Crafting the datasphere with innovation, integrity, and inclusion
“We are accountable for how we treat people and the planet.
“The ways we create, share, and interact with data are changing. From the cutting edge of artificial intelligence to the posts we share on social media, never before has the datasphere been so diverse — and the demand for fast, reliable, and secure data storage solutions so great.
“For the past four decades, Seagate has innovated solutions and driven positive change throughout the data storage industry and our world. Our purpose is to craft the datasphere, and do so while delivering sustainable value to our customers, employees, and stakeholders.
“Guided by our Seagate values of Innovation, Integrity, and Inclusion — and over 40,000 strong — Seagate remains committed to this goal of crafting the datasphere. We understand that global citizenship is not something we do, but something we embody. Our efforts to be innovative, inclusive and principled citizens are deeply embedded in the way we do business.”
— Dave Mosley, Seagate CEO
We embrace, respect and leverage the diversity of employees
At Seagate, we strive to make each location a place where every employee feels they belong. We work to create and sustain an inclusive environment that embraces, respects, and leverages the diversity of our employees. Diverse people bring diverse perspectives that are key to effectively addressing the complex challenges we face in our industry, and we believe that diversity improves productivity and innovation.
At Seagate, we view diversity through Diversity of Thought and Diversity of Identity.
- Diversity of Thought refers to differences in perspective and expertise: people from various backgrounds and experiences bring different approaches to solving problems. Innovation and continuous improvement are the result of fresh ideas being strengthened by including many points of view.
- Diversity of Identity refers to the visible and non-visible human characteristics that constitute identity: gender or gender identity, race, age, sexual orientation, ancestry, physical abilities, religion, and more. At Seagate, everyone should be treated fairly and with dignity. There is room for everyone in our company and we welcome diverse people and diverse perspectives.
A culture of inclusion
We are committed to promoting a culture of diversity, inclusion, and belonging in which everyone feels valued, respected, and engaged as we embrace the unique skills, experiences, and talents of our global workforce. Creating a diverse and inclusive culture helps employees know they are valued and respected, and empowers them to bring their best ideas forward.
Employee resource groups
One way Seagate embraces its diverse employees and promotes a culture of inclusion is through the support of employee resource groups (ERG) at our sites. ERGs provide a place of connection and workplace-related resources for Seagate’s diverse workforce and allied employees. Groups host internal and external educational events, networking, and community engagement activities with local charities related to the ERG missions.
To support existing and emerging ERGs, Seagate provides an online platform, development tools, and resources. Seagate provides guidance to ERG leaders from our research partners’ leaders: PricewaterhouseCoopers, Gartner, and Neuroleadership Institute. Each ERG has executive support and funding. Employees can find out about and join an ERG by visiting a global, online platform accessible to all employees.
In FY2018, Seagate supported site chapters of the Seagate Women’s Leadership Network throughout the U.S., in Northern Ireland, and in China. Also in FY2018, the Seagate PRIDE! employee resource group was established. In June, all U.S. Seagate sites flew the rainbow flag in support of the Seagate PRIDE! community, and several sites held receptions. Seagate was the lead sponsor of two PRIDE!-related festivals near the Colorado office.
Unconscious bias program
Seagate provides all employees with education regarding unconscious bias and inclusion via an internal site. As a signatory of the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion from PwC, in FY2018 Seagate provided employees with access to resources promoting unconscious bias education. Employees also have access 24×7 to LinkedIn Learning courses on unconscious bias, diversity, and inclusion.
Building a diverse workforce
Diverse talent is essential for our business. The diversity of people improves productivity and innovation. We value and embrace all backgrounds, cultures, affiliations, abilities, work styles, and perspectives. Our Talent Acquisition team continues to refine strategy and tools to improve how we hire. In FY2018 our Talent Acquisition team partnered with hiring managers to ensure that a broader set of skills and experience are considered for opportunities—not only when hiring externally but also when considering internal talent. The direction is to focus on skill set, competencies, and experience, rather than just specific academic qualifications and tenure, using behavioral-based interviewing—essentially working to ‘screen in’ instead of ‘screen out’ talent. This enables Seagate to benefit from, and be inclusive of, a diverse candidate and employee population.
We continue to make efforts to improve the diversity of our workforce at all levels. To help us in reaching prospective employees, we’ve expanded our social media presence to include career pages on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter that focus on our employees, career opportunities, and life at Seagate. We are also partnering with websites such as FairyGodBoss to highlight our female employees and post opportunities that are available at Seagate. Last year in the U.S. almost 35% of our new hires were female. We also work closely with organizations such as America’s Job Bank to push our jobs to diversity and veteran websites to continuously expand our pipeline. While we are making improvements, we realize there is still work to do and remain committed to improving the diversity of our workforce.
The University Recruiting program is integral to our recruitment strategy in building our pipeline of talent. In this global strategic program we are partnering with identified institutions to attract intern and graduate hires with specific skill sets. We offer internships which provide valuable work experience and pipeline opportunities to jobs at Seagate. In FY2018, we had over 250 interns at our locations globally in technical and no-technical disciplines. We leverage local partnerships with minority organizations, such as the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), and in FY2018, 36% of our interns and 40% of our graduate hires were female.
Looking forward: diversity and inclusion
We are proud of our diversity as it is the key to our past and future success—but we are challenging ourselves to do more. Making a diverse organization inclusive takes commitment, and in FY2019, inclusion is moving into the spotlight as one of our key corporate values. There will be more focus on the key levers of diversity. We will continue to expand our hiring efforts. We will integrate diversity focus into our talent development and promotional processes. We will focus on retention of diverse talent through promoting an inclusive environment that ensures equal pay for equal work, focused training and change management around unconscious bias, as well as communication around creating and supporting an inclusive work environment that will include executive videos, blog posts, and learning opportunities on diversity-related topics. Our ERGs will be expanding the site activities they participate in as well. We will continue to focus on our diversity pipeline by participating with female and minority engineering organizations on local levels and also participating in U.S. conferences for the Society of Women Engineers and the National Society of Black Engineers.
