Joseph F. Hubach
General Counsel
Texas Instruments (TI) recognizes that a diverse, empowered workforce is a means for achieving a sustained competitive business advantage. With this knowledge, TI has taken great strides toward not only embracing diversity, but also integrating it into the TI corporate culture through training and a variety of programs, resources, and corporate policies. Its law department, led by Joe Hubach, has been an active participant in the company’s diversity efforts. Minorities and women comprise half of the leadership team of the law department, and more than half of the attorneys hired over the last three years have been minorities and women. Individual attorneys in the law department have been active in many of TI’s diversity initiatives, and have been recognized by the company’s management for their contributions and perspectives.
The law department’s diversity efforts are an extension of TI’s extensive, corporate- wide diversity vision, which seeks to create an environment that recognizes, understands, values, and utilizes the unique skills and abilities of all its employees. TI’s approach to diversity includes management’s commitment and support, clear diversity strategies, training and communication, performance and accountability of its managers, and strong recruitment, retention, and promotion efforts.
To this end, TI employees have formed a number of grass-roots organizations whose goals are to accelerate diversity at TI and facilitate recruitment and retention of a diverse workforce. Each initiative, which includes the Hispanic Employees Initiative Forum, the Judeo-Christian Values Initiative, the Gay and Lesbian Initiative, and the Women’s Initiative Network, is sponsored by senior management and meets on company time.
At the center of TI’s diversity initiatives is the TI Diversity Network (TIDN), made up of leaders from the company’s diversity initiatives. The Diversity Network provides a forum for the various initiatives to share ideas and develop synergetic programs in support of TI’s business goals. Network projects include career development, communications, community involvement, recruiting, and diversity award programs.
TI believes in not just developing mentoring programs, but in creating a mentoring culture. Its approach includes both formal and informal mentoring, as well as tools and training for self-managed mentoring. The company believes that mentoring enables employees to address career development opportunities, and to establish relationships with successful managers.
TI also offers diversity seminars and workshops on managing and valuing diversity, as well as a number of programs that help TI employees manage work and life outside the office.
For these and other reasons, TI has received numerous awards honoring the company’s efforts to create and maintain a workplace where all employees are fully engaged and valued. It has been recognized as one of the “100 Best Companies for Working Mothers,” one of the “Best Companies for Hispanics,” and one of the “Best Companies for African-Americans.”
From the November/December 2003 issue of Diversity & The Bar®