In an effort to be more transparent, Activision Blizzard’s president and chief operating officer, Daniel Alegre, has released the company’s representation data.
According to a report by GIBiz, Alegre claims that the company will endeavor to release full data sets instead of “cherry-picking” data in areas in which they excel. As such it has released its disappointing data in terms of statistics for women employees.
Women currently account for 24 per cent of those currently employed. This low figure is being targeted by the publisher, which is making an effort to raise it.
“Our current goal is to double the number of women in our workplace and achieve over one-third representation by 2025,” Alegre said.
Activision Blizzard seems to be true to their word as women made up 29% of new hires this year. Women also faired marginally better in senior positions where they represented 26% of executives. However, both of these figures remain below their goal. There is also no data on non-binary genders, though claims have been made to address this.
The company is doing better with regards to people from ethic minorities, referred to in the report as UEGs (under-represented ethnic groups). People from UEGs made up 36 per cent of current employees and 40 per cent of new hires at the publisher.
Where it is failing minority ethnic groups is in hiring them for senior positions. Currently, people from UEGs make up just 15 per cent of Activision Blizzard’s executive leadership. The report lists five goals the company has to improve diversity within hiring and employment:
- Hire or put in place additional diversity, equity and inclusion leaders at the Activision, Blizzard, King (ABK) and division levels
- Tie yearly diversity goals to respective ABK and division executive leadership performance goals
- Invest in learning and development curriculum that fosters a culture of inclusion
- Stand up manager and executive mentorship and sponsorship programs aimed at unlocking upward mobility for UEGs and women
- Continue evolving our talent and recruiting system
Whether these goals will help the numerous issues of sexual harassment at the company remains to be seen. Employees recently launched a strike fund and began to unionise in response to ongoing issues.
In other news, Ubisoft CEO, Yves Guillemot, held an impromptu meeting with Ubisoft Paris where he explained that the company will not back down from its decision to integrate NFTs and that this is just the beginning.
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