Inclusion

Issue Summary

At AT&T, we’re driven by our purpose: Connecting people to greater possibility. Every day, we bring this purpose to life for our customers, employees, communities and suppliers. And wherever we have a presence, we foster inclusion where all walks of life are welcome, and everyone’s beliefs, identities and cultures are respected.

Being one of the largest U.S.-based employers in the private sector, with approximately 149,900 employees¹ across 52 countries, we’re constantly working to retain, grow and attract talent to create a workforce that can provide unique insights into all facets of American life and build expert connections with different communities.

Our company is built to connect people to greater possibility. To do that well, it’s important that we respect and embrace a world that represents a wide range of social customs, cultural traditions, viewpoints, backgrounds and abilities.

Inclusion Data

²	2020	2021	2022	2023
Gender Diversity
Percent women in global workforce	32%	31%	31%	30%
Percent women in global management	34%	33%	33%	30%
Percent women in global senior management positions³	31%	36%	37%	37%
Percent women in global management positions in revenue-generating functions (e.g., sales)	29%	28%	29%	30%
Percent women in global frontline management positions⁴	34%	33%	33%	25%
Percent women in global STEM-related positions	27%	26%	27%	27%
Percent women in U.S. workforce	32%	30%	30%	29%
Percent women in U.S. management	34%	33%	33%	32%
Percent women in full-time positions	24%	26%	27%	29%
Percent women in part-time positions	23%	31%	37%	44%
Racial Diversity (U.S.)⁵
Percent people of color in U.S. management	40.0%	43.0%	44.0%	44.9%
Percent people of color in U.S. workforce	46.1%	47.6%	48.7%	49.5%
Percent White in U.S. workforce	53.9%	52.4%	51.4%	50.5%
Percent Black or African American in U.S. workforce	19.7%	20.0%	20.1%	19.8%
Percent Hispanic or Latino in U.S. workforce	16.2%	16.9%	17.3%	17.8%
Percent Asian in U.S. workforce	6.7%	7.1%	7.5%	8.1%
Percent Multiracial or another race in U.S. workforce	2.5%	2.6%	2.8%	2.8%
Percent American Indian or Alaskan Native in U.S. workforce	0.7%	0.7%	0.7%	0.7%
Percent Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander in U.S. workforce	0.3%	0.3%	0.3%	0.3%
Age Diversity⁶
Average age of employees in global workforce	43	43	44	44
Percent Baby Boomers (Ages 58 – 76)	17%	15%	13%	11%
Percent Gen X (Ages 42 – 57)	44%	44%	45%	45%
Percent Gen Y (Ages 28 – 41)	32%	32%	32%	32%
Percent Gen Z (Ages 17 – 27)	7%	9%	10%	12%
Additional Diversity Groups⁷
Percent LGBTQ+ representation in U.S. workforce	1.9%	1.9%	2.0%	1.9%
Percent U.S. workforce with a disability	4.3%	4.6%	4.9%	4.9%
Percent veterans in U.S. workforce	7.4%	8.3%	8.4%	8.3%

For more information, see our Global Reporting Initiative Index.

Our Actions & Impacts

Our Employee Groups (EGs) continued to be the heart of our culture—just as they have for more than 50 years. We’re proud to have nearly 37,000 active EG members who are positively impacting our communities through networking, mentorship and social good.
By returning to an in-person event, more employees attended our 2023 Employee Group Conference, themed “Connecting Changes Everything,” than ever before. Almost 1,100 employees gathered in-person, with another 15,000 attending online to celebrate the ways our employees are advancing inclusion. It was our most well-received employee group conference ever, with attendees giving it a record 95% “overall willingness to recommend” score.
33% of AT&T employees engaged in volunteerism and charitable giving in 2023. Their volunteerism included providing support in our Connected Learning Centers, which offer free access to high-speed internet, computers, educational resources, and support from community leaders and our employees. With 34 centers nationwide by the end of 2023, these spaces facilitate digital education and community engagement through collaboration with Boys & Girls Club of America, National Urban League and other nonprofit spaces embedded in communities.
In collaboration with Gallaudet University, we developed a proof-of-concept 5G-connected helmet for deaf and hard of hearing football players, enabling equitable, visual communication with coaches and enhancing game tempo and accuracy, thus empowering players to achieve their full potential.

