After Self-Criticism, Workday Improves Black Representation

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During the height of the Black Lives Matters movement last year, Workday recognized the need to improve its representation of black talent. Black workers made up less than 3% of Workday employees, but 13% of the U.S. population is African American, the company noted. Not only that, but Workday, headquartered in Pleasanton, Calif., Was lagging behind Silicon Valley companies in its percentage of black employees.

This month, Workday released its 2021 Global Impact Report, showing an increase in Black representation from 2.2% in 2019 to 2.8% in 2021. Workday is a rapidly growing HR systems provider of $ 4.32 billion, and its recruiting, hiring and diversity tools are used in many large companies around the world.

However, what the percentage increase in black representation means in terms of actual hiring at Workday is unclear. Like most businesses, Workday does not provide a breakdown of the diversity of its US workforce relative to overseas. The company employs 12,500 people in total, but Workday’s overseas hires can be significant.

“Proud of progress”

Workday’s careers site lists 546 job openings in the United States and approximately 512 in other countries, including 143 openings in Ireland, 60 in Canada, 52 in Germany and 39 in the United Kingdom. In March, Workday announced plans to create 400 new jobs at its European hub. head office in Dublin, increasing the workforce by 30%. The company said at the time that its Dublin office “employs more than 1,300 people from all over the world.”

Workday made specific commitments to diversity last year, including increasing “the overall representation of black and Latin employees in the United States by 30% by 2023.”

We are proud of the progress we have made and while we recognize that there is still work to be done, we are heartened by the momentum. Carin Taylor Chief Diversity Officer, Workday

“We are proud of the progress we have made and while we recognize that there is still work to be done, we are encouraged by the momentum we are seeing and remain committed to taking action to create positive change,” said said Carin Taylor, head of Workday. director of diversity, in a written statement in response to questions from SearchHRSoftware.

“A great driving force behind the increase are our commitments to supporting equity in our workplaces and our communities,” Taylor said, citing the company strategy called VIBE, or “inclusion of value, belonging and equity. “.

Workday previously reported its black employee population in the United States at 2.4% in 2019, but the 2021 report adjusted that number to 2.2%. The percentages come from employee surveys.

It’s unclear why Workday lowered its previous findings from 2.4% to 2.2%, but the company said it looked again at employee data and found a way to improve the quality of analysis. The 2021 report includes an “refuse to respond” metric as a new addition.

The ‘decline to answer’ option was previously available to employees, but was not included in previous diversity reports. In 2021, “we added it to continue to evolve and support our diversity data reporting,” Taylor said. The metric “has remained fairly flat to this day,” she added.

Black representation in Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley, where Workday is headquartered in the United States, has a long-standing problem with black representation and gender diversity in tech companies. A 2018 study from the Center for Employment Equity at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst found that only 4.4% of employees in Silicon Valley companies are African American.

Oracle, which competes with Workday in the HR software market, also falls short of the UMass benchmark. It listed the 2021 diversity of its American workforce as 58% white, 19.1% Asian, 6.3% Hispanic, 3.7% black, 2.4% both. races or more, 0.3% Pacific Islanders and 0.2% Native Americans.

Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, who runs the UMass employment equity center, said Workday’s percentage gain in its black employee population may not match as many hires. He used the figure of 5,000 domestic workers to illustrate his point.

“For a company of around 5,000 American employees, that could be as little as 20 new hires. Obviously, they have a lot of work to do if they are to leave the ranks of Silicon Valley employers with the least amount of money. ‘black employees,’ he said. noted.

Patrick Thibodeau covers HCM and ERP technologies. He has worked for over two decades as a corporate IT reporter.

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