-week gradual return policy (ramping back to work part-time at full-time salary).
While Google’s benefits for women are best-in-class, the stereotypes they face in the media, playground, classroom, and at home remain a barrier. That’s why Google invests in teaching girls and other under-represented groups to code. And it’s why we inspire girls and young women to consider a career in the Tech sector via projects like Made With Code.
Google’s efforts in this space include a strong focus on pay equity. We recently shared our annual 2017 pay equity analyses publicly. This looks for pay differences based on gender (for which we have information worldwide) and, in the U.S., by race/ethnicity. We will continue this work to support a fair and equitable Google.
We’ve made huge strides in improving the diversity of early pipeline talent. This year our internship program welcomes our largest ever cohort from underrepresented backgrounds, with 49% of Google’s global interns identifying as Black, Latinx, and/or women.8 Yet, it’s important to continue to invest in tomorrow’s talent. So we are also deepening our relationships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the U.S., and extending our programs to the Latinx community.
In 2017, we launched Howard West, a computer science residency program that attracts top software engineering students from the Black community directly to Google. In 2018, we are extending this opportunity to more scholars and faculty to include additional HBCUs and Hispanic-serving Institutions (HSIs). Overall, in 2017, we welcomed 96 students from HBCUs to Google, up from 14 students in 2014. And, since 2014 we’ve more than tripled the number of schools where we recruit, from 75 to 225.
We also invest in future tech talent in under-represented communities. We offer a three-week computer science course for graduating high school seniors through Google’s Computer Science Summer Institute. Our Google in Residence program sends Googlers out to college campuses across the U.S. to teach students computer science courses. This year, in line with our efforts to support the Latinx community, we’re delighted to expand our Google in Residence program to include HSIs. Over the past five years, we’ve grown this program to 10 schools. And in the fall, we’ll add three additional schools, including two HSIs. To date, we’ve engaged over 1,500 students through the Google in Residence program, and look forward to serving many more.
Students engaged at HBCUs through Google in Residence campus program
The number of schools we recruit from, up from 75 in 2014
We are proud of Google’s extraordinarily passionate Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). Google currently sponsors 20+ ERGs with 250+ chapters across 99 offices and 46 countries. These groups are led by more than 500 employee volunteers, with 20,000+ Googlers participating as members, which demonstrates the extent of our workforce engagement around diversity and inclusion. Here are just a few highlights:
Googlers actively particpated as ERG members
Googlers participated in Accessibility Week
Google launched a Supplier Diversity Program in late 2014, and since then we’ve spent over $1B 9 with minority-, women-, Veteran-, disabled- and LGBTQ-owned businesses. These businesses help Google run day-to-day, supplying everything from hardware to food, marketing services to technology, and much more. Many of these businesses also use our Grow with Google program, which allows individuals and companies to upskill themselves for free.
We also encourage our own diverse populations of Googlers to contribute insights to help us create better products for everyone. For example, Google’s Crowdsource app team encourages Googlers to check our algorithms for accuracy in a variety of languages from Azerbaijani to Zulu. This feedback improves our AI systems in many products (such as Google Maps and Google Translate). When our products are built using a diversity of data, we help bring the benefits of AI to all, so that our products work for everyone.
Google’s workforce data demonstrates that if we want a better outcome, we need to evolve our approach. That’s why from now on ownership for diversity and inclusion will be shared between Google’s leadership team, People Operations, and Googlers. It’s also why we are all committed to accelerating progress, generating equitable outcomes, and ensuring our culture is supportive for everyone. Our strategy doesn’t provide all the answers, but we believe it will help us find them.
We look forward to inviting you back next year to see what progress we make. Success is never guaranteed, but this work is fundamental to Google’s mission, and tens of thousands of Googlers are passionately committed to it. We are determined we will have the impact the world expects of us, and that we expect of ourselves.
Danielle Brown
VP - Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer
