Diversity Annual Report 2021: A Year of Reflection
Data is key to navigating global challenges, expanding inclusivity and achieving our goals so that everyone can thrive.
Introduction
A year of transformations
In 2021, as we entered the second year of the global pandemic, we at Splunk were seeing the world in new ways. Not only had 7,500 Splunkers adapted to a remote work environment, but they had embraced the benefits of workplace flexibility. We renewed our focus on mental health. And more than ever, we understood the importance of human connection and belonging to get us through the most difficult and uncertain times. Against the backdrop of an increasingly uncertain world, we remained focused on our purpose and grounded in our values in service to advancing a culture of belonging for Splunkers all around the globe.
Today, we are pleased to present Splunk’s third Diversity Annual Report, which summarizes the progress we’ve made on our DEI journey over the past year while also offering an honest look at where we can still improve. With our pledge to remove the barriers between data and action, we will let data guide our path and steer us toward a more equitable and inclusive future in which everyone can thrive.
WORKFORCE
Finding balance
Splunk was among the first employers to announce a long-term virtual-first work arrangement, one which provided Splunkers with added flexibility to balance their work and personal lives. We also recognized how the uncertainty of the past year weighed heavily on the minds of our employees. So, we doubled down on our wellness efforts to ensure that Splunkers felt cared for and supported in the process. This included prioritizing mental health resources and programs, continuing to offer quarterly Global Days of Rest, offering reimbursement for a host of wellness-oriented items and activities, and embracing a flexible and balanced approach to the workday.
With an expanding remote workforce, we were able to broaden our talent pool to reach even more underrepresented communities. The percentage of Splunkers identifying as women in 2021 rose in all categories, including leadership, people managers and technical roles. We also saw overall increases in the representation of U.S.-based employees identifying as Black/African American and multiracial, particularly in people-manager roles. While in technical roles we experienced gains among Latinx and multiracial employees, we saw overall declines in the representation of the workforce identifying as Latinx and Indigenous.
Gender (Global)
Men
Women
Race/Ethnicity (U.S.)
In 2021, we were pleased to see overall increases in representation for Black/African American women, as well as increases in Black/African American men in people-manager roles. We also saw increases in both men and women identifying as multiracial in leadership positions. However, we saw a decrease in the overall representation of Latinx women and in the representation of Black/African American women in leadership and people-manager roles.
Race/Ethnicity (U.S.)
Women
Men
Women
Men
Women
Men
Women
Men
Women
Men
Women
Men
Women
Men
We were proud to see hiring and representation increases of employees identifying as women and multiracial. We also saw increases in the hiring of almost all underrepresented groups (URGs) for leadership roles, as well increases in Black/African American hires in people-manager roles. However, we experienced some erosion in our overall hiring of Black/African American, Latinx and Indigenous employees. We are not satisfied with these results and are committed to improving these outcomes in the coming year by re-evaluating outreach in communities of color and expanding our talent pools.
Gender (Global)
Men
Women
Race/Ethnicity (U.S.)
We’re pleased to see year-over-year improvement in the hiring of Black and Latinx men, as well as multiracial men and women for people-manager positions. We experienced similar gains for Black/African American, Indigenous and multiracial women hired in technical roles. However, we saw a decline in the hiring of Latinx and Black/African American women candidates, as well as Indigenous men and women. We remain deeply committed to growing gender-balanced teams and representation of people of color and women of color across the enterprise and we will be applying greater focus on these areas of opportunities in the year ahead.
Race/Ethnicity (U.S.)
Women
Men
Women
Men
Women
Men
Women
Men
Women
Men
Women
Men
Women
Men
We’re encouraged to have seen year-over-year improvement in the overall retention of women at Splunk in 2021. However, we intend to focus more on the retention of Black/African American, Indigenous and multiracial employees, as well as Latinx women.
Gender (Global)
Overall Global Attrition =100
Race/Ethnicity (U.S.)
Overall U.S. Attrition =100
Our most recent Federal Employer Information Report EEO-1, representing Splunk employees as of Dec. 31, 2021, is publicly available here. However, we believe the information we share in our Diversity Annual Report more accurately represents our year-over-year progress, while providing a more holistic picture of our culture of diversity and inclusion.
Download the UK Gender Pay Gap Report here.
This report contains Splunk’s own data — including, but not limited to, gender, ethnicity and race — that allows us to determine our progress and see where we want to improve. In this report, we cover our fiscal year of Feb. 1, 2021 through Jan. 31, 2022. Figures are based on self-identification data only, and we’ve rounded each data label to the nearest tenth of a point. Gender data is from Splunk employees around the world (0.2% of employees globally have declined to disclose their gender). All race and ethnicity data applies to U.S.-based employees only (12.8% of employees in the U.S. have declined to disclose their race/ethnicity). If employees who chose not to disclose their demographic information elect to do so in the future, this will change our historical representation figures.
Underrepresented groups in the U.S. technology industry are defined as Black, Hispanic or Latinx, Native American and multiracial people. Race/ethnicity data refers to the EEO-1 race/ethnicity categories established by the U.S. government.
All Splunk diversity data is global for gender identification and U.S.-based for race/ethnicity.
