Uber reportedly denied recruiters diversity data

Uber is expected to publicly release its first-ever diversity report sometime next week. But it turns out that Uber’s demographics were also unknown to members of its recruiting team, Bloomberg reported earlier today, citing several sources.

According to Bloomberg’s report, although some members of Uber’s recruiting team are tasked with hiring diverse people, those members never had any concrete data around the company’s demographics, which made it hard to set goals.

The timing of the report is impeccable, given that Rev. Jesse Jackson met with Uber CEO Travis Kalanick just yesterday to discuss matters of diversity. During the meeting, Kalanick said diversity is a priority.

“It was a privilege to meet Rev. Jesse Jackson and I learned a tremendous amount from his insight,” Kalanick said in a statement provided to TechCrunch. “Creating a more diverse and inclusive company is a top priority and it starts with releasing our demographic data, which we will do very soon. We look forward to continuing to work with Rainbow PUSH as we implement programs committed to diversity and inclusion.”

It’s worth noting that Jackson first called on Uber to release its data in January, when Jackson noted that, “As we enter the new year, some 2 ½ years since the floodgates opened, we urge Uber to ‘lean in’ and join the ranks of technology companies that are reporting your diversity and inclusion data,” Jackson wrote in a letter to Kalanick, which TechCrunch obtained.

Specifically, Jackson called for Uber to publicly disclose its EEO-1 report, disclose the number of new hires made between 2014-2016 and what percentage of them were people of color and report the demographics of its Board of Directors and C-suite leadership team. Jackson asked to receive this information by Feb. 15, 2017.

Clearly, that didn’t happen. It wasn’t until just about everyone turned against Uber in light of allegations of sexual harassment that the company decided to finally do it.

I’ve reached out to Uber regarding the Bloomberg report and will update this story when I hear back.