When Intel said this
month it would spend $300 million on increasing diversity in its workforce,
Silicon Valley lauded its plan to improve the “pipeline” of candidates by
helping more women and minorities study computer science and engineering.
But focusing too hard on
the pipeline, a frequent tactic of technology firms seeking to change their
workforce, will benefit the chipmaker less than working on what happens inside
Intel, diversity advocates say.
Chief Executive Officer
Brian Krzanich surprised a mostly male crowd at the Consumer Electronics Show
in Las Vegas by unveiling a 2020 goal for Intel to employ more women and
minorities.
Diversity has become a
major corporate issue in the United States as companies look to improve their
images and for ways to boost productivity by tapping new groups of potential
employees. Intel’s effort is one of the largest to date by cash spent.
Silicon Valley has a
dismal track record employing those groups, and Intel is no exception: just a
quarter of its U.S. employees in 2013 were women and 12 percent were Hispanic
or African American, it said. By comparison, about one-third of bachelor
degrees granted in computers and math go to women, according to the National
Science Foundation.
Krzanich described plans
for educational initiatives, an area where Intel already spends $100 million
annually with an undisclosed but small portion focusing on women and
minorities. He also broadly promised to improve hiring and retention.
A shortfall of women and
minorities receiving technology-oriented education is often seen as the leading
barrier to a diverse workforce in Silicon Valley.
An opinion piece in the
San Francisco Chronicle said Intel’s plans “hinge on the available talent
produced by a limited educational pipeline.” Prominent venture capitalist Paul
Graham told online publication the Information last year that the lack of women
technology entrepreneurs and programmers was a problem “10 years upstream of
us.”
Diversity advocates say
seizing on the supply issue can obscure other causes.
“They are blaming the
pipeline for their own faults,” said Vivek Wadhwa, author of “Innovating
Women,” noting that many technology companies no longer consider degrees of any
sort, including computer science (CS), a requirement for employment.
“If male flunkies can
join (tech companies), why do women need to have CS degrees?” he asked. “This
is an excuse.”
He and others say
technology companies should look inward, working on making themselves
attractive to qualified women and minority candidates who avoid or abandon
technology careers.
Of all science and
engineering graduates, only about 31 percent of males and 15 percent of females
work in related occupations, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Just 17
percent of African Americans with science and engineering degrees go on to work
in related jobs.
To draw women and
minorities, Intel should make managers accountable to specific diversity goals
and measure progress through employee surveys, said Katherine Kimpel, a lawyer
specializing in discrimination at Sanford Heisler Kimpel LLP.
Intel CEO Krzanich said
he would tie executive compensation to hitting diversity targets. The company
also plans to factor diversity into year-end bonuses, a spokeswoman said.
Lori Nishiura Mackenzie,
executive director of Stanford University’s Clayman Institute for Gender
Research, said Intel should spend the bulk of its cash on what she called “the
frozen middle” just below the top executives.
EBay has a workforce
that is 42 percent female, compared with around 30 percent for most technology
companies. A spokeswoman said women in leadership positions rose 30 percent
annually after eBay launched a gender initiative, including mentorship of five
women per senior executive, at the end of 2010.
Telle Whitney, chief
executive officer of the Anita Borg Institute, which focuses on women and
technology, said that the best return on investment is for companies to combat
unconscious bias: unintentional discrimination that comes out in words and
actions.
Many technology
companies now offer managers training in this area, including Google and
Microsoft.
Intel already has
unconscious bias training and plans more, the spokeswoman said.
Avivah Wittenberg-Cox,
who runs a diversity consultancy called 20-First, said Intel should focus on
improving diversity in its top three management layers, through steps such as
encouraging different departments to compete on goals. Intel President Renee
James is female, but the chipmaker has no Hispanics or blacks at its highest
levels.
Silicon Valley is still
seen as a nerdy boys club that is not interested in diversity, Wittenberg-Cox
said. “Until that image and mindset changes, the numbers will not follow.”
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