i3 - March/April 2019 - 33

By Bernard Coleman

Policy

G U E ST B LO G

How Uber Grew its Diversity
from the Ground Up

Courtesy of Uber

uccess is progress -
that's something I
always say when recognizing the never-ending
improvement diversity and
inclusion (D&I) can achieve.
Therefore, forward progress
is success.
I joined Uber just over two years ago,
and upon my arrival I was met with an
organization at the beginning of a significant inflection point. Uber faced
challenges from multiple fronts and we
worked in concert to effectuate a
whole-scale culture shift that required
an all-hands-on-deck approach.
To tackle D&I in a comprehensive
and holistic manner, we realized
the first step was to create a core
framework to ensure that we considered every element of the cultural
change needed to bring about positive
progress. We initially focused on
four areas:
● Individual employees: We wanted
employees to feel an increased sense of
belonging. They needed to be equipped
to take immediate, individual actions
that enabled staff to both model and
mirror inclusion.
● Systems: We worked to do a wholesale review of our systems with the
intention of decreasing bias and
improving fairness and equitable treatment across the board.
● Leadership: We wanted leaders at
every level to understand why inclusion
and diversity matters, amplifying the
message throughout the company so
that it was fully embedded in our DNA.
● Citizenship: We created ways for our
staff to gain deeper involvement not
only in their work but to also make a
difference in society and plant seeds to
positively impact others.
C TA . t e c h / i 3

In focusing on individuals, our
employee resource groups (ERGs) grew
from seven to 15 in less than two years -
an expansion from around 2,000 members to almost 7,000 across the company. The ERGs, which are worker-led
groups each focused on a different community, have been instrumental
in helping drive the culture change
and contribute to our growth
spanning from culture to commerce.
Furthermore, we created Why Diversity
Matters (WDM), our first global diversity
workshop program designed to emphasize awareness and our commitment to
inclusive behavior. Since WDM, we've
trained more than 4,000 staff and continue to refine the workshop to ensure
staff attain growth, no matter where they
are in their respective D&I journey.
We deployed a $3 million STEM fund
to support organizations such as Girls
Who Code, BUILD, Code.org, SMASH,
Technovation, OHUB, the Hidden
Genius Project and others to positively
impact society. We knew we needed to

do our part by investing in STEM and
entrepreneurship and we are continually
working to deepen these partnerships to
uphold that commitment.
We created Uber's first Diversity
Advisory Council, an advisory body
comprised of Uber employees and six
external experts well versed in diversity
and inclusion to help advise Uber on
these matters. We also built a dedicated
D&I team, created a diversity-sourcing
function, improved our recruiting process and updated our cultural norms.
In overhauling systems, we rewrote
1,500 job profiles to ensure they were
more inclusive, conducted a full audit of
salary and equity for fairness across gender and race/ethnicity, revamped our
performance review process, and released
our first and second diversity reports.
When I reflect on my two years at
Uber, what is apparent is the significant
growth and progress we've made. I'm
proud to have played a part in this journey and am appreciative to have had the
opportunity to contribute.

MARCH/APRIL 2019

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i3 - March/April 2019

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