Uber to Executives: Want Your Bonus? Make the Company More Diverse

Let’s say you’re one of the most high-profile start-ups of the decade...but you also have a reputation for deep institutional sexism. How do you change your image and fix the imbalance at your company? Well if you’re Uber, you make sure executives know it is worth their while, as the ride sharing company has announced that it will factor in whether top officials, including CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, have met diversity goals before handing out the next round of bonuses. Bonus Beats The bonus benchmark policy calls for Uber to raise the number of women in managerial positions to 35 per cent by 2022, while also raising the percentage of under-represented employees at mid-level roles to 14 per cent. The company declined to disclose the current levels of representation, and also did not say how contigenet bonuses are on hitting the diversity goals. Culture War Uber has reportedly had problems with sexism since starting a decade ago, as founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick has been accused of creating a culture of sexism and fostering a hostile workplace for female employees. The company has been investigated by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for gender discrimination, and Kalanick left the company in 2017, around the same time former US Attorney General Eric Holder was hired to conduct an investigation into Uber's sexual harassment issues, which led to 20 people being fired. Tying executive pay to diversity and inclusion metrics was one of Holder’s recommendations. Measure Up Uber is not the only company to tie executive pay to inclusion goals, as Microsoft has also adopted similar measures, and as shareholders and activists continue to continue to urge companies to tie metrics, like diversity or decreasing their carbon footprints, to c-suite bonuses. -Michael Tedder Photo: Rodrigo Garrido / REUTERS