Wells Fargo defended its 2020 diverse slate policy Monday by citing its own hiring statistics. External hiring volume in the bank’s U.S. roles increased 17% in 2021, compared with 2020, Wells Fargo said. At the same time, the bank’s external hiring of candidates from “underrepresented racial and ethnic groups” increased 27% — meaning diverse hiring outpaced hiring overall by 10 percentage points. During the same period, external hiring of women for U.S roles at the bank increased 23%, six percentage points ahead of hiring overall, Wells Fargo said.
