Human Resource Management at Intel

Intel is a leading technology player and one of the top 50 brands in the Fortune 500. Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore founded Intel in 1968. In 2018, the company enjoyed its most profitable year in its entire history. The Chairman of Intel Andy D Briant and CEO Bob Swan. Five years ago the company had begun the transformation of its business model. The focus of this strategic transformation was to change the business model of Intel from PC centric to data centric. Its 2018 results showed that  the company has been successful at bringing about this strategic transformation. As the global business of the company thrives and continues to grow stronger, the leaders have attributed its success to the employees and culture.

Intel is an innovative company with a culture that fosters creativity and innovation. The technology industry has grown highly competitive and to achieve faster growth and superior results, apart from technological innovation, having talented employees onboard is also critical. Intel’s performance in the area of Human resource management is impressive. Higher focus on Human resource management has led to impressive financial performance of the company. From compensation to benefits and career-life balance, Intel excels in each area. The company prides upon its culture and is planning to grow its investment in its human capital. In 2018, it also received several rewards and recognition due to its focus upon HR management.

Hiring and Retention : –

Being a technology player, the success of Intel depends heavily on hiring talented employees. Attracting and retaining talented employees is a leading priority at Intel and the company is planning to grow its investment in its employees in the near future.

In the words of chairman Andy D Bryant, “Intel’s success has always depended foremost on its employees and a culture that delivers outstanding innovation and technology. The business must welcome diverse perspectives, adapt, and change, but its values must endure. Intel’s founders fostered a culture of excellence that values innovation, integrity, and optimism. As we evolve our culture to pursue new opportunities these remain guiding principles. Talented people with diverse traits and backgrounds, united by shared values and robust processes, help to support the exchange and development of ideas necessary for vitality and relevance.” (Intel Annual Report, 2018) 

The former CEO of Intel Andy Grove had noted that continuous change was necessary and that an organization was like a living organism that needed to shed its skin regularly. Methods, values and focus need to change. At the core of Intel’s business is a skilled and diverse workforce made up of talented people. For Intel it is not just necessary but critical to attract and retain talented people who can innovate and help the company find faster growth in a highly competitive technological environment.

The size of Intel’s global workforce is 107,400 and the company hires talented and highly educated people. Apart from hiring the most talented people, the company also focuses on engaging and retaining them. Apart from compensation and benefits that are considered among the best in the industry, it is also focusing on other several factors to make working at Intel a more engaging and pleasant experience. Intel has created a challenging workplace where competitive and highly diverse teams work together to innovate and create technologies that better serve their customers. The company also focuses on creating a wide range of opportunities for the ongoing career development of the employees.

Inclusion and diversity : –

The efforts of Intel in terms of inclusion and diversity have been lauded widely. It is an important focus area in Intel’s human resource management strategy and the company has committed around $300 million to inclusion and diversity. In 2018, it achieved its target of full representation of women and underrepresented minorities in its US workforce. The company had set this goal and committed the $300 million in 2015 (Intel Annual report, 2018). The target was to reach the goal by 2020 . However, the passion of Intel leaders and employees have helped the company reach its target two years early. Creating a diverse and inclusive workforce has helped the company crete a rich culture which helps it make a stronger impact in the world of technology. The company has also made inclusion and diversity an important part of its work policies. The foundation of its HR policies and practices lies in the Intel Code of conduct, Intel Global Human resources principles and Intel values.

The employees at Intel are required to uphold the Intel values and code of conduct. To strengthen its commitment to diversity and inclusion, the company has taken a  data centered approach and analyses key data and metrics regularly to measure the impact of its policies. Diversity and inclusion have found strong support industry wide. Just like Intel most other technology companies too including Apple are focusing on making their workplaces and work cultures more diverse and inclusive. Including people from diverse backgrounds helps build a strong workforce where diverse ideas are brought together and diverse perspectives are welcomed.

Intel is proud of its achievements but the leaders are not satisfied. They use data and metrics to find out new opportunities of making their workplace more inclusive. Research has proved that inclusion and diversity enrich your culture and can lead to bigger benefits in the longer term. Diversity at Intel also extends to its supply chain and the company is working on including suppliers from diverse backgrounds. Focusing on inclusion and gender diversity has helped drive women’s participation in Intel’s workforce higher. Women are 27.3% of Intel’s workforce. They fill 17.7% of leadership roles at and 24.4% technical positions. (Intel CSR 2018)

Career Development and Employee Engagement : –

In the field of human resource management some important concerns have arisen in the recent decades. The first is related to employees performance management and career growth and the second is related to employee engagement. Career development of the employees is essential to help them realize their potential. It is equally important to engage your employees since lack of engagement in most cases leads to loss of focus and lack of motivation. Intel has taken a holistic approach towards human resource management and places equal focus on all its aspects. Employee training so that they can acquire new skills and find new opportunities of growth helps employees deliver the best performance.

At Intel, employees are offered the resources and training required to find new growth opportunities. To make them competitive and innovative it invests significant resources into grooming talent. Apart from annual training, the company also offers its workers rotational assignment opportunities so they can gain experience in new areas. Engaging the employees using new methods helps at motivating them and drives the retention rate higher. The company provided its managers with inclusion training in the years 2017 and 2018.  The company is experiencing lower turnover rate in the last five years. In this period its undesired voluntary turnover rate has been lower than 5%.

Communication is a critical component of successful human resource management. It helps at  employee engagement and motivation and also minimizes dissatisfaction or loss of morale. Moreover, it also plays a strong role in minimizing attrition rate. The success of a company depends upon how well the employees understand their roles and their contribution to the organization’s performance and productivity. Intel uses several communication and engagement channels to communicate with its employees and engage them. There are several channels at Intel to foster direct and open communication. There are open forums with executives as well as quarterly Organizational Health Polls. Intel also achieves employee engagement through more than 30 different employee resource groups, including the Women at Intel Network, the Network of Intel African American Employees, the Intel Latino Network, and several more.

More About Intel : KEY STATISTICS

Employee compensation and other benefits : –

The importance of employee motivation has also grown with the growing competition in the technology industry. The technology companies are also competing for hiring the best talent in the industry. Companies are offering their workers and managers better salaries, work environment and benefits to motivate and retain them. All these factors are highly important for employee retention and motivation. Intel has focused on these factors and whether compensation or benefits and other perks, it has achieved global recognition as an employer of choice.

Apart from competitive pay packages, the company also offers its employees broad-based stock grants and bonuses, a popular Employee Stock Purchase Plan, healthcare and retirement benefits, paid time off, flexible work schedules, sabbaticals, fertility assistance, and on-site services. In terms of compensation and benefits, the company believes in being generous to its employees. The company has been conducting  a compensation analysis in USA for more than a decade to ensure pay equity by gender and race. In 2018, it extended its analysis to global workforce and recently it announced it had achieved gender pay equity globally.

• Sources : –
  
• https://csrreportbuilder.intel.com/pdfbuilder/pdfs/CSR-2018-Full-Report.pdf