Facebook has failed in its attempt to increase diversity in technical roles, the Wall Street Journal is reporting.
The company created incentives for in-house recruiters to bring in “diversity hires,” meaning prospects who aren’t white males or Asian males, but, as is the case with many tech companies the effort hasn’t necessarily led to offers from hiring managers.
“Former Facebook recruiters say they had mixed feelings about the extra-credit program,” according to the Journal. “Some were encouraged by the incentive, and identified a more diverse group of candidates. Still, they said it wasn’t enough to overcome a broader bias within Facebook and other tech companies for candidates who attended prestigious schools.”
Where Facebook Stood in 2016
The Journal’s report landed a month after Facebook published its third annual diversity figures. As of June 2016, Facebook’s U.S. workforce was 2% Black and 4% Hispanic, with no increase in either group from the year before. Globally, the company was 67% male.
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There were some signs of movement in hiring. Over the previous year, 9% of Facebook’s new senior leadership hires were Black, 5% Hispanic and 29% women, all above the company’s existing representation. Facebook’s global director of diversity, Maxine Williams, told TechCrunch that “our hiring trend is going in a positive direction.”
Facebook also pointed to the “pipeline,” the idea that too few underrepresented students study computer science, and committed $15 million to Code.org over five years. Critics questioned that explanation, and the TechCrunch report noted that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had said in May 2016 that the tech industry was underusing the diverse talent already available.
Why Sourcing Isn’t the Same as Hiring
The Journal’s finding points to a common gap in hiring. A recruiter’s job is to fill the top of the funnel with candidates. But offers are made further down, by interviewers and hiring managers, using their own sense of what a strong candidate looks like.
If that sense leans heavily on signals like a degree from a prestigious school, a more diverse pool at the start doesn’t produce a more diverse group of hires at the end. Rewarding recruiters alone changes who gets an interview, not who gets the job.
Women and other “diversity hires” in tech have become a hot topic, and won’t go away soon because the industry has become such an important component of regional economies.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, high tech industries constitute 12 percent of all jobs, but produce 23 percent of all output.
Therefore, groups left out of tech industry opportunities face increasing economic marginalization.
What Happened Next
Facebook, renamed Meta in 2021, did change its numbers over the following years. In 2019 it committed to doubling the number of Black and Hispanic employees in the U.S., and the number of women in its global workforce, by 2024. In its 2022 diversity report, Meta said it had met that goal for each group two years early. It also reported that underrepresented people made up 46.7% of its global workforce as of June 30, 2022, against a target of at least 50%, and that women held 36.7% of its global leadership roles.
Then the direction reversed. In January 2025, Meta told employees it was ending its diversity, equity and inclusion programs, including those for hiring, training and picking suppliers. In a memo, Janelle Gale, Meta’s vice-president of human resources, said “the legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the United States is changing.” Meta said it would keep sourcing candidates from different backgrounds but would stop using a “diverse slate approach,” and Chief Diversity Officer Maxine Williams moved to a new role focused on accessibility and engagement.
What It Means for Employers
Facebook’s experience suggests that diversity efforts work best when they cover the whole hiring process, not just one step. Incentives for recruiters can widen the pool, but the results depend on how interviewers are trained, what criteria hiring managers use, and whether those criteria actually predict success in the job.
For startups, the most useful step is often the simplest: decide what the job really requires before looking at candidates, and judge everyone against that. Relying on proxies like school names narrows the talent pool for every company, whatever its views on diversity programs.
Here’s Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in an interview with Y Combinator about the genesis of Facebook and the company’s “innovation culture.”
Frequently Asked Questions
What did the Wall Street Journal report about Facebook's diversity hiring?
In 2016, the Journal reported that Facebook's incentives for recruiters to bring in diversity hires hadn't led to more offers from hiring managers, partly because of a bias toward candidates from prestigious schools.
What did Facebook's 2016 diversity figures show?
As of June 2016, Facebook's U.S. workforce was 2% Black and 4% Hispanic, unchanged from the year before, and the company was 67% male globally.
Why didn't recruiter incentives produce more diverse hires?
Recruiters can widen the pool of candidates, but offers are made by interviewers and hiring managers. If they rely on signals like school prestige, a more diverse pool doesn't turn into more diverse hires.
Did Meta reach its later diversity goals?
Meta said in 2022 that it had met its 2019 goal of doubling Black and Hispanic U.S. employees and women in its global workforce two years early.
What did Meta announce about DEI in January 2025?
Meta told employees it was ending its DEI programs for hiring, training and suppliers, and would stop using a diverse slate approach, citing a changing legal and policy landscape.