This Is What Happens When a Big Tech Company Gets Serious About Diversity

If you're serious about diversity at your company, the recent efforts by Intel show what a path to greater diversity and inclusiveness might actually look like. In 2014, when a growing number of tech companies started releasing their diversity data, one fact was hard to ignore: There was lots of data, but very little diversity. At Google, 79 percent of the senior leadership was male. Just two percent of employees at Google and Yahoo were black. But by releasing the numbers, and by admitting the need for change, some hoped Silicon Valley would start to come around.

At Intel, though, management knew better. As of 2015, Intel had been releasing its diversity data for 10 years. And the numbers hadn't budged. "We learned that releasing the data was not enough," says Danielle Brown, Intel's chief diversity officer. About 76 percent of Intel's employees were male; eight percent were Hispanic, and 3.5 percent were black.

Unlike most tech companies, Intel took the next logical step: The company set ambitious diversity goals, and tied managers' bonuses to them. Intel said it would become the first high technology company to achieve "full representation" of women and underrepresented minorities by 2020.