Activision Blizzard Resist Rule Mandating Diversity Hiring

[mario710]

“In an article published by VICE's Motherboard magazine, Activision Blizzard is resisting a shareholder proposal by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) requesting the company institute a Rooney Rule, mandating that women and minorities be interviewed for all open positions within the company.

The Rooney Rule is a National Football League policy which required leagues to interview minority and female candidates for head coaching and senior football operations positions, with the intent of increasing their representation within the industry.

Like other forms of affirmative action, its intention is to bridge inequalities, although unlike many such policies the Rooney Rule does not incentivize or require minorities be hired or make up a certain amount of the employee workforce, instead only mandating that a minority qualified individual be interviewed before a position is filled.

While its adoption did result in an initial increased minority representation within NFL operations, the long-term effectiveness of the rule has been questioned, and critics of the rule have argued that it is largely ineffective or can even oppose the intended effect and result in "token" interviews with no intention to hire.

Regardless, since its adoption in 2003, the popularity of the rule has caused it to spread to several other industries - with the AFL-CIO now proposing Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard adopt it as well.” - Wowhead

Activision Blizzard’s Response:

“The Proposal leaves no room for the Company’s management or Board of Directors to exercise discretion in how new hire decisions are structured. Implementing a policy that would extend such an approach to all hiring decisions amounts to an unworkable encroachment on the Company’s ability to run its business and compete for talent in a highly competitive, fast-moving market.“ - Wowhead

The radical left-wing bigots at Wowhead disabled the comments so I'm posting it here. Thoughts?

Good on Blizzard for standing their ground. Now, get out of that hellhole of a state.

[TigTone]

CA is a fine state. You got a city for everyone.

Left or right whatever you can find a city and county to fit in.

So buzz off with that state hating tribalistic/primitive behavior.

Ohh if they can prove their methods are truly meritocratic then everything is fine right.

[october breeze]

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I am with Acti-blizz on this one.
Hiring should be based on qualifications only and only. Screw forced diversity!

[GreenJesus]

Activision Blizzard is actually based? Poggers

[Onikaroshi]

Forced diversity has always been a stupid ask, even people in the minority sector have said such.

You should be hired entirely on your merit. We shouldn't ever hear something like "you're more qualified but we have to hire her because she's a black woman for our diversity quota"

[Arkthugal]

"radical left-wing bigots"

Aaaand your opinion is void

[Squigglyo]

i worked at a place where one day suddenly every hire was a minority or a woman.
Every promotion went to a woman.
The hired LGTB people with no experience straight into management.
They hired unqualified people and then bragged about how much better a company they were.

Every male in management left or was fired.
The only males left after a few months were the meek, shy yes-men.

Place was a sesspool of inexperienced people making decisions and 'woke' men who's vocabulary saw them unable to form a contradictory thought if it went against a minority or a woman.

But hey, at least they had the important thing, every employ looked different and men wernt in charge.

[Kyux]

Wowhead disabled comments because they knew people would come along calling others 'radical left-wing bigots'.

I sympathise with Activision-Blizzard too. I think hiring should be done on merits.

Having said that, ensuring women/minorities get interviews at least is a way to help upskill those groups so that they can compete in terms of merits. The majority have an advantage. The policy helps to give that advantage to the minority too so all are benefitted.

I think Activision-Blizzard, or at least Blizzard, is already pretty good on the representation and minorities front. I don't know about their HR policies, but they seem to be on top of their game and are inclusive. I don't think this policy was targeted at companies like them. I could be wrong.

But hey, at least they had the inportant thing, every employ looked different and men wernt in charge.

From this line alone I am not sure you're in a position to challenge the expertise of others. Maybe the company just wernt right for you?

[Onikaroshi]

Wowhead disabled comments because they knew people would come along calling others 'radical left-wing bigots'.

I sympathise with Activision-Blizzard too. I think hiring should be done on merits.

Having said that, ensuring women/minorities get interviews at least is a way to help upskill those groups so that they can compete in terms of merits. The majority have an advantage. The policy helps to give that advantage to the minority too so all are benefitted.

I think Activision-Blizzard, or at least Blizzard, is already pretty good on the representation and minorities front. I don't know about their HR policies, but they seem to be on top of their game and are inclusive. I don't think this policy was targeted at companies like them. I could be wrong.

I think a lot less people would have issue with "interview X% women/minorities" vs. "hire x% women/minorities".

Personally I just think most interviews that your physical appearance and gender don't matter should just be blind interviews anyway.

Obviously if you're interviewing to be a male stripper that requires a bit more visibility, but interviewing could easily be done blind otherwise.