Governance

The following groups are responsible for oversight and management of our company’s efforts to foster inclusion:

Governance & Policy Committee (GPC): The GPC of the AT&T Board of Directors (Board) has oversight over all environmental, social and governance issues. The Chief Diversity Officer updates the GPC several times per year.
Chief Diversity Officer (CDO): The CDO spearheads initiatives to cultivate inclusion and belonging, oversees the company’s equal employment opportunity and affirmative action policies, and drives deeper understanding and engagement within the business. The CDO also works to foster employee development and enhance the employee experience.
Senior Executive Inclusion Council: The Senior Executive Inclusion Council is composed of senior executives and officers in the business and represents more than 100,000 employees. The council works to champion inclusion across business units.
Senior Vice President (SVP)—Advertising: Our SVP—Advertising leads our AT&T Advertising team and is responsible for creating campaigns reflecting the needs of business and consumer customers, as well as the value and reputation of our brand.

Pay Equity

AT&T is committed to pay equity, and we regularly review and adapt compensation when needed to ensure fair and equitable pay practices. Our Total Rewards package is crucial in attracting, retaining and motivating employees, and we pledge to remain competitive and in line with the market.

Attracting, Developing & Retaining Talent

We take pride in bringing together talented people with a wide range of backgrounds and experiences who serve our customers every day. Operating in all 50 states and around the world, we’re proud of our workforce that spans five generations.

We strive to be an employer of choice, offering competitive benefits and pay, along with enriching development opportunities that propel career advancement.

Our skills-based hiring approach means that less than 5% of all AT&T roles require a college degree.
Our tuition reimbursement program has been used by approximately 9,000 employees in the past five years.
Approximately 2,000 frontline employees were promoted to management in 2023.
We provide training and apprenticeships in collaboration with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers to boost skills and education for fiber technicians.

We’re inspiring continuous learning and building career ladders where employees can grow and feel challenged by their work.

Emphasizing a personalized approach to career growth, we foster mentorship, training courses, and more than 50 nanodegrees and partner degree programs with colleges and universities.
Our annual Leading with Distinction experience brings together our general management leadership team to align on our strategy, embrace our culture and invest in the future of our company. And our Management Development Program targets our frontline managers to build a bench of ready-now, promotable talent.

We’re focused on creating a sustainable pipeline of future leaders.

We offer more than 20 internship and developmental programs to bring in new talent to spur innovation in the workplace and create career paths to all areas of AT&T. This includes EDGE, which focuses on developing undergraduate talent through an exploratory, 10-to-12-week internship program.
HBCU Rising Future Makers is a dynamic initiative that recognizes and supports students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) who are making an impact in their communities and on their campuses. This annual program empowers future innovators while fostering diversity and inclusion in the ever-evolving tech landscape.
AT&T is a longtime supporter of Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), and we are committed to empowering future leaders, providing opportunity and dedicating our resources toward initiatives that foster economic growth and innovation.

New Hires: You Belong Here⁸


Men	69.1%
Women	30.9%
White	33.8%
Black/African American	27.7%
Hispanic/Latino	24.1%
Asian American & Pacific Islander	8.0%
Two or More Races	5.8%
American Indian/Alaskan Native	0.6%
Military & Veterans	8.5%
Persons with Disabilities	5.1%
LGBTQ+	0.9%

Employee Awareness & Engagement

Employee Groups

To create a culture of inclusion, we encourage all employees to join one or more of our Employee Groups. These voluntary, employee-led groups exemplify our company commitment to fostering a sense of community and providing professional development opportunities and occasions for community service.

As of 2023, nearly 37,000 AT&T employees participated in these groups. The Employee Groups represent the full cultural and experiential dimensions of our workforce.

In 2023, several Employee Groups were recognized for their significant achievements in providing development opportunities to their members, impacting their communities, promoting the AT&T brand and growing business efficiencies. Among the achievements:

ICAE National launched the Affordable Connectivity Program on Tribal Lands initiative. The Native American community has historically been underserved in terms of wireless and wireline broadband access.
The NETwork BICP (Black Integrated Communications Professionals) (Dallas/Fort Worth Chapter) launched a Bridging the Digital Divide initiative, working through the AT&T Believes program, to connect students to a new world of digital learning. The initiative focuses on empowering future generations of Black leaders and transforming communities through digital literacy.
Ability’s National Chapter launched a Career Differentiator series focused on finding innovative ways for their members to stand out in the job market.
oxyGEN’s National Chapter launched the LEAD program, with the goal of empowering young professionals who have recently entered the corporate world through AT&T Development Programs, as well as for employees at different stages in their careers.
HACEMOS’s New Jersey Chapter introduced the Elevating Latinos in STEM initiative, a collaboration with Hispanics Inspiring Students’ Performance and Achievement (HISPA) and other community partners. HACEMOS also won a 2023 Diversity Impact Award for their Executive Latina Leadership Program.

