COMPETITION IS THE NEW UNION

Almost two years ago, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich made the kind of headlines no company wants: In the process of restructuring the storied chipmaker, he was eliminating 11% of its workforce -- 12,000 jobs. But far more quietly, Krzanich was focusing on something seemingly contradictory: cranking up a program to prevent the workers the company wanted to keep from walking out the door. The retention initiative was launched as part of a diversity push. In 2015, Krzanich had pledged some $60 million a year to boost underrepresented groups at Intel, yet in that year the company tread- ed water: 584 African-Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans were hired, and 580 from those groups departed. Ed Zabasajja, a Ugandan-born, Auburn University-trained engineer who oversees internal diversity analytics, was keen to acquire data to figure out why employees left -- before they did. In this labor market, and with technology changing so fast, simply hiring new experts with cutting-edge skills isn't a viable approach for employers.