Nike Admits It's Not Doing Enough to Promote Women and Minorities

Nike HR president Monique Matheson admits the company is not doing enough to promote women and minorities. Here's how it plans to fix it.

Nike Factory Store Metzingen
Nike

Image via Nike

Nike Factory Store Metzingen

Nike's workplace woes continue this week after a company memo has surfaced in which the brand admits it's not doing enough to promote more women and minorities.

In the memo, which was reviewed by Wall Street Journal's Sara Germano, Nike's executive vice president of global human resources Monique Matheson says there's still work to be done following the recent exec shakeup at the brand in the wake of inappropriate behavior complaints

"While we’ve spoken about this many times, and tried different ways to achieve change, we have failed to gain traction—and our hiring and promotion decisions are not changing senior-level representation as quickly as we have wanted," Matheson wrote in the message to staff, adding that the brand must "improve representation of women and people of color."

Globally, Nike has a near-equal number of men and women employees, although only 29 percent of the company's vice presidents are female. 

To combat the issue, Matheson says Nike will begin using blind resume reviews and stop logging employee salary histories. Meanwhile, the company will also enact mandatory awareness training for managers.