FormFactor’s President and CEO, Mike Slessor, joined a panel of industry experts on January 19th for a webinar titled – Developing a Diverse Workforce – Status and Change. With him on the panel were Michelle Williams-Vaden, Deputy Director at SEMI Foundation, Audrey Bernardo, Partner at McKinsey & Company, and Antoinette Hamilton, Head of Global Inclusion and Diversity at Lam Research.

The panel discussed a recent report by McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.org – Women in the Workplace 2020 – that highlighted the ongoing under-representation of women and its impact on the semiconductor industry. Recent societal health issues have hindered progress of workforce diversity and the current impact of COVID-19 paints a dire picture of the advancement of women into leadership roles, but their continued participation in the workforce.

Some valuable lessons that FormFactor has learned to date on its diversity and inclusion journey, include:

  • Build an explicit linkage to your organization’s values. There needs to be a focus on social fairness and opportunity, better strategic viewpoints for decision making, and results measurement.
  • It’s important to build both executive/board and grassroots support and participation. The ‘tone’ from the top is important but it is not enough!
  • There’s a need for regular events and activities. It’s important to communicate to keep awareness and visibility high. Panels, company-wide meetings, and other opportunities to celebrate and share personal stories can help keep and build momentum.
  • Be aware of initiatives and metrics. It’s important to decide what is important and measure it. Metrics and data such as board diversity, applicant ratios in each tech role opening, as well as attrition rates need to be measured.

Be sure to watch the archived webinar and learn how you can be part of this important initiative at your organization.