- Amazon plans to double this year and the number of its black leaders, according to recordings of an internal-all-hand meeting reviewed by Business Insider.
- Amazon is also banning the use of various technical terms that could be unconsciously racist in the company’s engineering documents, while rolling out a new training program focused on diversity and inclusion.
- The changes are a big step for Amazon, which has been criticized for years for its lack of diversity in its workforce, especially among senior leadership positions.
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Amazon plans to double the number of black leaders in the senior ranks this year and beyond, while eliminating items that take “insignificant” language into account in internal engineering documents, the business insider has learned.
In a recording of last week’s internal-all-hand meeting, which reviews Amazon’s head of global diversity, equity and content, Elizabeth Nieto tells employees that the company has set new “aggressive targets” around workplace diversity. To ensure that it will “lift all presentation groups” on Amazon.
The decision was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, he said, adding that nationwide protests were “re-engaging in critical dialogue about the long-standing problem of systemic racism in our society and the impact the black community has had on blacks.”
“This is a really important issue and it has been top not only for our team but for every team in the company,” Nito said during the meeting. “We know there is still work to be done, and we are committed to ensuring that attention is maintained.”
The change is an important step forward for Amazon, which has been criticized for years for its lack of diversity among its employees, especially among its most senior leaders. It follows an industry-wide movement to address issues of technological diversity, including the announcement by Microsoft.com to double the number of its black leaders by June 2025.
Amazon has a long way to go to increase Black’s representation in the company. By the end of last year, more than 0% of Amazon’s manageable management positions worldwide were held by either white or Asian people, while blacks accounted for only .3.3% of these positions, according to company data. Black employees account for 26.5% of Amazon’s full workforce, but most of it includes low-paying jobs in its warehouse and delivery network.
Amazon is on rent right now. It now has 1.12 million employees, up 50% from a year earlier, the first time it has more than 1 million employees. It is not clear how many employees include the Black Manager base, as Amazon does not disclose exact numbers.
In an email to Business Insider, an Amazon spokesperson confirmed the initiative, saying it was part of the company’s “long-term efforts to diversify and include.”
“As part of this work, we are setting aggressive targets for black employees as part of our ongoing efforts to become top employers,” the spokesperson told Business Insider.
Amazon’s race and ethnic information as of December 31st.
Amazon
3 concentrated areas
Nito said Amazon is starting this year with commitments in the following three areas:
- Double Black Introduction: Amazon plans to double the number of its black vice presidents and directors in 2020, and again in 2021. Nito said the company would be completed through a combination of recruitment and promotion of leaders. Amazon is on track to meet this goal in 2020.
- Removing nonlinear language: Amazon will stop using certain technical terms in engineering documents that may be unconsciously racist to some people. It is starting with a ban on six conditions by the end of 2020, including “white / black list,” “master and slave,” and “black / white days.”
- Launch of a new diversification, equity and inclusive training program: This year Amazon will launch a new global training program based on “Global Lens Content and Up-to-Date Information on Ethnic Equity”. It will be part of the new board boarding process and a requirement for all existing employees.
Nito said the initiative was first carried out in the previous town hall of Amazon Retail CEO Jeff Wilke and cloud boss Andy J. Assy C, as well as hosting an internal connection group known as the Black Employee Network. He said the high urgency and demand for consideration of the issue was reflected in the staff response of the meeting, as more than 5,000 people joined the live session and more than 10,000 people have since watched the video.
“While our diversification, equity and inclusion work is not new, we have certainly put renewable energy behind this initiative as a way to meet the moment,” Nieto said.
The move comes after repeated calls by Amazon employees to more actively address racial prejudice and discrimination in the company.
In 2017, an employee asked Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos during an insider-f-hand meeting why there are women and minority leaders in his top leadership suite known as the “S-Team” (he blamed low turnover). Amazon ended up eliminating a number of women and minority leaders in the S-Team this year, including its first black female member.
Amazon employees have also launched an internal application this year to add “inclusion” to the company’s popular leadership principles, Business Insider noted earlier. It is not clear how much progress has been made in the movement, but the company has previously said that inclusion is already widely reflected in its leadership principles (although not mentioned separately).
The idea of banning Amazon’s unofficial language seems to have been inspired by the movement of an internal employee who created a list of unconsciously biased words and how to change them, as previously reported by Business Insider. The list, created in June, includes dozens of words and phrases that may have negative connotations suggested by a specific history related to the use of color or racial discrimination.
Amazon’s board of directors has a better record in terms of diversity. Last year, she added Starbucks executive Rosalind Brewer to its board, making her the second black woman to ever sit on its board of directors. She also added Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi to the board last year and now has five women on the 11-member board. The changes follow Amazon’s pledge to adopt the NFL-inspired “Rooney Rule”, which requires the company to interview minority candidates for board.
Amazon leaders also showed public support for the Black Lives Matter movement this year. Bezos shared many social-media posts denying racial injustice, while Wilk shared his personal thoughts with his team in an internal email in June, Business Insider noted earlier.
“It is sadly clear to me that many black people do not feel safe or secure, regardless of their job, education, or where they live,” Wilke wrote at the time. “I thought I was doing my part and contributing to positive change. It has now become so clear that my actions were almost not enough.”
