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Video game publisher Activision Blizzard representation of women and non-binary people increased by 2 percentage points from November 2021 to December 2022, in accordance with data shared with CNBC.
The corporate said women and non-binary staff made up 24.3% of its workforce in November 2021, but that figure had risen to 26.3% by the end of 2022.
“We recognize we’ve got work to do, but we’re very proud of the progress we have remodeled the past yr,” Alex DiLeonardo, director of talent, said in an interview.
The management pledged to make women more ubiquitous in the company after media reports describing cases of harassment of women prompted the government to launch an investigation.
Microsoft, a competitor and partner of Activision Blizzard, entered talks to accumulate the game publisher after reports lowered the game publisher’s share price. Microsoft is working to resolve regulatory issues surrounding the deal, and in January executives said they still expected to shut the $69 billion acquisition by the end of June.
Of Activision Blizzard’s full-time employees at the end of December, 25% were women and 1% identified as non-binary, just like 26% for each groups at the end of November, in accordance with data published by the company in post on a blog.
It also gave a recent statistic – lower than 1% was identified as “something else”. In 2021, the company set a goal of reaching 35% full-time non-binary and female employees by 2025. The corporate reported that 29% of its 2022 workforce was female, down from 30% in the yr ending February 28, 2022. Of its 2022 workforce, 2% were non-binary.
“I could not be more passionate and committed to being the most performance-focused, friendly and inclusive company in the entertainment industry,” Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick told analysts during a 2021 conference call that followed the cope with the U.S. Equal Opportunity for the Commission to strengthen policies to scale back harassment and discrimination.
Activision Blizzard has began using Textio startup software to make job descriptions more open and gender-neutral, revising greater than 5,500 jobs in 2022 with the tool, Kristen Hines, whom Activision Blizzard named its first director of blog post last yr.
“We are going to proceed to measure the impact of these changes as we imagine this work will contribute to our goal of becoming the industry’s friendliest and most inclusive company,” Hines wrote. “We also imagine it’ll help us meet the commitment we made in 2021 to extend the proportion of women and non-binary staff by 50% in five years.”
Microsoft has been attempting to increase the presence of women for years and has made strides in technical and leadership roles. Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft’s gaming division, said at an event in the Wall Street Journal in October that “we’d like to ensure teams feel secure, included, heard, where they will do their best work.” In November, Microsoft committed to updating its policy on sexual harassment and gender discrimination.
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Correction: Headline and story updated to accurately reflect Activision’s latest available data on female and non-binary representation.