Nearly half of Slack's worldwide managerial staff consists of women

Dive Brief:

Three years since its launch, workplace communication provider Slack said 48.1% of its global managerial workforce consists of women, up from 43% in 2017, according to a company blog post.
Underrepresented racial and ethnic groups make up 11.5% of Slack's workforce. A profile on the company in The Atlantic said the company's percentage of these groups, including African-American, Hispanic, Latino employees, "are in some cases triple that of peer companies." Slack said in its blog post that LGBTQ workers and people with disabilities make up 7.8% and 1.7%, of its staff, respectively.
Slack said that it hasn't done enough to promote underrepresented groups to senior-level positions. To rectify the problem, the company said it set aside 1% of its equity funds, as part of the Pledge 1% movement, to advance these groups, including women.

Dive Insight:

In the wake of #MeToo and in the year following the harassment revelations at Uber, the tech industry still has much work to do with respect to improving diversity, inclusion and corresponding cultural changes. Though 80% of tech industry workers in a recent survey said they're satisfied with corporate diversity efforts, a significant portion (45%) still believe that the industry is overwhelmingly white and male.

At the same time, the road ahead for HR departments is anything but simple. Pressures for cultural change in tech and other industries have led to backlash and infighting in some cases, effectively putting companies in the middle of a much larger social conflict. Half-efforts and poorly executed promises are sure to leave many on all sides of the diversity issue unhappy.

Slack and others in tech have been clear about making strong commitments to changing the face of the tech industr y, showing the importance of strategy as well as the trust HR leaders must develop with the highest levels of organizational leadership. In an era where outrage is amplified by social media, organizations will likely do well to remain candid and transparent about their shortfalls just as they would their successes.