INCLUSION and DIVERSITY
Qualcomm aims to build an inclusive environment where everyone feels like they’re part of the team.
We further innovation and accelerate progress by fostering a diverse workforce. We cultivate innovators who bring varying backgrounds, ideas, and points of views.
We are committed to building a pipeline of diverse talent. Qualcomm is present at many diversity conferences and partner with many universities and organizations dedicated to building diversity and creating more opportunities for professional development and engagement. We proudly focus on developing leaders and shaping future talent pools to help us meet the needs of our customers worldwide.
We’re creating and implementing inclusion and diversity programs that are measurable and produce actionable tasks.
Qualcomm has a variety of initiatives to improve workplace diversity and inclusion, as seen below.
- We have a Diversity Task Force of senior vice presidents to review strategic programs and advise on best practices for driving diversity through collective data analysis. This task force also explores innovative hiring and retention best practices for implementation throughout our Company.
- We implement an Inclusion Awards program that uses a peer nomination process to recognize employees who demonstrate our inclusion and diversity values on a daily basis.
- We’re measuring and tracking our progress to ensure that our programs and policies around inclusion and diversity are having a tangible effect.
We are committed to continuously building a pipeline of diverse talent.
Qualcomm actively seeks and recruits diverse candidates for positions at the company. Diverse teams, built around different perspectives, experiences and skill sets, fuel creativity and innovation. We’re developing leaders and shaping future talent pools to help us meet the needs of our diverse customers worldwide. This means we’re taking a broad approach to finding diverse candidates.
Women
Qualcomm is committed to promoting gender equity in technology. Through our external partnerships we encourage young girls and women to pursue careers in tech. We have dedicated resources to organizations including Anitab.org, the National Center for Women & Information Technology and Reboot Representation to increase the number of women in STEM-related fields, particularly in electrical engineering and computer science.
African Americans
Qualcomm supports engineering initiatives, such as hackathons, panel discussions, school visits, and mentoring, centered on African Americans. We collaborate with the National Society of Black Engineers and AfroTech to provide career development opportunities for our employees, create interest in employment opportunities at Qualcomm and identify and recruit talent.
Latinx
We support various Latinx-focused events, such as guest speakers, conferences and panel discussions. We work closely with the Society of Hispanic Engineers to provide their members with opportunities for support, networking and career development.
Veterans
Military veterans hold a special place in our corporate culture. More than 800 Qualcomm employees are military veterans and we are committed to hiring more veterans and active reservists. We have participated in the Service Academy Career Conference, the only job fair exclusively for alumni of military academies. We also support LA Fleet Week and Fleet Week San Diego and have started partnering with the military-dedicated website RallyPoint to advertise Qualcomm's support and drive applications.
LGBTQ+
Qualcomm has proudly supported the LGBTQ+ community for decades. LGBTQ+ rights are encapsulated in our Code of Business Conduct, “The Qualcomm Way.” We’ve been marching in the San Diego Pride parade every year since 1998. In 2019, more than 400 employees marched. Qualcomm actively supported the Equality Act, the federal bill that adds protections for the LGBTQ+ community. We search for top LGBTQ+ tech talent at hiring conferences, such as Out and Equal and Out in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
Differently Abled
Ensuring that our workplace is accessible for all employees is a priority at Qualcomm and an integral part of our values. We have a robust accommodation process and constantly improve our events with services such as closed captioning and sign language interpreters . We provide training to managers and teams as needed. In collaboration with the National Foundation for Autism Research, we launched an internship program to welcome individuals with autism into our company. We are proud to be a Disability:IN Inclusion Works company, and we’ve adopted industry-leading best practices in hiring and retaining people with disabilities.
We’re taking a broad approach to finding diverse candidates.
- In 2019, we refreshed our inclusion and diversity training and rolled it out to our worldwide talent acquisition staff. This training provides tips, tools, platforms and techniques to help us identify a broader range of world-class candidates, including underrepresented populations. We completed a job analysis for 22 job families, covering nearly 27,000 employees in the United States and abroad. This analysis allowed us to increase transparency and consistency in our hiring process, setting the table for structured interviews and a clearer focus on critical skills and competencies.
- We also revamped our strategy for participating in diversity and inclusion conferences to maximize the benefits that those critical events provide. We engage as a high-level sponsor of professional conferences where we can reach technical talent in diverse communities and increased our senior leadership and hiring manager participation at these events. Our new approach resulted in a 400 percent increase in the number of new hires we recruited from the 2019 Grace Hopper Celebration, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers National Convention and the National Society of Black Engineers National Convention.
- We continue to recruit from a variety of colleges, including Hispanic-serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Women’s Colleges. We also find diverse talent through our partnerships with organizations such as NCWIT; Out in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics; and the FourBlock professional network for veterans. We’ve seen an increase in our female and underrepresented new hires population since expanding our focus in this area.
We are determined to provide fair and equitable pay to our employees.
We review individual employee compensation regularly to reward for performance and job qualifications. We train our managers on job-related performance assessment and bias avoidance, broadly gather feedback from employees, manager, and peers for annual performance evaluations, calibrate performance input and compensation rewards across managers, and share performance review feedback with our employees.
We encourage open communication regarding the basis for the compensation decisions. Our open-door policy encourages employees to ask any questions or voice any concerns they may have regarding their compensation.
We believe the diversity of our employees makes us a stronger, more effective company.
Steve Mollenkopf, Chief Executive Officer
Connecting employee communities.
