Intel doubles referral bonus for women and minority hires

[midian182]

Intel is offering incentives of up to $4000 to staff who refer women, minorities, and veterans to its workforce. The fee is double the chipmaker’s current referral bonus and is seen as a way to diversify its predominately white, male personnel.

The move is part of Intel’s ongoing $300 million Diversity in Technology initiative, which aims to invest in training and recruiting female and other groups of underrepresented computer scientists. The company said it aims to have a fully diverse workforce by 2020. According to a 2014 report, Intel’s US workforce was 76 percent male and 56 percent white.

Intel is committed to increase the diversity of our workforce. We are currently offering our employees an additional incentive to help us attract diverse qualified candidates in a competitive environment for talent. This is not the first time we have offered employees referral incentives for diverse candidates, and it’s a commonly used recruitment tool for businesses. Today, it’s one of many programs we are deploying to attract talented women and underrepresented minorities to Intel.

Intel isn’t the only tech giant looking at ways to diversify its workforce; Facebook, Google and Apple have all launched similar initiatives aimed at addressing the underrepresentation of woman and minorities in the IT sector.

Facebook recently started a program within a handful of divisions that requires the applicant pool for a job to include at least one minority. Google is also attempting diversify its workforce by pledging $150 million to focus on diversity initiatives this year, up from $115 million in 2014. Moreover, in addition to hiring more women and minorities, Apple announced that it would ensure equal opportunities in the workplace for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals.

The issues of workplace diversity and the treatment of women and minorities within tech companies have been under the spotlight recently, with several Silicon Valley firms facing high-profile lawsuits and charges of discrimination.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/61645-intel-doubles-referral-bonus-women-minority-hires.html

 

[Reetin]

So if a woman gets hired there's a $4000 referral bonus. If a guy gets hired there's a $2000 bonus. Yeah, sure sounds like equality to me.

 

[revam1]

So if a woman gets hired there's a $4000 referral bonus. If a guy gets hired there's a $2000 bonus. Yeah, sure sounds like equality to me.

Justice isn't equality dude.

 

[rcj22001]

What do they get for referring a female veteran, who is a minority, and is married to another female vet, also a minority, a stake in ownership?

 

[treetops]

Yeah but think what people would say if this was a incentive only for white people.

 

[stewi0001]

I don't care what you look like or DNA. If you can do the job, you get the job.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

I don't care what you look like or DNA. If you can do the job, you get the job.

It's my philosophy as well but some don't agree.

 

[Reetin]

Justice isn't equality dude.

How is this "Justice"? I understand that we need more females in the tech workforce, I just don't see how offering a higher referral bonus is "justice".

 

[Hexic]

Anything to make the numbers look good for the sake of political correctness.

I wish I could have went to college for free or a discounted rate, and then had the opportunity to get my CS job in an enhanced pool of candidates. Wouldn't that have been nice.

 

[revam1]

How is this "Justice"? I understand that we need more females in the tech workforce, I just don't see how offering a higher referral bonus is "justice".

Sorry, I should've explained it more. The equality you were referring to is more synonymous with justice. Allow me to explain;

- ten students share 10 pounds; the equality you were referring, I assume, is 1 pound per person. If only life was that merry, unfortunately it isn't. Events that occur eons ago affect us today. Hence, that hard lined equality doesn't take such presuppositions. Therefore, I said 'justice'...though it may be a bad word to use, but that was the last thought on my way to work.

- what I meant by 'justice' is, give the ones who pulled the short straws more. Hence, it would make sense to give women and minorities a bonus.

I hope I explained it enough.

 

[Reetin]

Sorry, I should've explained it more. The equality you were referring to is more synonymous with justice. Allow me to explain;

- ten students share 10 pounds; the equality you were referring, I assume, is 1 pound per person. If only life was that merry, unfortunately it isn't. Events that occur eons ago affect us today. Hence, that hard lined equality doesn't take such presuppositions. Therefore, I said 'justice'...though it may be a bad word to use, but that was the last thought on my way to work.

- what I meant by 'justice' is, give the ones who pulled the short straws more. Hence, it would make sense to give women and minorities a bonus.

I hope I explained it enough.

So here's an example though. The problem with these stereotypes is that they presume that all white males are given more opportunity than women or minorities or that the white male did not "Draw the short straws" in life. It's just me personally but that is both sexist and racist to presume such a thing.

Please let me explain and of course this is just a personal history. My mom and dad are meth addicts, alcoholics, and frankly not someone I would want to become. I have been homeless, lived in trailer parks, and had to deal with my sister at the age of 16 giving birth to her first child while our mother was in rehab so it was literally just the two of us at the house.

But of course I did not draw the "Short Straw" because I am a white male.

