Do you believe our company truly values diversity or does it merely value the appearance of it?
The company values nothing but share price and (if private) profit or revenue
All companies are money making operations first and foremost, and will act on that basis.
Optics is all it is
Of course optics. Falsely buttressed diversity isn't serious science, it's just affirmative action.
Since diversity programs are largely for legal indemnification, why should it truly value it?
Is that a direct question? Why should a company value diversity?
Yes. Since "diversity" at the end of the day is just discrimination against white and Asian men as a means of legal indemnification, why should that truly be "valued" anymore than other legal compliance like sarbanes Oxley?
Your question is more astute then you realize. Companies are capitulating to the intersectional definition of "diversity", which is by definition based on skin-deep identity politics, instead of pursuing the truly substantial diversity that comes from a variety of experiences, opinions, and worldviews.
Good point.
"Diversity and inclusion" have become tag lines at companies, just like in Hollywood movies for marketing/feel good purposes. If you Google Fortune 500 org charts there is near nil diversity (actually from the senior manager level and above it's limited). They don't understand diversity and inclusion aren't the end goal, they are a means to an end - that end goal is EQUALITY.
Google has a lot of good training videos and courses on how to be unbiased in interviews and how to be inclusive in meetings. They certainly opened my eyes to discrimination I've seen or been a part of before without even realizing it. However, I'm not sure all our leadership has watched the videos closely enough. There's still a lot of sexism and stuff going on all the time.
I actually believe similar people perform better in teams. It's an unpopular opinion these days. Really has nothing to do with race and gender, but personality traits, working hours, style. Say if you have a bunch of people who thrive on working remotely and another bunch who work really good in the office, would you keep them on separate teams or mix everyone together for two diverse teams. Just because something is different doesn't make it good
When talking about gender diversity, you "believe" what ever you want, but research has shown that gender diverse teams out perform non gender diverse teams for creative work. That's a fact, not a belief.
Labelling dev work as creative is a pretty imaginative stretch. Also specifically says not gender. You can't even see the 'has nothing to do' and just repeat diversity like it's going out of style.
Tableau proudly waves the diversity flag - particularly for women hires. Keeps the hot ass rolling in for the managers to keep fondling.
Latter.