Airbnb’s 2016 workforce numbers showed an increase in people of color but a drop in female employment. Declining 3% from last year, women employees make up 43% of the total workforce. Meanwhile the underrepresented minority make up sits at 6.3% for Hispanic and 2.9% for black employees. "Next year, Airbnb’s goal is to increase its overall percentage of employees from underrepresented employees from 10% to 11%.“ In terms of positives, the company "has doubled the number of women in senior leadership roles and increased the number of women in technical roles.”
In an effort to improve their workforce numbers, Airbnb has partnered with HBCUs and colleges with high latino graduation rates. In addition, the company is utilizing the services of “diversity recruiting startup Jopwell to source candidates from underrepresented groups.” Airbnb is also mandating that senior level positions include a person of color and woman as viable options.
Although the drop in female employees is significant, Airbnb is clearly trying to improve its workplace numbers and eliminate discrimination in its booking services.
“In September, Airbnb unveiled its plan to tackle those issues, which entailed guaranteeing short-term bookings for people who have been discriminated against, deemphasizing the use of user photos, blocking out availability if a host claims a space is taken when it really isn’t and working to increase the number of Instant Book listings, which don’t require hosts to approve specific guests, to one million by the beginning of 2017.”