Multiracial employees are those who identify as two or more races.
Technical roles include engineering, design, product, QA, data analytics, information technology and some consulting roles.
Non-technical is defined as all employees whose roles are not considered technical.
People managers are defined as employees who have at least one full-time direct report.
We define leadership as director-level or above, in line with industry definitions. When we report on leadership trends in this report, we’re comparing director and above, year-over-year.
To evaluate retention, we compared the retention rate of each group to the company average and set the average to an index of 100.
WORKPLACE
A sense of belonging
We continued to rely on our strong and thriving network of nine employee resource groups (ERGs), Womxn+, BEAMs, Somos, Natives, Pilipinx, Veterans, Pride, Disabled=True and Neurodiversity to help foster and grow our Million Data Points culture of belonging and provide critical support, connection and advocacy to Splunkers from underrepresented and marginalized communities in tech.
As part of our effort to expand inclusionary initiatives and education throughout Splunk, our ERGs focused on more cross-collaborative efforts where we connected on the following:
- The Black Employees Achieve More at Splunk (BEAMS) ERG continued investing in historically Black college and university (HBCU) initiatives through scholarship opportunities and developed a partnership with TechBeach to connect the Caribbean to the world's digital ecosystem. TechBeach builds bridges that yield increased investment, partnership and mentorship — spurring an entrepreneurship and innovation revolution in the Caribbean and unlocking the full economic potential of the region.
- The Neurodiversity ERG hosted educational workshops on mental health and neurodiversity and continued to facilitate and lead Splunk’s ongoing mindfulness program.
- The Pilipinx ERG launched its first Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month and Filipino celebration to raise awareness and funds for iHollaback.org (now known as Right To Be).
- The Pride (LGBTQ+) ERG partnered with Out and Equal and GenderCool to provide LGBTQ+ inclusion education and support for Splunkers who identify as LGBTQ+ as well as parents of LGBTQ+ children.
- Somos (Latinx ERG) partnered with the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley to host a Farmworkers Caravan and community outreach initiatives.
- The Womxn+ ERG hosted events focused on parenting in the pandemic, fireside chats about being better allies, as well as sessions about safe spaces and family finances.
- .conf21 sessions focused on “Our Neurodiverse Journey: Why Workplace Mental Health Matters More Than Ever,” “Splunking for Inclusive Language: How We Replaced Biased Terms in Our Products,” “Vote Bright Like a Diamond: How Splunk’s Black Employees Resource Group (BEAMs) Created a Movement for Education” and “Why D&I Is So Much More Than the ‘New Kid On the Block.’”
Marketplace
Expanding our impact
As the ongoing pandemic and deepening political divisions revealed increasingly disparate social and economic inequities for marginalized groups, we launched several initiatives focused on advancing fairness, equity and inclusion in our communities and across our industry.
Our commitment to social justice endeavors included:
- Offering the Splunk HBCU Academic Scholarship for a second year in a row, which aims to empower students enrolled as full-time students at prestigious, historically Black academic institutions including North Carolina A&T University (NCA&T), Florida A&M University (FAMU) and Tuskegee University (TU).
- Launching a new scholarship with the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) with the goal of increasing representation of American Indian, Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, First Nation and other Indigenous peoples in the fields of science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) and other related disciplines.
- Partnering with Women Back To Work, an organization that helps hire career-ready returners with technical and other professional backgrounds. The partnership provides a supportive environment for Splunk candidates making the transition back to the workforce, while also expanding and diversifying our existing talent pool.
- Collaborating with the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley, an organization dedicated to empowering the lives and futures of Latinos in Silicon Valley through community philanthropy, investment in educational excellence, leadership development and engagement of the region’s dynamic Hispanic community.
- Becoming an official partner of the Victorian Pride Centre (VPC) when it opened its doors in July 2021. The Splunk partnership offered the LGBTQ+ organizations housed in the facility access to the Social Impact and Splunk Global Impact program, as well as much-needed operational funds that finalized building construction and various educational programs and initiatives.
- Continuing to partner with Year Up, a program committed to closing opportunity gaps by ensuring equitable access to economic opportunity, education and justice for all young adults — regardless of their background, income or ZIP code.
While we know there is still so much more for us to do, we are proud of the recognition we’ve received for our DEI and community leadership. We were recognized with numerous prestigious industry awards, including the 2022 HRC Corporate Equality Index: Best Places to Work for LGBTQ (with a perfect score of 100 for a second year in a row), GPTW 2021 100 Best Companies to Work For, and the 2021 People Companies that Care.
Our Commitment
Building for a better tomorrow
Looking ahead, we know that many aspects of our lives will never be the same as they were just a few years ago — and more change ahead is all but certain. However, adversity also has the potential to elicit clarity, foster unity and ultimately create hope. Ensuring greater connectedness and belonging, especially in a virtual-first environment, will be essential for all of us in navigating the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow. This includes expanding diversity within our organization, engaging and retaining our existing talent, and placing more resources into sponsorship and mentorship programs in addition to education and training so Splunkers continue to thrive and succeed. And as we assess our evolving world, we will continue to be guided by data as we build toward a more inclusive and equitable world.
