Remote Work Policies Helped Twitter Boost Workforce Diversity

Twitter’s early shift to a “work from anywhere” model during the pandemic, as well as the implementation of a requirement to add more people of color to final job candidate slates, helped the social media company post significant gains in 2021 in hiring Black and Latinx employees. The share of Black workers among the US workforce jumped to 9.4 percent in 2021 from 6.9 percent a year earlier, and Latinx workers to 8 percent of employees from 5.5 percent, the company said. Twitter didn’t disclose how many workers the improvement represents or the current size of the US workforce. In the third quarter, the company had 7,100 workers globally. “In an all-virtual environment there are very few limitations to where we can show up to meet talent as a company,” said James Loduca, Twitter vice president of inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility. “We were able to hire folks in markets that we know have high populations of Black talent, markets that we know have high populations of Latinx talent.” Twitter has said many workers never have to return to the office and can “work from anywhere” even after the pandemic ends.