Ask HN: How diverse is your workplace?
Hi there,
Some companies claim that they value diversity.But the workplace reflects nothing but homogeneity.
So,how diverse is your workplace viz-a-viz White/Black/Hispanic/Asia and Male/Female?
1 Japanese, 1 Portuguese, 1 Brazilian, 1 Filipino, 1 Canadian, 1 Australian, 1 German, 3 Americans (although 2 of them have been in Japan for a really long time).
1 Female 9 Male
2 Asian, 1 Latin American, 7 White.
Although its very fun to have so many different cultures together and an immense learning opportunity, I subscribe to the view of getting people based on skill only.
We'll probably be on-boarding Japanese for the next 2 hires since, well, we're in Japan and its a tricky place to do business with big, old Japanese companies.
Over the years I would say:
White 97% Black 1% Hispanic 1% Asian 1%
Male 97% Female 3%
University was great because there was a huge mix of people from all over the world. I generally don't think about someone's ethnic background though.
I think everyone should be hired based on their ability and being a good fit for the position. I don't think hiring a person because they are or are not a demographic is necessary.
Perhaps aligning percentages with the population sounds like a good idea but hiring the wrong person for a position just for the sake of meeting a quota is a bad idea. I expect some demographics are probably less likely to be in engineering just because of their school systems or engineering is just not something they are pushed to get in to as they come up through Jr. and High School.
So I think diversity is great, but I don't think it should be something that drives your hiring practices where you're following a quota/percentages.
Just be fair and hire the best person that fits the position regardless of their demographic.
My current company was founded by upper-class white males, whose hiring mantra is also "cultural fit". We have no foreigners and everyone is white (company is < 30 people).
In our us office there is only 1 girl and only about 6 native English speakers. I think its pretty cool as I get to talk and get a peek into the culture in Spain.
You won't see the same diversity if you work in Idaho vs working in LA.
From my experience, companies that hire candidates based on skills and performance do better than companies that hire based on ethnicity/sex (whether inclusive or exclusive).