Bulletins

Latest Slack diversity report reveals some retention issues

Slack
Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Slack released its latest diversity report today, revealing a slight increase in attrition among underrepresented minorities.

"This is disappointing, something we take very seriously and are actively working to address," Slack wrote in a blog post. "While we are working to better understand the reasons for this attrition, we believe contributing factors include the intense demand for tech talent industrywide and the lengthy tenure of some early employees."

Here are some key stats:

  • Representation of women decreased from 45.8% in 2019 to 44.9% in 2020.
  • Black employee representation slightly increased from 1.1% in 2019 to 1.3% in 2020.
  • Hispanic/Latinx representation decreased from 4.5% in 2019 to 4.2% in 2020.
  • Overall representation of underrepresented racial minorities decreased from 14% in 2019 to 13.9% in 2020.
  • At the leadership level, representation of underrepresented minorities increased from 8.8% in 2019 to 9.2% in 2020.

Slack also touched on how it's adapted to the work-from-home environment. Slack, for example, has begun offering free WeWork memberships to its employees who find it challenging to always work from home.

The company has also partnered with Modern Health to offer employees mental health care and "live group circles" on social issues such as police brutality, anti-Asian hate and violence and more. Slack says it has also offered employees 80 hours of paid emergency time off.

Megan Rose Dickey

Megan Rose Dickey is a former senior reporter at Protocol covering labor and diversity in tech. Prior to joining Protocol, she was a senior reporter at TechCrunch and a reporter at Business Insider.

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