Pinterest Pledges Changes to Culture After Discrimination Settlement

The social-media company said it would take steps to improve its culture, including mandating unconscious-bias training for its more than 2,400 employees world-wide and creating a team dedicated to investigating workplace concerns. Pinterest also pledged to standardize and increase transparency around employee pay and promotions.

The steps Pinterest promised are part of recommendations from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, a law firm Pinterest’s board hired in June to conduct an independent review of the company’s culture. Pinterest said the law firm interviewed more than 350 current and former employees to inform its recommendations, which the board committee signed off on late last month.

“We are committed to making the recommended changes and plan to update you on how we’ll be taking action, including committing resources, sharing a road map, and reporting on progress,” Pinterest Chief Executive Ben Silbermann said in a blog post on the company’s website.

Culture change is among the toughest tasks companies face, especially long-established ones, workplace experts say. Corporate culture-change plans are only as good as a company’s willingness to implement them, said Y-Vonne Hutchinson, founder and CEO of ReadySet Inc., a consulting firm in Oakland, Calif., specializing in helping companies foster more inclusive work environments.

Ms. Hutchinson described Pinterest’s commitment as a “great start” but said the company will need to follow through on its plans “with constant accountability” to drive real change.

“It’s not uncommon for companies to mistake making changes in structure for making changes in the culture thus declaring success long before it’s due,” said Pamela Tolbert, a professor at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, via email.

The tech industry has grappled with accusations of gender and racial bias for decades, and research shows it has been especially detrimental to women in the sector. A report released earlier this year from Girls Who Code and Accenture showed that half of women who take a job in the industry leave by age 35. It also says change may be difficult to achieve.

Recently, a prominent artificial-intelligence researcher said she was fired by Alphabet Inc.’s Google after refusing to retract a research paper and complaining about issues such as the proportion of female employees in the company in an email to colleagues. Timnit Gebru, who is Black, often spoke publicly about what she called the failings of the technology industry on equality and diversity matters.

In a lawsuit filed in August, Pinterest’s former operating chief Françoise Brougher alleged that the company maintained a culture of secrecy among top male executives that resulted in her being left out of meetings and decision-making. Ms. Brougher, a former executive of Square Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, said she was fired in April from Pinterest, where she had worked since 2018 and was one of the top female leaders.

In response to the cultural review, Ms. Brougher said the recommendations “appear to be solid” and that she’s ”anxious for Pinterest to take action to implement them.”

Former Pinterest employees Ifeoma Ozoma and Aerica Shimizu Banks said they were skeptical about whether the company’s plans would prompt changes. Earlier this year Ms. Ozoma and Ms. Banks said on Twitter that they were paid less than male counterparts and faced retaliation for speaking up about it. The women, who are Black, also accused the company of racial discrimination and not being accountable for the actions its employees.

“Nothing in this review holds the leaders that inflicted harms accountable,” said Ms. Shimizu Banks in a text. “Without any accountability for the perpetrators of abuse, this review is nothing more than window dressing.”

Pinterest said it has taken steps in recent months that demonstrate why it will be able to follow through on recommended changes. For example, the company in August hired Tyi McCray as its global head of inclusion and diversity, and it has added two Black women to its board of directors. Previously, there was one person of color on its board who joined in February.

Write to Sarah E. Needleman at [email protected]