A majority of Vice Media Group’s employees are now female and most of the new hires in 2020 were Black, indigenous or people of color, according to a new diversity report from the company.
Vice announced Thursday that 56% of its employees identify as female, up 5.8% from 2019 — as well as 58% of new hires globally. In the United States, 42% of employees identify as BIPOC, which is a 3.9% increase. Of new hires, 54% identify as BIPOC, which was an increase of 9.12% from the previous year. A total of 21% of those new hires identified as Black or African American.
As for the Vice Media executive team, there were some shifts year-to-year as well: The team was 56% male and 44% female in 2020, compared to 68% men and 32% women in 2019. In 2020, the compnay also added its first executives who identify as Hispanic and two or more races. Overall in 2020, the executive team was 57% white and 43% BIPOC. In 2019, it was 80% white and 20% BIPOC.
According to the company’s release, the year saw a diversity, equity and inclusion initiative spearheaded by new chief people officer Daisy Auger-Domínguez, who was brought on in early 2020.
“There are no shortcuts. No silver bullet,” Auger-Domínguez said in a statement. “And while workforce representation data is important, it doesn’t tell the whole story. In my first year at VMG we focused on building the right foundation by reviewing and improving upon our people processes, policies, and programs. Scripts and talking points can only get you so far. This is about how to practically and intentionally be inclusive and anti-racist, and how to create conditions that enable managers, leaders and teams to stay on a consistent path, even when that means stumbling along the way.”
CEO Nancy Dubuc also released a statement: “”No one could have expected the year that was 2020. We witnessed seismic cultural, political and social change, and through a global pandemic, we had to pivot the way we collaborate and begin to find our new best ways of working. I am immensely proud not just of the work we produced, but of the new systems and cultural programming created by and for the people of Vice Media Group.”
Dubuc said that in 2021, she is calling on the media industry at large “to come together and understand how we can put our collective momentum behind making a permanent difference to how we show up not just for ourselves, but everyone around us.”
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