Facebook’s Civil Rights Audit
strategies, and taking steps to build out its internal infrastructure by, for example, starting to evaluate senior leaders
on their effectiveness at meeting D&I goals. This goal (and the principle of representation it reflects) has been
embraced by civil rights leaders.
On June 18 of this year, Facebook further enhanced its 50 in 5 goal by announcing that it would aim to increase
the number of people of color in leadership positions over the next years by 30%, including increasing the
representation of Black employees in such roles by 30%. The Auditors recognize that diversity in leadership is
important and view these goals as important steps forward to be achieved.
The Auditors believe in public goal setting for the recruitment of URMs, and recognize that these aspirations are
important signals of the desire for diversity. However, the Auditors are wary that it would send a problematic
message if Facebook does not come close enough to meeting its goals. The Auditors would like to know more about
how the commitment to these goals has changed behavior or prompted action, and how the company plans to ensure
representation of each sub-group in these goals. The Auditors were unable to poll leaders on this topic, but would
like to see continued public commitments to and discussion of these goals by the Facebook senior leadership team.
The Auditors recognize that workforce statistics are not a sufficient or meaningful metric for providing transparency
into the current state of inclusion at Facebook, and a sense of whether and to what extent Facebook has created
an inclusive environment. The absence of helpful measures of equity or inclusion at Facebook is not intended to
suggest that those goals are subordinate or insignificant but merely reflect the Auditors’ lack of access to such data
or resources.
3.
Details on Facebook’s Diversity and Inclusion Programs & Systems
The D & I strategy the company has adopted (and refined) since 2014 has three main components which operate
simultaneously and build off each other: (i) recruiting (ii) inclusion; and (iii) the integration of D & I principles into
company-wide systems.
By design, not all of Facebook’s programs are housed within the diversity and inclusion or human resources
departments; a number of them are in education and civic engagement partnerships, based on the company’s belief
that that for D & I to become a core component of company operations it must be embedded into all systems rather
than stand alone. Some of these programs are relatively longstanding (e.g., five years old) and some have been rolled
out within the last year. These programs, which are intended to address short, medium, and long-term goals, are
described in more detail below. The Auditors recount these efforts not for the purpose of supporting (or critiquing)
any particular initiative, but to provide transparency into what Facebook is doing.
In the Auditors’ view, these programs and initiatives demonstrate that Facebook is investing in D & I and taking
concrete steps to help create a diverse and inclusive culture. At the same time, the Auditors maintain that there are
additional steps that Facebook can and should take to ensure that the benefits of these programs are fully realized.
The Auditors’ recommendations and observations about potential areas for improvement or growth are set out
in Section 4.
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