Facebook Inc (FB), Google Inc (GOOGL) Bet On Diverse Workforces

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) see the value of diversity in their workforce and are working to increase diversity among their ranks, representatives of the technology giants said in a recent panel on diversity organized by USA TODAY and the Stanford University Rock Center for Corporate Governance.

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s comments come after both companies – which are also two of the best companies to work for – released earlier this year reports on how diverse their workforces are.

In these reports, it was revealed that a majority of the workers of technology companies like Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) are white males.

“We cannot afford to exclude anyone because it’s not like 80% of them are men. We need to have as many diverse perspectives as possible building these products and supporting them if we are going to survive. It is a question of survival,” said Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s Maxine Williams.

She said that her company is looking into being bolder with regards to where they are looking for talent.

Meanwhile, Nancy Lee from Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) said that it’s not necessarily discrimination that determines why a worker is hired. She brought up the possibility that going to different schools and therefore varying qualities of education is also a factor.

“Another aspect of it is to the extent that these students are in places like historically-black colleges and universities, we have to ask ourselves, ‘How do we recruit from there’ What we have found is that some of the curriculum at those schools may not match to an MIT or Carnegie Mellon [curriculum]. It’s a reality,” Lee said.

She said that these colleges and universities should be helped in order to improve, for example, their computer science curriculums. Her company has been providing googlers to these colleges and universities, she added, in consultant capacities to improve these institutions’ curricula.

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) shareholders includes Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management which reported owning about 5.87 million shares in the company by the end of the first half. Also by June 30, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management reported owning 745,519 Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shares.