Bulletins

Salesforce's diversity report shows progress

The issues at Salesforce, however, go beyond just representation numbers.

Salesforce Tower in San Francisco

Salesforce has released a new diversity report showing progress.

Photo: 615 Productions

The percentage of Black hires at Salesforce over the past year increased to 8.1%, according to a report released on Tuesday, bumping overall representation to 3.9% as of April 2021. Meanwhile, Latinx hiring increased to 6.8%, also hiking overall representation to 5%.

Both numbers are notable year-over-year increases: Black individuals accounted for 4% of new recruits as of April 2020, while Latinx hires accounted for 4.5%.

Still, the software giant has substantial work to do in not just improving the overall numbers, but also addressing issues within its culture that resulted in two Black female leaders leaving and posting public rebukes of the company. In their exit letters, both cited a culture of "microaggressions" at Salesforce.

Joe Williams

Joe Williams is a writer-at-large at Protocol. He previously covered enterprise software for Protocol, Bloomberg and Business Insider. Joe can be reached at JoeWilliams@Protocol.com. To share information confidentially, he can also be contacted on a non-work device via Signal (+1-309-265-6120) or JPW53189@protonmail.com.

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