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Our workforce is divided almost evenly among three regions: the Americas; Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA); and Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ). With most of our employment growth outside the United States, a diverse workforce is essential, as it promotes creativity and innovation while helping HP reflect the values and demographics of customers wherever we do business.
We concentrate worldwide on increasing the representation of women at HP, and in the United States we also focus on ethnicity. In many countries, the needs of an aging workforce also require us to emphasize new models for employee retention and flexible work arrangements.
More information is available on our Diversity and Inclusion website.
Our diversity policies require that every employee is treated and treats others with dignity, respect and courtesy. We do not under any circumstances tolerate discrimination or harassment based on such factors as race, age, sex, national origin, disability, gender identity expression or sexual orientation. We comply with local and national diversity laws as basic minimum requirements, and our policies often set a higher standard.
We encourage employees to report suspected discrimination or harassment by contacting their local employee relations representative or through our confidential and anonymous 24-hour GuideLine. In the United States and Canada the GuideLine number is 1-800-424-2965. We publish the numbers for countries outside North America on our intranet.
Our approach to diversity focuses on three main goals:
- Recruiting a diverse range of people and developing them as leaders
- Building an inclusive work environment to ensure that HP is a great place to work for everyone
- Reinforcing positive attitudes toward diversity by encouraging employee involvement in community activity
The table below includes examples of our activities in 2007 that supported our areas of focus.
| Priority/components |
Approach/examples |
| Expand workforce
diversity |
| Attract a wider range of recruits |
- Use specialist search firms.
- Attend and sponsor conferences and career fairs that target female students interested in technical careers, such as the Women’s International Networking Summit in Italy, the Women’s Forum in France and Women at Work in Japan.
- Offer the HP Scholar program, which provides funding for underrepresented minority (African-American, Latino or Native American) students in the United States to pursue university degrees in computer science, computer engineering or electrical engineering. Scholars are eligible for three paid summer internships at HP during their undergraduate years. In 2007, 22 out of 46 scholars went on to become full-time employees at HP.
- Work with organizations that promote employment for people with disabilities at HP through company programs such as SEED in Japan and ABLE in Brazil.
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| Develop diverse talent |
- Provide leadership development programs. Our goals for 2008 are for 30 percent of program participants to be women and 20 percent to be non-white.
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| Build an inclusive work environment |
| Expand dialogue and involvement |
- Hold Diversity Dialogue sessions to bring together employees to discuss diversity topics. We held three sessions in 2007.
- Enable Employee Resource Groups to bring together employees with common interests and backgrounds. HP supports 81 of these groups worldwide.
- Provide equipment and services for employees with disabilities; for example, notebook PCs for single-handed operation and closed captioning for the hearing impaired.
- Support internal blogs to promote informal discussion on a wide range of issues.
- Offer a job rotation program that allows employees to move between roles and countries, giving them experience with new cultures.
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| Promote flexible work arrangements |
- Promote flexible work arrangements through our website and through special seminars. More than 80 percent of employees take advantage of flexible work options.
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| Extend employees’ diversity experience |
| Support community activity |
- Support outreach activities such as Disability Mentoring Day, when HP employees spend time with students with disabilities. In 2007, we held these events in eight countries in Europe and the Americas.
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| Employee Resource Groups |
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Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are forums that represent diverse employee segments within the company. They are a key point of contact for employees to discuss workplace issues and share strategies for career development. They also serve as a forum to coordinate diversity-related community activities. For example, in 2007 the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) ERG coordinated HP’s participation in 17 LGBT events and sponsorship of an additional 13. HP has 81 ERGs in the Americas, APJ and EMEA, representing many aspects of diversity including gender, ethnicity or national origin, sexual orientation, age, and disability. ERGs are a key part of our strategy to engage employees in diversity and to build an inclusive workplace at HP.
Our ERG Advisory Council, comprising corporate and business diversity directors and ERG representatives, serves as a communication channel to HP’s senior leadership.
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