Dive Brief:

• Trouble in Silicon Valley and the tech industry in general over diversity hiring triggered a partnership between HireMojo, Inc., which operates the Hiring Automation Platform, and the Northern California Human Resources Association (NCHRA). The partnership aims to raise the number of diversity hires in companies in the region.
• According to the Thomson Reuters Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Index, which analyzes more than 5,000 companies, some of Silicon Valley's largest employers didn't make its top 100 list. McKinsey research shows that companies that adopt diversity hiring outperform other companies by 15%, and for ethnically diverse companies the rate increases to 35%. Employers like Google in San Francisco and Silicon Valley continue to struggle with diversity hiring.    
• "There is clear data demonstrating an advantage for our members and their companies to increase their gender and ethnic diversity,” NCHRA's CEO Greg Morton said in a statement. 

Dive Insight:

Employers and other entities don't have to go it alone when struggling to achieve certain goals. HireMojo and the Northern California Human Resources Association wisely teamed up to tackle a tough issue.

Some of the problems that need to be addressed along with hiring are the deep-seated cultural problems that often lead to sexual harassment and discrimination allegations. Stereotypes about women and people of color will likely persist, but HR has a responsibility to educate managers and keep biases from preventing the hiring, promotion and retention of qualified candidates. The process takes time and continuous effort; it'll never be a one-and-done type of effort. But as the statistics show, it matters to the business' bottom line.

Google's firing of senior engineer James Damore over his "manifesto" about diversity hiring at Google recently blew open the discussion over how companies can encourage diversity but also maintain an atmosphere where it is safe for employees to acknowledge and address deeper biases. But employers must make it clear that biased cultural attitudes don't ever justify barriers for women and underrepresented people of color in the tech industry.