Internet Association Releases Inaugural Diversity and Inclusion Report

Pictured: Members of the Internet Association, a trade org repping 45 tech companies. The average member may be young (less than 10 years old), but the group is influential. Yesterday, it published its first-ever Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Benchmark Report.

Key findings

📈 70% of members have leaders and dedicated budgets for D&I. A dedicated budget correlates with a higher representation of women and minorities in the company.
📉 As internet companies grow, they struggle to maintain talent from underrepresented groups. But women’s representation increases with company age.
📝 60% of members publish workforce diversity numbers, but many of these reports indicate incremental improvement.

Big picture

Besides the clear business case for building and retaining a diverse workforce, the tech industry must be extra sensitive to these issues. Creators tend to build products for people like themselves, so with a homogenous workforce, bias can creep in. Bias has been a persistent problem for algorithms used in healthcare, autonomous cars, and facial recognition.