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Two years ago, Facebook Inc. offered its in-house recruiters an incentive to help diversify its largely white, largely male workforce.

Previously, recruiters were awarded one point for every new hire. Under the new system, they could earn 1.5 points for a so-called "diversity hire"—a black, Hispanic or female engineer—according to people familiar with the matter. More points can lead to a stronger performance review for recruiters and, potentially, a larger bonus, the people said.

When the numbers didn't move, Facebook sweetened the deal. Starting last year, recruiters earned two points for a minority hire, or twice as much as for white or Asian males, who already were well-represented within its technical ranks.

Even so, Facebook has shown little progress. Last month, the company said 4% of its U.S. employees were Hispanic and 2% were black, the same as the two prior years. Women made up 33% of its global workforce, up from 31% in 2014.

A Facebook spokeswoman declined to comment on the incentive and wouldn't say if it is still in use. "We continue to experiment with a variety of approaches to help in our efforts to increase the diversity of our workforce," she said.

The move shows how Facebook is applying its trademark data-driven approach to one of the tech industry's most stubborn problems: the homogeneity of its nearly 15,000-person workforce. But its lackluster results reflect the limits of that method when tackling deep-rooted issues such as inequality.

"All of us are lost with diversity," said one former Facebook recruiter. "We're all rushing and sprinting to get diversity numbers higher and higher than other companies. It's become a competitive number."

Facebook says it wants its workforce to better reflect the diversity of its 1.7 billion monthly users—85% of which are outside the U.S. and Canada. But last month, it said it couldn't substantially increase the diversity of its workforce because there weren't enough qualified women or minority candidates. That drew fire from tech diversity and inclusion leaders on social media.

In Silicon Valley's competitive job market it is difficult for recruiters, even at top-tier companies such as Facebook, to meet their hiring goals. That especially is true as tech giants jockey to make their offices more diverse.

Intel Corp. has paid its employees double referral bonuses for women, minorities and veterans. Other companies take into account how many women top managers hire when calculating their bonuses.

Incentives such as those used at Facebook and Intel signal a desire for more diversity, but they are "not a really effective way to change behavior. It can backfire," says Harvard University professor of sociology Frank Dobbin, who recently wrote an article titled "Why Diversity Programs Fail." Using a hiring incentive program can create the assumption that these candidates are "just an add-on to the real interview list," he said.

The Facebook spokeswoman said the company makes clear that diversity "is necessary and not an add-on."

The extra incentive points—awarded in job categories that are too homogenous—are an unusual effort to expand Facebook's "pipeline," which is the pool of candidates recruiters identify to interview for a position.

At Facebook, like at other tech companies, recruiters bring in candidates, but it is up to hiring managers to make job offers. Therefore, attracting more candidates doesn't necessarily result in a more diverse workforce.

"Diversity efforts often focus heavily on recruiters and not enough on hiring managers," said Joelle Emerson, chief executive of Paradigm, a diversity consultancy that works with many Silicon Valley startups.

Facebook recruiters often mined LinkedIn profiles for details that could serve as a proxy for race or gender: attending a historically black college, membership in an organization for Hispanic engineers, or a profile picture that looks diverse. Some compiled lists of the 100 most-common Hispanic names in the U.S. to plug into search strings, according to people familiar with the matter.

A recruiter only got the diversity credit if a candidate—either internal or external—identified himself or herself as a member of an underrepresented group during Facebook's application process, the people said.

What counts as a "diversity" hire depends on the job. Technical roles are filled mostly by white and Asian men, creating a disproportionate desire for black, Hispanic and female engineers, as well as veterans and people with disabilities.

In divisions such as communications and human resources, where women already are well-represented, there was no bonus for hiring a woman.

Former Facebook recruiters say they had mixed feelings about the extra-credit program. Some were encouraged by the incentive, and identified a more diverse group of candidates. Still, they said it wasn't enough to overcome a broader bias within Facebook and other tech companies for candidates who attended prestigious schools.

Facebook says it recruits from hundreds of colleges in the U.S. alone.

In the second half of last year, a number of Facebook recruiting teams failed to reach their goals for diversity hiring, said some people familiar with the matter. There were signs of progress, however: Facebook's newly hired senior leaders were more diverse. While existing leadership was 3% black and 3% Hispanic, 9% of Facebook's senior hires between July 2015 and July 2016 were black, while 5% were Hispanic.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 16, 2016 19:05 ET (23:05 GMT)

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