You might think that Google—with more than 50,000 employees worldwide, the second-highest valuation in the world, and a mission to "do the right thing"—would have a more diverse workplace by now. But the tech industry is notorious for being dominated by white men, and Google is no exception.

In 2014 and 2015 the tech giant poured $265 million into its diversity program. It recruited from black colleges, trained employees on unconscious biases, and set up policies to avoid pay discrepancies.

Yet its proportion of black employees stayed the same: only 2 percent. And despite all the investment into the diversity program, just 3 percent of workers were Hispanic, and another 3 percent were multiracial. In contrast, 26 percent of the U.S. population over 21 is black and Hispanic, according to Fast Company.

Women's representation was also lacking in a major way. Only 31 percent of Google employees were female, with 19 percent of technical roles and 24 percent of leadership roles being filled by women.

Though Google's workforce may not represent the general population, it does, unfortunately, reflect the rest of the tech industry. At Apple, for instance, women make up about a third of the company's employees.

How has such little progress been made despite Google's best efforts? Here are a few factors contributing to the persistent imbalance.

Hiring biases: Even when efforts are made to recruit diverse applicants, the team often ends up choosing white or male candidates, especially when vague criteria like "culture fit" are used. Some companies set hiring goals to combat this problem.

Toxic work culture: Erica Joy Baker, a black engineer who used to work at Google, told Fast Company that she left because of the racism she was encountering at work. People constantly mistook her for a security guard, and she overheard several coworkers claim that black people were less intelligent. A recent survey by PyschTests found that toxic environments were the number-two reason people left their jobs. This is also what half of women in a Harvard Business Review study cited as their motivation for leaving STEM jobs.
Lack of mandatory training: Baker also pointed out that diversity training at Google, at least while she was there, was optional unless you were a new hire, so it ended up being preached to the choir.

Lax responses to sexism and racism: Company policy dictates that managers are required to fire or at least penalize people who don't adhere to the company's values, but Baker said she never saw anyone fired for racism. However, Google spokesman Ty Sheppard told Fast Company that it has happened.
Source : Glamour