Diversity, inclusion, and belonging at GitHub in 2022

With more than 1,170 new Hubbers joining us over the past year, GitHub experienced significant growth across its employee base. Simultaneously, we continued to make strides in becoming a more diverse company, aiming to reflect the 90M+ developers around the globe that we serve daily. As GitHub continues to grow, our vision of being the home for all developers continues to materialize, expanding our progress, perspectives, and responsibility to the world.

In 2021, GitHub launched a holistic Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging strategy centered on four key pillars: people, philanthropy, policy, and platform. Today, we continue to build upon this foundation to accelerate the potential and power of a diverse open source community.

People

As GitHub has grown, so has our demographics. We experienced growth in the number of Asian, Latinx, Black and Multiracial Hubbers, increasing race and ethnic minority representation by 41.4% since 2021. The number of Black and Multiracial employees also increased by 60.3% and 67.3%, respectively. While this progress is notable, there is still room for achievement—especially across women and minority representation in management.

With an increasingly diverse workforce, GitHub focused on building a more inclusive environment – one where every Hubber feels supported and has the opportunity to do the best work of their lives. Over the last year, we leveraged insights gained from our company-wide engagement survey to better understand and create a sense of belonging for Hubbers. Toward that goal, we launched four new communities of belonging (employee resource groups) and employee networks that underpin the diverse identities and needs of Hubbers. Together, our communities partnered with organizations across the world to shape representation in tech and funnel resources, by way of talent and fundraising, to marginalized communities.

Philanthropy

Leaning into our open source principles, we strengthened our collaboration across the industry to help advocate for the next generation of developers and address disparities. We introduced programs like GitHub All In, which united 17 industry partners around a shared commitment to Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging and graduated the inaugural class of All In for Students—a 12-month pilot program in partnership with historically excluded and under-resourced universities. Skills-based hackathons also galvanized Hubbers, helping our workforce leverage skills to drive change across nonprofits and public sector organizations.

Policy

We believe that open source is for everyone, everywhere. As the largest developer community in the world, we understand the responsibility we hold to shape policies that bolster and protect this community. This year, we fortified our efforts, reaffirming our stance on developer access and human rights. Building on last year’s momentum, we continued our advocacy of developers in Iran, especially in light of recent internet blackouts. We also joined forces with like-minded organizations, calling for the protection of LGBTQ+ workplace rights and marriage equality.

Platform

With a growing user base, we continued to modify and scale our platform to enable all developers—regardless of ability—to build. Recent launches like Copilot removed barriers to entry for new developers and increased support for users with motor disabilities, creating greater accessibility. Expanded appearance settings and themes, like Protanopia and Deuteranopia, also allowed for greater customization, specifically for developers who are colorblind.

Looking ahead

This year’s progress energizes us for the road ahead, but more than that, it reminds us of what is expected, as a platform, voice, and home for 90M+ developers—and the next. As demand for developers grows each year and society becomes increasingly more reliant on software, our industry must reflect the world around us. It must mirror our voices, identities, and abilities—the differences that inform our perspectives, and in turn, help us solve the world’s problems.

We remain committed to building internal and external ecosystems that reflect, support, and accelerate society; and in the spirit of open source, we know we can not do this alone.

Let’s continue to build from here, together.

Written by

Dawn Beatty

@dawnbeatty