[rayvio]

so the rule isn't forcing them to hire them, only to consider them. so long as these people are qualified for the position then where's the harm in their being considered? sure they can just interview a bunch of people they have no intention of hiring but then at least there's a tiny chance that the interviewee can change their mind and the interviewers can see that it's not just white males who can ace an interview and maybe eventually have their minds slowly opened

even if Blizz are a completely fair company with no prejudices in their hiring (which I'm sure they will claim to be) by resisting the rule they're still making it easier for the companies who are riddled with prejudice to resist the rules as well. the fewer people who enable bigotry the harder it is for the bigots to get away with it

[Varitok]

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I am with Acti-blizz on this one.
Hiring should be based on qualifications only and only. Screw forced diversity!

While I really don't agree with forcing this isn't forced hiring, This is forcing them to have a quota within the interview pool, nothing to do with hiring.

As much as I disagree with this kind of shit is anyone looking at the US right now, at this very moment and saying "Merit based hiring works". Come on now.

[Squigglyo]

From this line alone I am not sure you're in a position to challenge the expertise of others. Maybe the company just wernt right for you?

Of course. Having a contradictory opinion on something while you are watching it burning due to incompetence definitly makes me the bad guy in all of it.

[TheRevenantHero]

All that's being asked of them is offering more INTERVIEWS to women and POC. There is nothing saying they have to hire them. Because more often than not, companies will refuse to interview someone when their name doesn't look white enough. The fact that Activision Blizzard can't even do the bare minimum of simply interviewing a more diverse number of people really shows the company is kind of bigoted.

[huth]

The radical left-wing bigots at Wowhead disabled the comments so I'm posting it here. Thoughts?

They disabled them because of people like you who can't help but fling mud, ensuring that the comments would require an inordinate amount of moderating. Nothing to do with their political leanings, the topic is just guaranteed to cause plenty of issues among commenters.

[Varitok]

i worked at a place where one day suddenly every hire was a minority or a woman.
Every promotion went to a woman.
The hired LGTB people with no experience straight into management.
They hired unqualified people and then bragged about how much better a company they were.

Every male in management left or was fired.
The only males left after a few months were the meek, shy yes-men.

Place was a sesspool of inexperienced people making decisions and 'woke' men who's vocabulary saw them unable to form a contradictory thought if it went against a minority or a woman.

But hey, at least they had the important thing, every employ looked different and men wernt in charge.

Name it then. I always find it very convenient when these "stories" pop up it's always like an ultimate example of the incels plight but never get any real proof out side of a "friend of a friend of mine" forum posts.

[Sithalos]

Ah yes, just what Blizzard needs, "diversity", not talent.

I'm glad they told them to fuck off.

[worgie]

Let's all take a moment and realize this article was written by VICE. They intentionally phrase it incorrectly to make it seem Actiblizz is refusing to even interview women and people of color. obviously that's not the case, they are only not going along with the quotas people are telling them to meet (which is a ludicrous thing to ask of a company anyways).

[Yarathir]

I guess this was one step too far for even ol' Blizzard.

[Nite92]

“In an article published by VICE's Motherboard magazine, Activision Blizzard is resisting a shareholder proposal by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) requesting the company institute a Rooney Rule, mandating that women and minorities be interviewed for all open positions within the company.

The Rooney Rule is a National Football League policy which required leagues to interview minority and female candidates for head coaching and senior football operations positions, with the intent of increasing their representation within the industry.

Like other forms of affirmative action, its intention is to bridge inequalities, although unlike many such policies the Rooney Rule does not incentivize or require minorities be hired or make up a certain amount of the employee workforce, instead only mandating that a minority qualified individual be interviewed before a position is filled.

While its adoption did result in an initial increased minority representation within NFL operations, the long-term effectiveness of the rule has been questioned, and critics of the rule have argued that it is largely ineffective or can even oppose the intended effect and result in "token" interviews with no intention to hire.

Regardless, since its adoption in 2003, the popularity of the rule has caused it to spread to several other industries - with the AFL-CIO now proposing Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard adopt it as well.” - Wowhead

Activision Blizzard’s Response:

“The Proposal leaves no room for the Company’s management or Board of Directors to exercise discretion in how new hire decisions are structured. Implementing a policy that would extend such an approach to all hiring decisions amounts to an unworkable encroachment on the Company’s ability to run its business and compete for talent in a highly competitive, fast-moving market.“ - Wowhead

The radical left-wing bigots at Wowhead disabled the comments so I'm posting it here. Thoughts?

Good on Blizzard for standing their ground. Now, get out of that hellhole of a state.

You sure must be an radical leftwing bigot to disable comments.
Yikes.

[BreakerOfWills]

It'll be interesting to see folks try to simultaneously argue that blizz is fucking up and terrible and SIMULTANEOUSLY hiring/promoting the best people for the job.

Can't be both.