Amidst protests against racial injustice, many companies are trying to bring out a meaningful change in their policies to protect Black employees, who have faced years of discrimination. Google has also gone ahead and done its bit by announcing its commitment to building sustainable equity for its Black+ community.
Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google, has sent a note to the employees, underlying the several changes that the Company is planning.
Google is working to improve Black+ representation at senior levels. It is committing to the goal of 30 per cent improvement in leadership representation from underrepresented groups, in the next five years.
According to Pichai, the Company will post senior leadership roles externally as well as internally, and invest more in places, such as Atlanta, Washington DC, Chicago, and London, where it already has offices.
As per the Company’s recent diversity report, only 2.6 per cent of Google’s leadership comprise Blacks, and the number was the same last year.
In order to address the representation challenges, Google is establishing a new talent liaison within each product and functional area to mentor and advocate for the progression and retention of Googlers from underrepresented groups. Special effort will be made to hire, retain, and promote people from underrepresented groups and ensure that Google’s employees, especially the Black + employees, experience a “stronger sense of inclusion and belonging.”
To achieve this, within a span of 90 days, a task force including senior members of the Black+ community at Google will give in their recommendations.
Among its commitments, Google plans to establish a range of anti-racism educational programmes that are global in view and can be scaled to all Googlers.
Finally, Google is rolling out a $175 million commitment to support Black business owners, founders, and job seekers. This will include $100 million in funds and organisational support to Black-led capital firms and startups.