Last June Lyft made a commitment. In the wake of the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, amidst marches and rallies for Black lives, the country got a wake up call that’s been needed since its founding. It was also a moment of clarity for us as a company, and we committed to becoming a bigger part of the solution. Almost one year later, we’re mourning the deaths of Daunte Wright and Adam Toledo, as we witness the ongoing trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd.
We believe this is an important moment for us to assess and share the progress we’ve made on our commitments.
Last year we set the following goals:
Grow our internal inclusion and diversity initiatives, focused on hiring, retention, development, and promotion of Black and other underrepresented talent.
Expand our external efforts to partner with and support community and national organizations working towards racial justice.
Listen to staff, drivers, and community members of color, and use those learnings to find more ways to speak up, take action, and be a bigger part of the solution.
Building Inclusion & Diversity
Despite an overall reduction of our workforce due to the pandemic, we made sure to avoid disproportionate losses among our Black and Brown team members. We’re proud of the progress we made, including:
Expansion of our recruiting efforts at Historically Black and Underrepresented Universities (HBCUs), which enabled us to increase our overall representation of Black and Latinx interns to 38% for Summer 2021.
Partnering with organizations to grow our diverse talent pipeline, including Techqueria, Latinas in Tech, Nextplay, SHPE, Anita B, Blavity / AfroTech, CMD-IT and Pursuit, leading to better interview readiness scores from program participants.
Launching a new Supplier Inclusion Program designed to use the power of Lyft’s supplier spend to provide more opportunities to diverse and small businesses.
Conducting our 4th Pay Equity Audit, which found no statistically significant pay disparity based on race, gender, or other factors.
Launching Executive Sponsorship Programs for Black and Latinx leaders at Lyft, with over 91% of Black and Latinx Directors opting to be partnered with a member of our Executive Leadership Team.
Creating Lyft’s first ever internal Racial Equity Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) to drive further accountability (currently completed or are on track to complete 30 out of 34 objectives).
Publishing Lyft’s first joint Diversity & Inclusion and Racial Equity Report to make our goals explicit, ensure there’s transparency into our progress, and identify where we need to do better.
Fighting for Racial Justice
We also made a commitment to play a bigger role in advancing racial justice. We listened to team members, drivers, riders, and partners in communities of color across the country, and we set out to use our power as a company to create real impact and match our values with actions. We did this by:
Launching the LyftUp Access Alliance, partnering with organizations like My Brother’s Keeper Alliance and the National Urban League to help eliminate transportation as a barrier to economic mobility for Black communities and committing to provide access to 1.5 million free and discounted rides over the next 5 years to support communities of color. In 2020 alone, we estimate we provided access to over 1 million free or discounted rides to communities of color through our LyftUp programs, including but not limited to Jobs Access, COVID-19 support, and Access Alliance.
Working with the NAACP, National Hispanic Council on Aging, National Asian Pacific Center on Aging, National Urban League, National Action Network, and over 100 community partners to help under-resourced communities access vaccination appointments by providing access to rides for those in need.
Increasing our support for Black drivers and launching the Know Your Rights Campaign with the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to provide drivers with information about how to protect their rights in the event they are pulled over by law enforcement.
Focusing our LyftUp Community Grants Program to specifically and directly serve Black communities and other communities of color.
Piloting Protest Rides and Solidarity Rides, programs that supported the March on Washington and other racial justice rallies by providing access to discounted car, bike, and scooter rides for those attending, and donating a portion of proceeds to national civil rights organizations like the NAACP, National Action Network, Black Women’s Roundtable, and National Bail Fund Network.
Expanding our Voting Access Program to provide access to rides to the polls for hundreds of thousands of people, working specifically with groups like the National Urban League and Voto Latino Foundation to help Black and Latinx communities facing greater barriers to voting.
Where We Go From Here
We’re proud of the progress we’ve made, and we will continue working to get better. Over the next year we will specifically focus on:
Working to reach our remaining hiring goals, expanding our pipeline of underrepresented talent, and investing in the development, retention, and promotion of Black and Latinx staff members.
Engaging more with Black drivers to help them feel safer on our platform and making our platform a force for good in the community.
Growing our commitment to our racial justice partners, including through our LyftUp Jobs Access Program, Grocery Access Program, and Voting Access Program in upcoming elections.
Continuing to listen -- to staff, drivers, and the public -- and to speak out whenever possible.
Most of all, we are committed to leading in a way that makes the Lyft community proud and that reflects our values. We look forward to continuing to prove that as we build a stronger company and work to make a better world.