Intel wants more diversity

madoka

Diamond Member
Jun 22, 2004
4,344
712
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What they are doing is complete BS.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/intel-execs-receive-threats-employees-143631990.html

Not that there’s any need for further proof of tech’s diversity crisis, but if you were looking for some, consider your search ended. According to the CEO of Intel, the primary opposition to the company’s latest diversity and inclusion efforts has come from within the organization. Apparently, maintaining a homogeneous status quo is the chief priority of some Intel employees, leading to “a bit of a backlash” and even threats directed at Intel’s leadership. So yeah, there’s a problem.

Speaking at the PUSHTech 2020 conference on Saturday with Reverend Jesse Jackson in San Francisco, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich admitted that not everyone at his tech firm has been excited about the recent efforts to increase the proportion of underrepresented minorities at the company and in the industry at large.

“People worry that as a white man, you’re kind of under siege to a certain extent,” Krzanich said. “There’s been a bit of resistance. We’ve even had a few threats and things like that on some of our leadership team around our position on diversity and inclusion. We stand up there and just remind everybody it’s not an exclusive process. We’re not bringing in women or African-Americans or Hispanics in exclusion to other people. We’re actually just trying to bring them in and be a part of the whole environment.”

And less than a week ago, they fire 12,000 employees:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/intel-fires-jobs_us_5716afd8e4b06f35cb711287
 

postmortemIA

Diamond Member
Jul 11, 2006
7,721
40
91
Intel is going to hurt a lot more... for a long time they thought AMD is their main competition, while world moved on from both
 

Six

Senior member
Feb 29, 2000
523
34
91
As I suspected, you don't have half a brain.

I'll play.

Intel is fired 12,000 overpaid white males so it can hire low wage earners who are women, hispanics, and african americans.

Sure. Whatever you want to believe.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,587
10,225
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I'll play.

Intel is fired 12,000 overpaid white males so it can hire low wage earners who are women, hispanics, and african americans.

Sure. Whatever you want to believe.
Yep. Intel is afraid, that without a diverse workforce, some SJW / BLM type will make a rucus about their products, and they'll lose sales. Or maybe not, do "oppressed" minorities even make enough for Intel products? Maybe Intel should change their name to BWFW. Kind of like a tech version of FUBU.

Edit: Oh, and this is what "quota systems" get you. Yes, diversity for diversity sake alone. Not the best employees money can get. Intel's mobile division lost what, $4Bil last year?
 
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Schmide

Diamond Member
Mar 7, 2002
5,745
1,036
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Got to love the selective quoting to rage against the man.

Just over a year ago, Krzanich dedicated an impressive $300 million to diversity efforts, and since then, the company has seen a 30-percent increase in its minority workforce. In the last year, the executive pointed out that 43.3 percent of its new hires were either women or minorities, and the company is planning on releasing a diversity report that will include employee pay reflecting gender and race.

“We are going with the data and we are going public,” Krzanich said. “I almost hope there are gaps, not because I want people to be underpaid, but because it’s a problem I can fix. I’m an engineer, I like fixing problems.” Now, if only we could get all of Intel (and the tech industry) to help fix the problem, too.

So this happened over a year ago?
 

Harabec

Golden Member
Oct 15, 2005
1,369
1
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Are these minorities as qualified as current employees? I think that is the only thing that should be looked at.
Equal opportunity, not turning good people away because "diversity".
 

sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
70,792
6,351
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Are these minorities as qualified as current employees? I think that is the only thing that should be looked at.
Equal opportunity, not turning good people away because "diversity".

When you have finite positions, good people are likely to be turned away regardless of hiring practices.
 

Exophase

Diamond Member
Apr 19, 2012
4,439
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Really? They simply fired 12,000 White people for the sake of diversity?

I find that highly unlikely.

