Ethical Employment
Treating our employees with fairness and integrity
Our credibility, compliance with applicable laws and ability to recruit top-notch talent all depend on our conduct as an employer. We adhere to the highest standards of decency and fairness in our operations around the world.
An unequivocal commitment to human rights
We seek to uphold the human rights of our employees. Forced, bonded or indentured labor is prohibited, and our employees are always free to leave our employment with reasonable notice. We also prohibit the use of child labor, although legitimate workplace apprenticeship or intern programs which comply with all laws and regulations are permitted and supported. We respect the rights of employees to associate freely, join or not join labor unions, collectively bargain under local law, seek representation and join workers’ councils in accordance with local laws.
We have reviewed our operations to identify those that are at significant risk for incidents of child labor and forced or compulsory labor, or where the right to exercise freedom of association and collective bargaining may be at significant risk. Because we rely on suppliers for nearly all of our manufacturing, we generally do not encounter issues with child labor or forced labor in our direct operations. QCT, our largest business unit and the part of our business most dependent on outside suppliers, works with suppliers to make sure they meet our standards for human rights.
Qualcomm has never been found to have unlawfully discriminated against any of our employees, nor have we been found in violation of the rights of indigenous people.
In our direct operations, we are unaware of any operation in which:
- the right to exercise freedom of association or collective bargaining are at significant risk;
- there is a significant risk for incidents of child labor; or
- there is a significant risk for incidents of forced or compulsory labor.
Human rights issues are addressed in The Qualcomm Way: Our Code of Business Conduct and are included in the code of conduct training we launched worldwide in 2011. One hundred percent of our employees are required to acknowledge reading The Qualcomm Way: Our Code of Business Conduct, and 100 percent of our security personnel are trained in our policies and procedures concerning aspects of human rights that are relevant to operations.
Ahead of our industry in employee retention
To help retain employees as their goals and interests change, our Internal Opportunity System provides professional and career development opportunities within Qualcomm and gives current employees priority for new positions.
“Qualcomm is a global corporation that still manages to feel like it cares about the individuals working for it and wants the employees to succeed and grow as people.”
employee comment on most recent Corporate Climate Survey
According to our most recent employee survey:
94% of employees surveyed believe Qualcomm provides a working environment that is accepting of ethnic and cultural differences.
93% of employees surveyed believe Qualcomm provides a working environment that is accepting of gender differences.
92% of employees surveyed believe Qualcomm provides a working environment that is accepting of age differences
Qualcomm Employee Voluntary Turnover Rates
*Source: Radford
**Source: Radford. Average for companies over 5,000 employees.
Our compensation program
Our compensation program has five primary objectives:
- Align the interests of our employees and long-term stockholders
- Pay for performance
- Deliver pay that is competitively reasonable and appropriate for our business needs and circumstances
- Reflect high standards for corporate governance and compensation-related risk management
- Be tax efficient for the Company
These objectives are applicable not only to the compensation programs for our named executive officers but they also apply to the compensation programs for all our employees, including vice presidents and above. Although social and environmental performance is not specifically identified among our objectives, it is inherent because responsible social and environmental practices align with the interests of our stockholders.