Google is nevertheless big. It started its business on the internet with its search engine. And now its already expanding into more places.
From self-driving cars, a fleet of balloons to deliver internet connection, to nanopills to detect cancer. The company is thinking big, and its act will continue.
With its business growing successfully, the internet giant is sitting on a mountain of cash. With that massive resources, its digging into it, and taps some of the world's smartest and most brilliant minds to take on its ongoing challenge: expanding the technology industry's diversity.
Diversity reports have become something of a standard part of a tech company's public reporting since Google first released its statistics.
Other large and notable companies such as Apple, Intel, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter and others have joined in. The results have shown that diversity in the tech industry is mostly about white people and Asian people, while only 5 percent were black, Hispanic, or mixed race.
Only 21 percent of women are taking leadership roles.
Google's effort for diversity also addresses gender. Despite high profile leaders like Marissa Mayer, Silicon Valley still has a huge pay gap.
The issue of diversity in Silicon Valley has made headlines in the early 2015 when Ellen Pao, interim CEO of Reddit, sued her former employer, venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, for gender discrimination.
Although Pao lost the case, in which she sought $16 million in damages, she succeeded in bringing people's attention to the fact of discrimination within the industry.
Diversity for Equality, Diversity to Better Reflect Customers
As Google hopes to attract more women and "minorities", Google's Vice President of People Operations, Nancy Lee, was interviewed. Lee told USA Today that Google spent $115 million on diversity initiatives in 2014, and is going to spend $150 million in 2015. The money is part of a broader program aimed at changing the company to better reflect its consumers.
"Our strategy is extremely long term," she said. "Sure, we are doing things that can show an impact maybe this year, maybe next year. But we recognize that there is not enough talent entering into our industry and that we have a lot of work to do," said Lee on the interview.
Despite the money to be spent is big, the sum won't hurt Google. As one of the Silicon Valley's largest and richest companies, it had revenues of $17.3 billion in the first quarter. It also made an additional $311 million by just hedging its bets on foreign currencies.
And on her published blog post on Tuesday, May 5th, 2015, she outlined the ways Google has tried to change the number of diversity at work, and how the company will continue to move forward.
According to Lee's blog post. Google needs a holistic plan. She describes Google's focus that runs in four key areas :
- Hiring more diverse employees. In the past, Google's focus was recruiting people from a small number of universities. Since 2013, the company has doubled the number of universities they recruit their workforce. And in 2015, "nearly 20 percent of the hires we make from a university are from these new campuses."
- Creating a fair and inclusive culture. With people working at Google coming from many places, the company wants to ensure that it has the environment where employees can thrive. By instituting a formal program called Diversity Core, employees have to participate in it as a part of their jobs. "Half of all Googlers have participated in our unconscious bias workshops - and we've now rolled out a hands-on workshop that provides practical tips for addressing bias when we see it.
- Expanding the pool of technologists. Using a program to help teaching kids how to code, and by helping to change the perception of computer science (CS), Google wants the education to be accessible and available for everyone. "Our CS First program is designed to help anyone - a teacher, a coach, or volunteer - teach kids the basics of coding. And since research tells us that to inspire more girls, we need to show them that computer science isn't just for boys, we started Made with Code - and we're working with the entertainment industry to change the perceptions around CS and what it means to be a computer scientist.
- Bridging the digital divide. This will help more business owners to get online. "We also want more underrepresented communities, including women and minorities, to share the benefits of the web, and to have access to the economic engine it provides. The Accelerate with Google Academy helps business owners get online, grow and drive economic impact."
In January 2015, Intel put $300 million fund for diversity efforts over to 2010, or about $60 million a year. In March 2015, Apple pledged $50 million to non-profit organizations, including the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and the National Center for Women and Information Technology. Facebook also set its fund to invest in its own diversity efforts.
What Lee was saying is not just the amount of dollars spent, but the "holistic" strategy to make the tech industry more representative of the populations it serves.
