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US: Airbnb says it is going to improve diversity in its ranks because it “is nowhere near satisfied with the status quo”.
By the end of 2025, Airbnb is aiming for 20 per cent of its US workforce to be “underrepresented minorities”, up from the current 12 per cent.
Its second goal is to increase the representation of women to 50 per cent by the end of 2025. Currently, Airbnb says it is 46.9 per cent female worldwide.
These goals come after Airbnb committed in June to making its board of directors and executive team 20 per cent people of colour by the end of 2021.
In May 2019, Melissa Thomas-Hunt joined Airbnb as gobal head of diversity and belonging.
“As former vice provost of Vanderbilt University, Melissa’s first effort at Airbnb was to initiate a company-wide diversity and belonging inventory of our internal processes and practices. Over the last few years, we have made progress in our efforts, but we know we have much more work to do,” said the company at the time.
“While the pandemic has prompted worldwide travel changes that led Airbnb to drastically slow our hiring plans this year, we have continued working tirelessly to make Airbnb an environment in which people of all backgrounds, identities, and experiences feel respected, valued and able to contribute meaningfully,” it said this week.
