Airbnb: Diversity Under Scrutiny
Why is diversity important?
Achieving greater workforce diversity is not just an equitable goal; it’s a prerequisite for innovation and comprehending the diverse needs of a global customer base, positioning it as a pivotal driver for sustained success.
In the dynamic landscape of the Internet Media and Services sector, fostering gender and racial diversity is a fundamental driver of innovation.
SASB identifies this as a material ESG concern for the sector, given its reliance on employees for value creation. Recognising the sector’s under representation of women and minorities, SASB emphasises the need for diverse talent pools.
Are Airbnb achieving their diversity targets?
One significant player in the Internet and Media services sub-sector is Airbnb, which has taken measures to address this concern. In their 2021 ESG report, Airbnb set laudable diversity goals, aiming for their workforce to be composed of 20% underrepresented minorities of US employees and to achieve 50% gender diversity at every level by 2025.
While Airbnb avoided restating this goal in their 2023 report, they did disclose updated numbers on the percentage of women in the overall workforce, as well as the percentage of US-based employees identifying as under-represented minorities in their annual report, enabling a trend analysis. This analysis revealed positive strides; Airbnb is poised to achieve its 50% gender diversity goal of ‘overall’ employees by 2023 and the 20% minority goal by 2024, if their recent efforts continue.
Indeed, whilst Airbnb do not score well on most sustainability metrics on the Integrum ESG Platform (not scoring higher than 2 for Energy Management, Water Management, Customer Privacy, Data Security, and Competitive Behaviour), their highest awarded sustainability metric is ‘Racial and Gender Diversity in the Workforce’, for which they have been awarded the highest score achievable of 4.
However, scrutinising the numbers reveals nuances.
What do the numbers really tell us?
Achieving gender equality demands critical examination, particularly in addressing potential discrepancies across various roles.
Airbnb’s recent Sustainability update 2023 report discloses the percentage figures across different roles in the workforce – ‘tech’, ‘senior management’, and ‘overall’. We have captured these differing figures on our dashboard in our glass box.
Although the percentage of women (in the binary) stands at 49% for ‘overall’ employees in ‘tech’ roles, Airbnb’s current diversity rate is 30%. The 30% figure therefore signals a significant distance from the overarching goal of 50% “at every level” by 2025.
Performing a second trend analysis on the percentage of gender diversity in tech roles paints a different picture:
It is clear from this trend analysis that Airbnb are far off from achieving gender equality in their tech roles in the workforce by 2025. This is particularly noteworthy as SASB explicitly seeks disclosure on diversity representation in ‘technical roles’, recognising these positions as commonly lacking diversity. A lack of diversity if often a signal for a lack of differing perspectives resulting in bias. In the field of tech, a lack of diversity is particularly concerning as it can result in influential services failing to meet the needs of underrepresented groups.
Acknowledging persistent challenges
Airbnb’s attempts to promote diversity reveal a mixed picture.
Whilst their targets and transparency are commendable, the journey towards meaningful inclusion remains unclear, particularly regarding achieving gender equality in all roles.
Nevertheless, setting such targets enables critical scrutiny, exposing areas where companies fall short. It is vital, therefore, to hold companies accountable and gauge progress against these targets. This scrutiny helps pinpoint the primary challenges, facilitating their proper identification and subsequent resolution.
Written by Integrum ESG Senior Analyst Molly Frazer