Employment

Microprocessor facility in Costa Rica was responsible in 2006 for 20% of Costa Rican exports and 4.9% of the country's GDP.^[25]

Intel is not typical of its Silicon Valley counterparts. Its culture is not as relaxed and informal as companies such as Google or Sun Microsystems. It has a fairly strict meritocracy that rewards work generously and does not keep underrated employees around for very long.^[26][27]

The firm promotes very heavily from within, most notably in its executive suite. The company has resisted the trend toward outsider CEOs. Paul Otellini was a 30-year veteran of the company when he assumed the role of CEO. All of his top lieutenants have risen through the ranks after many years with the firm. In many cases, Intel's top executives have spent their entire working careers with Intel, a very rare occurrence in volatile Silicon Valley.

Intel has a mandatory retirement policy for its CEO when they reach age 65, but only one CEO, Barrett, has actually retired at 65. Previous CEOs all retired before reaching that age; Grove retired at 62, while both Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore retired at 58. At 57, Otellini has a long career at the helm ahead of him, assuming he goes until age 65 and performs satisfactorily.

No one has an office; everyone, even Otellini, sits in a cubicle. This is designed to promote egalitarianism among employees, but some new hires have difficulty adjusting to this change. Intel is not alone in this policy. Hewlett-Packard has a similar no-office policy.

Outside of California, the company has facilities in China, Costa Rica, Malaysia, Israel, Ireland, India, Philippines, and Russia internationally. In the U.S. Intel employs significant numbers of people in Colorado, Massachusetts, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Washington, and Utah.^[28] In Oregon, Intel is the state's largest employer with over 16,000 employees, primarily in Hillsboro.^[29] The company is the largest industrial employer in New Mexico while in Arizona the company has over 10,000 employees.

Diversity Initiative

Intel has a Diversity Initiative, including employee diversity groups as well as supplier diversity programs.^[30] Like many companies with employee diversity groups, they include groups based on race and nationality as well as sexual identity and religion. In 1994, Intel sanctioned one of the earliest corporate Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender employee groups,^[31] and supports a Muslim employees group,^[32] a Jewish employees group,^[33] and a Bible-based Christian group.^[34][35]

Intel received a 100% rating on the first Corporate Equality Index released by the Human Rights Campaign in 2002. It has maintained this rating in 2003 and 2004. In addition, the company was named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2005 by Working Mother magazine. However, Intel's working practices still face criticism, most notably from Ken Hamidi,^[36] a former employee who has been subject to multiple unsuccessful lawsuits from Intel.