Lyft's first diversity report shows it — like many tech companies — is mostly white and male

Wayne Sutton spoke to the Los Angeles Times about Lyft's first diversity report and what strategies must be put in place to achieve and maintain greater diversity. 

Lyft’s first-ever diversity report, published Thursday, came with few surprises: The ride-hailing company’s workforce — excluding its drivers, who are independent contractors and whose data was not tallied — is predominantly white and male.

And like many technology companies in Silicon Valley that have released data on the gender and ethnic makeup of their employees, the San Francisco firm pledged to do more to attract and retain workers from underrepresented groups.

In addition to building trust, the company will also have to continue reviewing its diversity strategy to make sure it’s actually working, said Wayne Sutton, co-founder of inclusion and diversity organization Change Catalyst.

“The tech industry has been looking for a single solution or a box they can check to say that they’re doing something to increase diversity in the workforce, and a single solution doesn’t exist,” Sutton said. “So Lyft is taking the right approach in having a multifaceted solution, but it needs to measure the impact to see if it actually works. And if it doesn’t, they need to try something else.”