Social scrapbooking company Pinterest and "America's Next Top Model" cycle 22 host Tyra Banks are singing the same tune when it comes to promoting diversity.
As one of the first Silicon Valley startups to start exposing the decreasing diversity data of the tech industry, Pinterest recently announced that part of their hiring goals for 2016 is to promote further change through diversity.
Among the major goals of the privately held social scrapbooking company is to increase its hiring rates for full-time engineering roles to 30 percent female, non-engineering roles to 12 percent under-represented ethnic backgrounds and full-time engineers to 8 percent under-represented ethnic backgrounds.
On July 30, Thursday, Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp wrote in a blog post that the workforces diversity data being reported by large tech companies still fail to help solve the problem of the inadequate diversity in tech. He wrote, "It's clear not a lot of progress has been made since then."
Like Pinterest, the "ANTM" creator is also an advocate of diversity. The upcoming "ANTM" cycle 22, which is set to premiere on The CW on Aug. 5, does not only feature black, white and Asian contestants. It is also the third cycle to feature both guys and girls for the third time and the second cycle to have no height requirement.
It appears that Pinterest and Banks' advocacy for diversity is translating to sales. Earlier this year, HSN Inc. enjoyed increase in digital and mobile sales, which CEO Mindy Grossman attributed to the St. Petersburg-based retailer's increased emphasis on HSN's Pinterest presence and Banks' beauty products promotion, which generated 7,000 selfies posted by users, among others, Tampa Bay Business Journal reported.