 

[revam1]

So here's an example though. The problem with these stereotypes is that they presume that all white males are given more opportunity than women or minorities or that the white male did not "Draw the short straws" in life. It's just me personally but that is both sexist and racist to presume such a thing.

Please let me explain and of course this is just a personal history. My mom and dad are meth addicts, alcoholics, and frankly not someone I would want to become. I have been homeless, lived in trailer parks, and had to deal with my sister at the age of 16 giving birth to her first child while our mother was in rehab so it was literally just the two of us at the house.

But of course I did not draw the "Short Straw" because I am a white male.

I wholeheartedly agree with you, in regards to that is both fundamentally sexist and racist. But I think our differences lie in the way we perceive these things. As you kindly shared your history, I understand that such generalisations, I.e. white male privilege, hadn't occurred to you. Heck, people are wrong for making such generalisations in the first place, simply because there is always that one case (actually, millions) that prove it to be incorrect.

The problem arises, Reetin, in drawing the line of who deserves what - that's what I meant by my poor choice of word. One the one hand, white male privilege is favourite to win the contemporary race for success, but that doesn't take into consideration of ALL white males. On the other hand, the (metaphorically) crippled in this race will be forsaken, IF we don't provide near equal start. Such measure is this bonus...

Then ironically, a number of white males, similar to yourself, are unfairly treated. I think there will always be a party that is treated unfairly - but such is my pessimistic view on life. We can only patch the current one, then patch the next...

Unless, this discussion illuminated a moral goldmine you've found. But honestly speaking, how would you have it? What would you do presented with all these options?

 

[Reetin]

I wholeheartedly agree with you, in regards to that is both fundamentally sexist and racist. But I think our differences lie in the way we perceive these things. As you kindly shared your history, I understand that such generalisations, I.e. white male privilege, hadn't occurred to you. Heck, people are wrong for making such generalisations in the first place, simply because there is always that one case (actually, millions) that prove it to be incorrect.

The problem arises, Reetin, in drawing the line of who deserves what - that's what I meant by my poor choice of word. One the one hand, white male privilege is favourite to win the contemporary race for success, but that doesn't take into consideration of ALL white males. On the other hand, the (metaphorically) crippled in this race will be forsaken, IF we don't provide near equal start. Such measure is this bonus...

Then ironically, a number of white males, similar to yourself, are unfairly treated. I think there will always be a party that is treated unfairly - but such is my pessimistic view on life. We can only patch the current one, then patch the next...

Unless, this discussion illuminated a moral goldmine you've found. But honestly speaking, how would you have it? What would you do presented with all these options?

I would give the most qualified person the job, I would have the same bonus structure for everyone, same referral structure for everyone. Of course these would be the same level so like all first year techs would make roughly the same amount of money.

With a referral program like this if I am working at Intel and I have two friend with one being white and one being black. They are both applying for the Intel job and I have the ability to only give a referral to one of them, I will give the referral to the black person, not because of his or her skills but because it would benefit me the most. I am not saying that the black person would not be the best person for the job, I am saying that this leans too much towards racism and sexism towards a group of people for my liking.

 

[MongooseTechie]

Justice isn't equality dude.

Then you don't lie and call it 'equality', which in turn makes people think harder about justice - always a good thing.
Also, justice is not served by giving (over-privileged, who knows?) women an automatic right to something just because they're women (or any other category of person mentioned above). Circumstances need to be taken into account. In a way that is hard to manipulate or 'game' the system.
I know many, many women who are far less oppressed than I am due to an accident of birth (and I happen to be white and male). If they don't think about me (or people similar to me, and anyone in need, more to the point), where the f**k do they get off whining about people not thinking about them? That's the fallacy inherent in this modern entitlement-culture. It encourages selfishness, not discourages it. Which is categorically making the same mistake that Feminists accused Male Chauvinists of in the first place! Just one example (gender). This, also, when their OVERALL life-disadvantages aren't necessarily worse than average, because SOME women get paid less, and SOME women are abused in the world (which is the usual justification). You cannot apply a one-size-fits-all template to these things and get justice, an equal or greater amount of injustice results, too, as a side-effect. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions"-effect.
Or if you want to TRY to do so - IF you think you're intelligent-enough to produce a system that would produce REAL justice - then make that anti-injustice template fit ALL victims of injustice with NO non-victims riding for free.

Of course, that latter method takes actual intelligence and critical analysis, rather than the known logical fallacy of "Appeal To Emotion"... So you tell me what deficiencies lie within the people who refuse to use it and instead use the less-just catch-all method?

 

[MongooseTechie]

Yeah but think what people would say if this was a incentive only for white people.

- and at what point do we as a society decide that equality has been achieved? There's no hard limit for this, and the more power a people (or person, or any combination) GET, the more corrupt they become, think about it. Applies to all.
So if you give people a power by categorically telling them it is about what race they are, doesn't that produce a form of racism in THEIR heads, too?