As the Wall Street Journal reports, Facebook has been experimenting with its hiring policies “to help diversify its largely white, largely male workforce.” Thus, two years ago the company began to incentivize in-house recruiters by offering them 1.5 points “for a so-called ‘diversity hire’—a black, Hispanic or female engineer—according to people familiar with the matter.” That was a half point more than the company offered for hires who were not black, Hispanic, or female—nor, by inference, Asian American. But when “the numbers didn’t move,” recounts the Journal, Facebook “sweetened” the deal and began awarding recruiters two points for each “diversity hire.”

For a recruiter, points matter financially, since “more points can lead to a stronger performance review .  .  . and, potentially, a larger bonus.” Yet even with the more generous, two-points-per-minority-hire incentive in place, the company has made “little progress,” the Journal reveals, in getting the numbers it wants.