Pinterest Touts Progress in Its 2020 Inclusion and Diversity Report

Pinterest shared its 2020 Inclusion and Diversity Report Tuesday, along with new goals the company put in place for 2025. Those 2025 goals include boosting the number of people from underrepresented races and ethnicities to 20%, with a focus on technical roles and leadership, as well as increasing women in leadership by 20%. Pinterest said that at the end of 2020: 49% of global employees were women, up from 47% in 2019 and 42% in 2015.30% of leadership roles were held by women, up from 25% in 2019 and 16% in 2015.29% of engineers globally were women, up from 25% in 2019 and 19% in 2015.12% of U.S. employees were from underrepresented races and ethnicities, up from 10% in 2019 and 3% in 2015.8% of U.S. engineers were from underrepresented races and ethnicities, up from 7% in 2019 and less than 1% in 2015. The company also provided details on its new hires for 2020: 36% in the engineering workforce were women, up from 27% in 2019.28% outside of engineering in the U.S. were from underrepresented races and ethnicities, up from 14% in 2019.10% in engineering in the U.S. were from underrepresented races and ethnicities, up from 9% in 2019. Pinterest attributed its progress to ensuring that at least 80% of open roles in the U.S. adhered to a diverse slates approach, expanding its apprenticeship program to the product team and focusing on skills and capabilities in its interview process to attract talented candidates from outside of the tech industry. The company also addressed changes in three areas to help ensure an inclusive work environment: pay equity, processes to address and resolve employee concerns and education. Pinterest said it achieved pay equity across gender and race in the U.S., and it analyzes compensation and makes necessary adjustment in order to maintain that status. The company will introduce an ombuds program to enable employees to engage confidentially with neutral, trained professionals for independent support resolving conflicts in the workplace. And its expanded educational offerings now include important conversations about how people of different identities experience the world and the workplace. Three new members were added to Pinterest’s board of directors in 2020: Gokul Rajaram, Salaam Coleman Smith and Andrea Wishom. The company established the Pinterest Change Network, describing it as “a competitively selected, globally representative group of ‘Pinployees’ who partner with leaders across the company to provide input on major initiatives and new company policies.” On the content side, Pinterest set a goal for 2020 that at least one-half of its managed creators should come from underrepresented backgrounds, and the company met that goal, amplifying those voices via features like its Today tab and Shopping Spotlight and providing support via its Creator Fund. The platform’s skin tone ranges were expanded to 13 additional countries. Pinterest formed the Inclusion Advisory Council late last year, teaming up with the NAACP on the independent entity. Last June, Pinterest employees created the Community Rebuild program to focus on Black-owned businesses, and the company said the program has been expanded to support 22 organizations and companies that serve Black, Asian, Latinx and people with disabilities. Finally, Pinterest donated $500,000 in 2020 to leading organizations committed to racial justice and equity, such as the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Othering & Belonging Institute, and the company allocated a total of $750,000 in paid media to nonprofits. Its employee donation matching program resulted in more than $250,000 going to organizations including the Alliance to End Homelessness, Care, Girls Who Code and the NAACP. Pinterest wrote in the introduction to its report, “Since Pinterest started, we’ve aspired to be a place where all people can find inspiration to create a life they love. We know that realizing this mission requires a culture grounded in diversity, equity and inclusion. This year, the impact of the global pandemic changed how we live and work, and the resurgence of racial justice movements spanned the globe. These events pushed us to have important conversations and reinforced the need to be deliberate about our own culture. We listened to employees as they shared their experiences and are committed to doing better—more to improve our culture, more to improve our product and more to bring inspiration to people around the world.”

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Pinterest Touts Progress in Its 2020 Inclusion and Diversity Report

The company set new goals for 2025

David Cohen

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David Cohen