Statement from the Special Committee of the Board
For the past five months, the Special Committee has taken a close look at Pinterest’s workplace culture. We are sharing our recommendations to ensure that Pinterest is the inclusive, fair, and respectful workplace that we -- and Pinterest’s employees -- want it to be. Our recommendations are rooted in our extensive review and assessment of the Company’s culture, including the experiences and observations employees shared, and we thank them for participating in this important process. Although this stage of our review is coming to a close, the work is just beginning. The Board of Directors has unanimously adopted our recommendations, and we are fully invested in their implementation.
The recommendations from the Special Committee can be viewed here: Recommendations to Enhance Pinterest’s Workplace Culture
Note from Co-founder and CEO Ben Silbermann to Pinterest Employees
Team,
Today, the Special Committee of the Board shared their recommendations for actions that Pinterest should take to ensure that our workplace is inclusive, fair, and respectful. Their independent look at our culture and practices with WilmerHale focused on ways to improve our working environment and our internal policies and practices. Please take time to read through the recommendations. I want us all to know and internalize what’s in this report.
We are committed to making the recommended changes and plan to update you on how we’ll be taking action, including committing resources, sharing a roadmap, and reporting on progress.
Building an inclusive culture requires clarity about what we need to do to get there. That’s why I want to thank all of you, and all of our former colleagues, who spoke with WilmerHale. Your voices and perspectives helped us get so much of this clarity. I’m grateful to all of you.
We will talk about all of this at our Q&A later this week where you can ask questions about what’s on your mind. Before then, I want to share a few thoughts on what I imagine are the most common questions.
What happens with these recommendations? Because this review was independent, the Leadership Team didn’t see this report until it was sent to every employee. We’ll need a bit of time to fully absorb it. After a quick review, I was encouraged to see that many of their suggestions mirror efforts we already have underway to build a culture where all employees feel included and supported. I was also heartened to see new suggestions and approaches that we can implement to better our culture.
Why should we be confident that we’ll act on these recommendations? I’m confident because we’re already taking important steps forward together. Progress never comes as fast as any of us want. But, when I look at what we’ve done in the past few months to build a great culture, we’re making progress. Here are a few examples:
- Appointed Tyi as our Global Head of Inclusion and Diversity, reporting directly to me
- Added diversity to our Board of Directors
- Launched a number of efforts—like implementing a diverse slate requirement—to improve representation in our workforce, especially at senior levels
- Revamped and expanded our inclusion training for all employees
- Established business goals to increase the representation of content Pinterest shows to Pinners
- Announced a partnership with the NAACP to form an Inclusion Advisory Council
Where do we go from here? Over the past months, I’ve met with employees from all levels, teams, and regions. So many of you have been candid with your concerns. So, these recommendations aren’t surprising. But, they were still hard to read. That’s because I want Pinterest to be an inspiring company with the best culture we can possibly build. We’ve made progress this year. It’s going to be a long journey— one that will require sustained focus and commitment. We’re not there yet. But, with hard work, I know we will get there.
I’m looking forward to working with all of you to implement these recommendations in 2021.
Ben