No way did they lay anyone off to improve diversity. It is however possible that, given their diversity goals, they are more hesitant to layoff women and under-represented minorities (by that they mean minorities who aren't East Asian or Indian) in the process. But, without actual numbers that compare the layoffs vs the larger corporate demographics that claim is unfounded.

Intel has been clear that they want to improve diversity in their ranks. It's also pretty clear that they're not seeing a growth in job positions. So there's two ways I can think of where they can do this:

1) Spend more efforts recruiting from places that are more likely to provide the demographics they're after, or
2) Lower hiring standards specifically for applicants of those demographics

It looks like Intel is focusing on the former. According to Krzanich:

"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.


Intel found technical programs at colleges and universities with large populations of women, African Americans and Hispanics, Krzanich said.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/08/12/intel-diversity-hiring-doubled/31490141/

That's kind of a given - if you focus your recruiting efforts on women's college or traditionally black universities you will get more highly qualified women and black people for your positions. Or at least, Intel specifically will. But does this do much to increase diversity in the field at large? I have my doubts. Intel is finding qualified people, not creating qualified people. Chances are that, if not sought out, most of those people would have gotten work in the same field with somewhere else eventually.

It COULD be that this does increase the working pool because members of those groups have a harder time actually getting established in the industry for whatever reason, despite qualifications. It's really hard to say. But I don't think there's enough to go on to call the so-called "pipeline problem" bunk like Krzanich has in a Bloomberg article.
 

StrangerGuy

Diamond Member
May 9, 2004
8,443
124
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Are these minorities as qualified as current employees? I think that is the only thing that should be looked at.
Equal opportunity, not turning good people away because "diversity".

Racism and sexism is A-OK as long as its branded under progressive agenda like "diversity" so we can appease SJW types who will always manage to find ways to get themselves perpetually offended.
 

tynopik

Diamond Member
Aug 10, 2004
5,245
500
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1. It costs $300 million to send recruiters to 'non-traditional' locations?
2. Are they getting $300 million worth of benefit from this?
 

ultimatebob

Lifer
Jul 1, 2001
25,134
2,450
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This doesn't surprise me. When IBM got big on outsourcing everything, the only US employees we could still hire in the US were ethnic minorities. I think that HR had a quota system they were working with... they would gladly lay off 5 white guys and send their jobs to Mexico and China, but don't you DARE lay off our token black guy :)
 

Exophase

Diamond Member
Apr 19, 2012
4,439
9
81
1. It costs $300 million to send recruiters to 'non-traditional' locations?
2. Are they getting $300 million worth of benefit from this?

That's not the only thing they've been spending the $300m on. For example, they've partnered with several feminist organizations (which probably means donated to):

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...ces-Diversity-in-Technology-Initiative-at-CES

EDIT: And tech programs like this http://www.bizjournals.com/portland...commits-5m-to-georgia-tech-for-diversity.html
 
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SP33Demon

Lifer
Jun 22, 2001
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Racism and sexism is A-OK as long as its branded under progressive agenda like "diversity" so we can appease SJW types who will always manage to find ways to get themselves perpetually offended.

This. Also, Intel should want more sales not diversity. They just laid off 12K employees due to sluggish sales.
 

Exophase

Diamond Member
Apr 19, 2012
4,439
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2. Are they getting $300 million worth of benefit from this?

Followup, since I didn't really say anything about this part..

There's a reason why Intel is being fairly vocal about their efforts, I would say more vocal than most companies have been about similar efforts. There's a lot of potential PR value in what they're doing, addressing diversity in tech is a very hot topic right now.

It generates some controversy and backlash too, but in a way even that helps them. When they report that they've been dealing with harassment and abuse over this (and they have reported this) it makes others more sympathetic to their cause and more active in their support.
 

BD231

Lifer
Feb 26, 2001
10,568
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Congratulations new hire, you've finally found an environment you're actually a minority in. Now that you carry this title you will get shot like one as a testament to the true cutthroat business tactics of Intel.

Intel Insiiiiiieeeeeeed ®