Intel ups bonus for referring women and minorities in a bid for workforce diversity

Chipmaker giant announced that they will offer double their regular referral bonus to employees who will refer people of color, veterans, and women to their company. The move is said to be alongside Intel's goal to achieve more diversity in the company.

Intel is willing to give referral bonuses of up to $4,000 as it confirmed in a statement on Monday. The amount is twice their regular referral bonus and is believed to be their way to improve the number of underrepresented groups in the society.

The chipmaker has been expressive of their diversity plans and even teamed up with Georgia Institute of Technology to reach out to and inspire women and minorities to mold them into talented engineers. Intel will invest $5 million, which is said to benefit more than 1000 students in a span of 5 years. Earlier, the chipset giant also pledged $300 million in order to push through their diversity efforts.

Brian Krzanich, Intel CEO, also announced that Intel and the Oakland Unified School District have agreed earlier this year to help improve accessibility to engineering and computer science courses as early as high school years. Intel will invest $5 million in this joint effort.

The company aims to train 600 students in computer science and engineering courses with Intel providing funding. The students will also be given the opportunity to conduct their internships and will be assured of jobs at Intel after graduation.

The said move is one of the many efforts of other tech giants who also moved forward in upping their women and colored employees in their companies. Facebook, Google, and Apple are a few of such  companies. Lately, Pinterest has also expressed their efforts in achieving a more diverse workforce.

Facebook is using the Rooney Rule to hire employees in order to rack up their diversity efforts. The Rooney Rule was used by the National Football League in looking for head coaches and other leadership positions.