Intel's diversity hiring doubles in six months

Elizabeth Weise | USA TODAY

Corrections & Clarifications – An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the total number of people Intel hired between January and July of 2015. The number is 2,944.

SAN FRANCISCO — Chip-making giant Intel doubled the number of women and under-represented minorities it hired in the United States over the past six months, after its CEO announced a plan to reach full representation of those groups by 2020.

Intel on Wednesday published its first mid-year diversity report, offering one of the most detailed looks available from a technology company of its hiring.

The lack of women, African Americans and Hispanics in tech has been an issue of growing concern in Silicon Valley. Many big tech companies have instituted programs to diversify their workforce, but progress has been modest.

Over the past six months, 43.3% of the people Intel hired in the United States were either female, African American, Hispanic or Native American.

That's in contrast to a year ago, when roughly 20% of Intel's hires were from one of those groups, said CEO Brian Krzanich.

One thing that surprised staffers he said, was that the number of people with the necessary education — the much-discussed "pipeline" issue — wasn't as big a problem as they had feared.

"I think we started this process thinking that the pipeline was empty and we'd have to start at the very beginning," said Krzanich. "But we were all pleasantly surprised that there's actually a pretty good pipeline going."

Recruiters found that "if you go to the right colleges, the pipeline is there. I won't say it's easy, but it's certainly something that can be done," Krzanich said.

That fits with USA TODAY research published last year that found there were twice the number of under-represented graduates in technical fields than were hired by tech companies.

Intel found technical programs at colleges and universities with large populations of women, African Americans and Hispanics, Krzanich said.

The company also sent recruiters who were in the same groups they were trying to hire. Students "want to talk to people who understand what it's like to be at Intel as a woman, as an African American," said Krzanich.

The hiring period was roughly January to July, 2015.

The company's goal was that 40% of new hires would be women or under-represented minorities, so "we're actually very pleased with the progress we've made in the first six months," Krzanich said.

Of the 2,944 people the company hired since January, 1,035 were women, 139 were African American, 222 were Hispanic and nine were Native American, Intel reported.

Breaking out the workers in technical jobs (which encompass 85% of the workforce), the numbers were 19.4% female, 3.3% African American, 8.0% Hispanic and 0.5% Native American.

Even with increased diversity in hiring, the overall make-up of the workforce remained largely the same.

At the end of 2014, women made up 23.5% of Intel's total workforce, African Americans were 3.4%, Hispanics 8.3% and Native Americans 0.5%.

In July, women made up 24.1% of Intel's total workforce, African Americans 3.5%, Hispanics 8.3% and Native Americans 0.5%.

For workers in technical jobs, the percentages were 19.4% female, 3.3% African American, 8.0% Hispanic and 0.5% Native American.

The fact that the overall percentage of Hispanic and Native American staffers stayed steady shows Intel's honesty in releasing its numbers quickly even when they weren't totally in line with what the company was looking to achieve, said Laura Weidman Powers. She is co-founder of Code 2040, a non-profit that finds top Hispanic and African-American engineers and gets them internships with tech companies.

"It's not super surprising," said Powers. Her organization has long recognized that it's not possible to craft a one-size-fits-all solution in hiring when dealing with disparate groups.

Intel goals

Because 85% of its workforce is made up of technical staff, Intel has calculated what it calls the "market availability" of people in each group who have the necessary education and skills.

The numbers it arrived at for its technical staff are that 22.7% of women have the necessary technical skills, 4.5% of African Americans and 8.4% of Hispanics, said Rosalind Hudnell, the company's chief diversity officer.

It is those numbers, rather than the actual population, the company is trying to achieve parity with.

That's a smart way to do it, said Powers. Other tech companies sometimes throw up their hands and say, "It's a pipeline problem, there isn't enough talent," she said.

Intel is calling their bluff. "They're saying, 'Let's focus on the actual people coming out of the actual pipeline. And if we're not hitting those numbers, it's not on the schools, it's on us,'" Powers said.

The company has had to pay a slight premium to get the desired talent "because there are fewer people who have these diverse backgrounds," Krzanich said. However it hasn't been so much that it's "put our compensation out of whack."

The benefits, however, will be large, he believes.

He gives the example of a wearable designed for women that a group of male engineers was working on. They were trying to fit a small charging node into the clasp of the device, but it wasn't going in easily.

"Then a woman engineer came in and said, 'Why don't we just build a charging bowl, like the one I throw all my other jewelry in?'"

In many ways Intel has been at the forefront of the diversity issue for over a decade. It was one of the first tech companies to release its EEO1 report for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission detailing its staffing in 2002.

"If everybody gets ahead of us, I think that would be a great thing for the world. We're okay with that," said Krzanich.