Airbnb, like much of the tech world, has an inclusion problem. The company's 2015 Department of Labor equal opportunity filings show that 63% of its workforce is white and 56.6% of its leadership is male. CEO Brian Chesky is committed to diversifying the company's staff.
This started in March when he hired former Peace Corps and State Department official David King III as the company's first head of diversity and belonging. Now, Airbnb is creating a 12-person product team that will focus strictly on combatting bias and promoting diversity. They've tapped Holder to be one of those team members.
"I wasn’t necessarily surprised because implicit bias is something that this country has been grappling with for hundreds of years," the advisor told Forbes. "It will take an entity or individual to come up with something that is paradigm challenging and gutsy to help solve it."
That's why Airbnb is incorporating unconscious bias training for all employees.
"We are working with experts on bias, including Dr. Robert Livingston of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Dr. Peter Glick of Lawrence University, to make anti-bias training available to our community, and will be publicly acknowledging those who complete it," Chesky wrote in his statement.
Forbes is also reporting that senior-level candidate pools must include women and people of color. Also, all managers and team leaders will be assessed on their ability to be inclusive when hiring.