Listen to staff or lose them, top tech firms warned

SILICON Valley companies must embrace a rise in employee activism or risk an exodus of key staff who will choose to “vote with their feet”, one of the US technology industry’s leading female executives has warned.

April Underwood, the former Twitter and Google executive who is now chief product officer at Slack, the maker of collaborative

workplace software, said it pointed to a shift in culture.

In November, thousands of Google employees around the world staged a walkout in protest at claims of sexual harassment, gender inequality and systemic racism. Many were angry at the treatment of Andy Rubin, creator of the Android mobile phone software, who was handed a $90m (£70m) severance package. Google had concealed details of the

sexual misconduct allegations – which he denies – that triggered his departure.

Ms Underwood said: “How companies will choose to address that feedback is an open question. Human capital is the biggest asset inside any company and employees are certainly going to vote with their feet on where they want to spend their working hours.”

Launched in 2013, Slack has 8m daily users globally,

including 3m paying users. At Google, Facebook and Microsoft, women hold between 19pc and 28pc of leadership jobs and between 19pc and 20pc of technical roles. At Slack, women occupy 31pc of leadership roles and 34pc of technical roles.

Ms Underwood said Slack had been committed to diversity from the start. “If you wait until you have hundreds of people then it’s too late,” she added.