CNBC reports that Cisco re-upped its 2-year contract with Textio, whose technology helps people write job ads for a more diverse crowd (AKA, not just white guys).
According to Cisco’s latest diversity report, the technology conglomerate now gets 10% more female job candidates, with 24% of Cisco’s worldwide employees now female, and 47% of its US employees identifying as non-Caucasian.
Textio Hire uses AI to grade job posts IRL, tracking words that could lead to positive and negative outcomes.
It makes sense: Tech companies have scrambled to improve since the big dawgs released stats on diversity (or lack thereof) in 2014 — and it turns out language plays a huge role in how applicants view job descriptions.
From 2012 to 2016 the word “ninja” increased nearly 400% in descriptions. Subsequently, ninja made a list of words in a 2011 report by social scientists that made jobs sound less appealing to women — along with a host of others.
Before software company Atlassian partnered with Textio 3 years ago, women filled just 10% of Atlassian’s technical roles. This year, that number shot to 22.9%. Dropbox, eBay, IBM, Intel, and Twitter all also use Textio.
Buoyed by its growing client list, Seattle-based Textio has grown to more than 100 employees, raised nearly $30m in funding, and appeared on CNBC’s 2018 Upstart List.