If a company wants to offer great products and services, its important to hire the smartest people.
Thats even more true if your companys products are used by literal billions of people around the planet.
Its a matter Maxine Williams, Chief Diversity Officer atMeta, is intimately familiar with.
What follows is a transcript of that exchange, lightly edited for clarity.
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Maxine Williams:The most successful businesses are diverse so its a business imperative, full stop.
On that note,DEI initiatives often seem reactionary corrections after people speak out about problems.
Companies should not wait until people speak out about problems to make it act if success is their goal.
Meta began prioritizing diversity and inclusion shortly after we became a public company many years ago.
Diversity in the workplace starts with hiring people from under-represented groups, which can be tracked with some accuracy.
But what about other aspects that are harder to quantify?
To be effective in quantifying progress, you have to make a habit out of it.
And at Meta, we are intentional about it.
We have aBe the Allycourse, for debugging real-life situations where allies are needed at work.
Im also especially proud of Metas microphone tool.
Like most companies, we have policies in place that dictate what is and isnt acceptable workplace behavior.
The Microphone tool is a way for people to report unfair treatment.
And these behaviors are often committed unknowingly by well-intentioned people.
for learn from this and drive change, twice a year we publish a Micro-phone Report.
This report compiles detailed, anonymized accounts of the microaggressions people shared.
Theyre intrinsically tied diverse employees build products with their communities in mind, too.
We know the best products are made with inclusivity and equity in mind.
And of course, there is your digital self avatars.
That begins with your appearance, which means better avatars for representing how you want to be seen.
What does building DEI into the metaverse look like right now?
Its a long road ahead and were years away from the metaverse youre probably envisioning.
Thank you for sharing your perspective and insight.
DEI progress is not something that happens with passion as the only ingredient.