Qualcomm Employee Networks (EN) are employee-driven, enterprise-supported networks that highlight the rich diversity within our Company. Our eight, strong and vibrant global ENs provide a sense of community, promote professional development opportunities, help foster inclusion, contribute to efforts around building a diverse pipeline, celebrate our diversity and support the communities in which we do business. Our ENs include the below communities.
In 2019, in collaboration with our ENs, Qualcomm observed Hispanic Heritage Month, Men’s Health Awareness Month, International Women's Day, Disability Awareness Month and Black History Month. We held Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day ceremonies at our corporate headquarters. We celebrated Pride by raising Pride flags in June and welcomed our CEO Steve Mollenkopf, other senior leaders and more than 400 employees to march in the San Diego Pride Parade.
AbilityQ
Ability Q aims to address and support the needs of differently abled employees and their caregivers.
eQuality
eQuality fosters a safe, inclusive, supportive, and open work environment for all employees, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.
LatinQ
LatinQ promotes Latino culture, values and heritage while fostering employee development, recruitment, professional networking and outreach to the Latino community.
QAAAD
Qualcomm African & African American Diversity Network (QAAD) focuses on supporting African and African Americans at Qualcomm. QAAAD supports this community through employee development, recruitment, community outreach and professional networking.
Q-Emerge
Q-Emerge embraces Qualcomm’s emerging generation of leaders.
Veterans
Military veterans hold a special place in our corporate culture. More than 800 Qualcomm employees are military veterans, and we are committed to hiring more veterans and active reservists. We have participated in the Service Academy Career Conference, the only job fair exclusively for alumni of military academies. We support LA Fleet Week and Fleet Week San Diego. We’ve also started partnering with the military-dedicated website RallyPoint to advertise Qualcomm's support and drive applications.
Qwomen
Qwomen provides opportunities encouraging leadership, mentorship and career development of all women and allies at Qualcomm. There is a Qwomen chapter in each of our office locations worldwide.
U2Q
University to Qualcomm (U2Q) supports immediate college graduate hires.
Collaborating builds our bench strength.
Qualcomm has identified strategic partners to accelerate our inclusion and diversity programs. Our continued engagement with organizations that work with diverse communities has been vital to our success at increasing female and minority representation.
We’re building our bench strength through collaborations with the below organizations.
Anita Borg Institute (ABI)
Qualcomm is a sponsor of AnitaB.org and their goal to achieve 50/50 intersectional tech equity by 2025. As a Pioneering Partner and Change Alliance company, we partner with the AnitaB.org to benchmark progress and identify promising practices for recruiting, retaining, and advancing women technologists. Our annual engagement in their Grace Hopper Celebration has ranged from our CEO Steve Mollenkopf’s attendance at the Technical Executive Forum to conference scholarships for our female interns.
Employer Support of the Guard & Reserves (ESGR)
At Qualcomm, we have created a community that provides opportunities for camaraderie, community outreach and professional development allowing Veterans as well as Guard and Reserve Service members to continue their mission of excellence, teamwork and service. We’re honored to be recognized by ESGR as a Freedom Award finalist for the value that we place on the military service of our employees and the support that we provide to them while serving in this important capacity.
National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT)
As a NCWIT Pacesetter company, Qualcomm works with universities and other corporate leaders to build and fully engage the technical talent pipeline in the United States. Through our involvement with NCWIT’s Aspirations in Computing initiative, we’ve seen young women move from aspiring high school technologists, to university interns, to full-time employees at Qualcomm.
The National GEM Consortium (GEM)
Qualcomm’s partnership with GEM plugs us into a network of top universities and corporations investing in the graduate education of underrepresented minority engineering students. Our engagement with the GEM Fellowship Program enables us to hire talented students of color for internships and to build a pipeline of future innovators for Qualcomm.
Disability:IN
Through our collaboration with Disability:IN’s Inclusion Works program, we’ve increased our ability to address the needs of individuals with disabilities. We’re proud to have scored a perfect 100 on the organization’s Disability Equality Index each year since its inception.
FairyGodBoss
FairyGodBoss, a women's career site, connects over 5 million women with potential employers, job openings, professional advice, and discussion boards.
Keep second sentence as is. Qualcomm has organized several virtual career fairs through the FairyGodBoss platform.
National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE)
The mission of NSBE is “to increase the number of culturally responsible Black Engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally and positively impact the community. Qualcomm supports NSBE’s Graduate 10K program which seeks to graduate 10,000 African American engineers each year, starting in 2025. We’ve partnered with the national and San Diego local chapter of NSBE to hire candidates and provide training opportunities for our current employees.
Blavity
Blavity, Inc. is a media tech company, home to the largest network of brands specifically serving black millennials through original content, video, and unique experiences. Qualcomm has partnered with Blavity for marketing opportunities, recruiting leads, and attendance at its AfroTech conference in San Francisco.
Reboot Representation
In 2019, Qualcomm joined Pivotal Ventures, an investment and incubation company started by Melinda Gates, and other top tech companies to form the Reboot Representation Tech Coalition. The coalition aims to double the number of Black, Latinx and Native American women receiving computing degrees by 2025.
Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE)
SHPE’s mission is to “change lives by empowering the Hispanic community to realize its fullest potential and to impact the world through STEM awareness, access, support, and development.” Qualcomm actively supports local SHPE chapters with funding, training, and volunteers. We sponsor the national conference and local events in San Diego where we interact and recruit the next generation of Qualcomm leaders.
FourBlock
FourBlock supports transitioning veterans with finding their new purpose. Qualcomm partners with FourBlock, as the nation’s local professional network for veterans, to provide veterans ways to explore new industries and build paths to the best careers possible.
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