Google Aside, Most Silicon Valley Companies Not Releasing Diversity Stats

Google may be one of Silicon Valley's major pacesetters, but few of the region's tech leaders are copying the company's decision to publish its workforce demographics. The Mountain View-based search leader announced that decision at its annual shareholders meeting, in the presence of a pro-diversity delegation led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

We asked a number of tech firms that had resisted requests for their data in the past, and very few even responded to our query.

A spokeswoman for Netflix told us the company has no plans to release its demographics. She also noted that Netflix is a far smaller company than Google, with employees in Los Gatos and Los Angeles, though it is unclear why its smaller size would make a difference. Shouldn't that make it easier to release the data, we asked? To that, we got no answer.

LinkedIn told us it does not release this information either, but it has a diverse workforce of more than 5,000 people in 27 cities worldwide. We asked why the company would not release the information, but there was no response.

The idea behind releasing these statistics is twofold: First, the United State is changing, and its major companies should in some ways reflect the consumers in the nation they serve. Second, the argument goes, diversity is good for business.

"We did not know how good baseball could be until everybody could play," Jackson said at Google's shareholders meeting. "We will not know how good Google can be until all of us can be a part of that search. And if you can't find people now, search for them."

Google said it would do so, putting more energy into recruiting diverse board members and top executives. Currently Google only has one C-level executive of color: David Drummond, the company's chief legal officer.

"Many of the companies in the valley have been reluctant to divulge (their workforce data), including Google," Drummond told Jackson. "And quite frankly, I think we've come to the conclusion that we're wrong about that."

Google's announcement is good news to organizations like Black Girls Code, a group that encourages girls of color to study science, technology, engineering and math. Founder Kimberly Bryant says unabashedly that Silicon Valley is, in her experience, heavily dominated by white men. She argues that companies that ignore diversity do so at the peril of missing out on the next great developer, engineer or executive.

"It makes sense for any company that's growing or even a startup," says Bryant. "The place to look is in these areas where women abound, in these areas where people of color abound."

Hewlett-Packard seems to be the Silicon Valley company that has gone the farthest in touting its diverse workforce — it has released these demographics for more than a decade. HP's workforce statistics are in its annual Global Citizenship Report. The latest report shows HP's U.S. workforce is about 27 percent nonwhite and almost 33 percent female. Also, CNN got workforce data from a few Silicon Valley companies for an investigative report last year. Cisco, Intel, eBay and Ingram Micro provided their data when most companies resisted, including Google.

We also reached out to Apple, Facebook, Yahoo, Yelp and Zynga. None of them responded to us, but it seems some of them are responding to shareholders. Apple changed its corporate bylaws this year to make it be more diligent in finding diverse candidates for its board of directors.