​Ebay releases diversity report under new leadership

By

P J Gach

Published
Mar 28, 2017

Ebay has released its first diversity report since creating the position of Chief Diversity Officer in 2016, part of its effort to diversify its predominantly white male workforce.

Ebay took a year off from publishing a diversity report in the wake of a lot of changes. It sold Ebay Enterprise, separated itself from Paypal, and hired Damian Hooper-Campbell as first Chief Diversity Officer.  “Given the impact we knew this organizational change would have on our culture, size and business strategy,” stated Hooper-Campbell in the new report’s preface. “We made a deliberate decision to wait until we had at least a full year as a standalone company behind us before issuing this report.”
 
Ebay, and by extension, Hooper-Campbell face an issue that is plaguing the tech industry. The lack of diversity among its employees. Like many tech companies, Ebay’s personnel is mainly comprised of white males. Out of 12,600 global employees, 52% are white, 40% Asian, 4% Hispanic/Latino, 2% black, and 1% of mixed race. These percentages don’t reflect the available pool of talent.

Hooper-Campbell is a Silicon Valley veteran. Before coming onboard to Ebay, Campbell-Hooper was Uber’s Global Head of Inclusion and Diversity for one year. Before working at Uber, he held a similar position at Google.
 
Campbell-Hooper initiatives should soon change that. To ensure a broader range of new hires, Campbell-Hooper has created partnerships and changed the way the recruiting division will proceed.  The recruiting teams now report to the D&I teams. Ebay is now working alongside Lesbians Who Tech, CODE2040, the Negro College Fund, the Anita Borg Institute, and Management Leadership for Tomorrow to reach new candidates.

Recruiting teams will visit more historically black colleges, colleges that have a high percentage of women attendees, and colleges that have a high percentage of Hispanic attendees.
 
Ebay is also addressing the issue of bias in its global hiring, working with a company called Unitive, which produces hiring software designed to eliminate bias in hiring and workplace.  In China, Ebay supported WorkForLGBT’s second annual LGBT talent fair.  In Korea, the company has stopped the practice of addressing fellow employees by their titles. And company-wide, eBay is now nurturing 60 Communities of Inclusion (COI).