Facebook is about to release its workforce demographic figures, and company executives have been signaling that there won t be much change from the prior year.
But the social networking firm has instituted something new from the sports world to try to change its makeup — the Rooney Rule. At least one candidate for a Facebook job opening has to be a minority, according to Bloomberg Business.
Since 2003, the National Football League has used the rule, named after Pittsburgh Steelers chairman Dan Rooney, to boost the diversity of the teams head coaches and managers. In professional football, the rule has largely worked, said the Bleacher Report, writing on the rule s 10th anniversary.
Sometime last month, Facebook began to institute the rule in some departments, and it will be company wide soon, Bloomberg said.
Facebook, with 10,000 employees, is calling its pilot the diverse slate approach, said the Wall Street Journal.
Women make up about 31 percent of Facebook s global workforce, Facebook said last year. About 57 percent of its U.S. workforce is white and one-third Asian. 2.7% of its U.S. workforce is black and 4% is Hispanic, while 57% of employees are white and about a third are Asian.
Rev. Jesse Jackson told USA Today that the Rooney Rule is a first step, not the final step.
Above: The Facebook logo. (KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images)
