Great minds don’t think alike: How our values drive our hiring philosophy

Stacy Charles, Head of Talent Acquisition Communications & Change Management interviews Eve Lewis, Uber’s Head of Inclusive Talent Acquisition.

In 2021, Uber researched, developed and launched our own version of the Mansfield Rule, which supports our efforts to be an anti-racist company by committing to interviewing and considering underrepresented candidates for a segment of our roles globally. Talent Acquisition recently released a publication, Driving diversity, equity and inclusion in the tech industry, which unpacks this holistic recruiting strategy and puts action behind our Uber value ‘Great minds don’t think alike.’ In celebration of Women’s History Month, we spoke to Eve Lewis, Uber’s Senior Director of Inclusive Talent Acquisition, about diversity and inclusion in tech, the power of visibility, and how Uber’s inclusive hiring practices have evolved over the past year. 

Tell us about the inclusive hiring philosophy at Uber.

“It centers around one of our core values, ‘Great minds don’t think alike.’ We live this value within inclusive recruiting by activating core behaviors and delivery that recognize the impacts of systemic racism and the importance of a holistic framework to drive hiring outcomes that support equitable representation.

For us, it starts with having diverse recruiting teams. We obsess about building diverse and representative teams ourselves, and we approach building our recruiting team with just as much rigor as we source talent for the business.”

How can we approach increasing diversity in the tech industry?

“We have to move away from the narrow, preferred profiles that many managers in Tech align to as the ideal hiring profile. We have to train, coach and reteach and broaden our aperture on talent: Top talent is not synonymous with having worked at a FAANG or matriculated from an ivy league university. Stop hiring solely based on pedigree—hire based on signals that indicate a person’s ability to successfully execute the job.” 

What is the Mansfield Rule?

“The Mansfield Rule is a recruiting strategy that brings a D&I lens to building talent pipelines. It measures whether employers have affirmatively considered women, people with disabilities, military veterans, and underrepresented racial/ethnic groups, collectively referred to as ‘underrepresented groups,’ with a commitment to interviewing a candidate pool that matches or exceeds market supply for diversity.”

How has inclusive hiring evolved at Uber over the past year and why was Mansfield Rule right for Uber?

“One tangible way is by investing in talent cohorts at Uber, like our Talent Acquisition Academy Program (TAAP) and Sales Academy. Both of these programs focus on bringing candidates from nontraditional backgrounds (we’ve had professional athletes, data analysts and Uber drivers go through our programs) into roles at Uber, and training and supporting them through the transition. We place an emphasis on hiring for potential instead of previous experience, giving individuals looking to make an intentional career change an opportunity and we provide them with the tools and support to succeed.

Integrating the Mansfield Rule in our approach is helping us think more holistically about diversity—so we’re not just checking a box, but understanding the very real impacts of expanding the aperture in building an inclusive organization.”

What does the Women at Uber International Women’s Day theme ‘power of visibility‘ mean to you?

“It’s incredibly relevant and powerful – especially at this time. We see so many real life examples where certain communities are finally visible—visible via television, print, social media… And what that does for others in those communities is to speak to possibility! When you see someone who you align with from a representation standpoint out in the world doing amazing things, it confirms that the same is possible for you!” 

What does the future of inclusive hiring look like for Uber? 

“Our holistic approach to building diverse teams will become more deeply woven into our way of working across the business and the globe. Diversity will always be one of the cornerstones of living our Uber values—it has to be in order to fulfill our mission to reimagine how the world moves for the better. Because we know that when we create equitable access to jobs and opportunities, mitigate biases and focus on building a company with diverse representation, it sets us up to create better and more innovative products for our very diverse, global customers. Products that will have a lasting impact on the world.”

To learn more about the Mansfield Rule and the steps we are taking at Uber to reimagine a more diverse and equitable company, read our 2022 whitepaper, Driving diversity, equity and inclusion in the tech industry.