Employee Resources & Tools

In 2021, we launched the Equality First+ app, giving employees access to a hub of content and hands-on tools. The app is intended to foster an inclusive workplace and to empower employees to celebrate their commonality and find understanding in their differences. More than 16,000 people have used the Equality First+ app since it launched.

In 2023, we expanded Equality First+ with the launch of the Inclusive Leadership Development experience, an engaging social learning platform in which supervisors learn together and from each other. The platform is helping to advance inclusive behaviors among our people leaders.

Inclusion in Marketing

Our customer base reflects the rich tapestry of cultures and backgrounds found around the globe, representing a multitude of nationalities and traditions. Ensuring they are positively represented in our marketing and advertising is an important part of our approach:

Inclusion Playbook: The AT&T Inclusion Playbook is intended to provide a nonbiased approach to creating content and is designed as a tool for increasing innovation in ad-copy testing. The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) recognized this program for leading positive change.
Creative Development: During creative development and production, we work to ensure our messaging resonates across a wide variety of social customs, cultural traditions, viewpoints, backgrounds and abilities. For example, the AT&T Fiber advertising team meets with a variety of stakeholders to review and incorporate feedback on creative content. We encourage our ad agencies to cast inclusive talent both in front of and behind the camera.
Association of National Advertisers (ANA) #SeeHer: We are actively focused on helping to create a gender-bias-free media ecosystem through key partnerships and strategic initiatives.

Recognition

Although awards and recognition are not the driving force for our commitment and work toward fostering an inclusive workplace, we celebrate achieving recognition by a community of peers and industry leaders. This recognition includes:

Fortune: #1 telecom in Fortune’s World’s Most Admired.
Comparably: #4 Happiest Employees, #16 Best Company Culture.
LinkedIn: #6 on LinkedIn’s Top Companies to Grow Your Career (third year in top 10).
Bloomberg: Included in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index listing of companies that demonstrated a commitment to workplace equality for the fifth consecutive year.
Disability:IN: Named one of the Best Places to Work for Disability Inclusion and earned a 100% score on the Disability Equality Index for the ninth consecutive year.
Fair360: Member of the Fair360 Top 50 Companies for Diversity Hall of Fame.
Latino Metro: Best Place to Work in the Latino Equity Top 100 publication.
Human Rights Campaign: Named a “Equality 100 Award: Leader in LGBTQ+ Workplace Inclusion” by the Human Rights Campaign, receiving a 100% score on the Corporate Equality Index for the 19th consecutive year.
Military Friendly: AT&T was featured as a Top 10 Company by Military Friendly, earning a gold status for our achievements as well as appearing on four other specialty lists in 2023.
Additional Recognition: See the full list of our awards.

Our Path Forward

We believe bringing everybody on the internet is a national imperative. Unfortunately, far too many U.S. households remain without access to reliable and affordable connectivity. Underserved and rural communities are particularly impacted by the digital divide as it is a barrier to education, economic opportunity, upward mobility and social connection fostered by internet access.

AT&T is putting the best of our reach and resources to work to bring the benefits of the internet to all. From 2021 through the end of 2023, we invested $2 billion to help expand access, affordability and adoption for more households and communities, helping connect 5 million people over three years. In 2024, we committed an additional $3 billion—scaling our total to $5 billion since 2021—and set an ambitious goal to help 25 million people get and stay connected to affordable, high-speed internet access throughout this decade.

We remain steadfast in our commitment to fostering an inclusive workplace that celebrates a wide range of social customs, cultural traditions, viewpoints, backgrounds and abilities. These efforts encompass our hiring initiatives, products and services development with accessibility in mind, collaborations with external organizations, and more.

Looking ahead, our mission to connect people to great possibilities remains unchanged. We will continue embracing the richness of our workforce and customers, striving for a future where everyone feels valued and empowered.

Additional Resources

As of January 31, 2024, as reported in our Form 10-K.
All results are reported as of the end of the respective reporting year (December 31, 2023) and are global unless marked as U.S. Data does not include DIRECTV or Giga Power as well as employees whose race is unknown or undeclared.
"Senior management positions" is defined as roles that are a maximum of two levels away from the CEO or comparable positions.
"Frontline management positions" refers to junior management positions.
Workforce racial diversity data is rounded and may not equal 100%.
Please visit our Global Reporting Initiative Index for a full breakout of employee age diversity.
Data is voluntarily self-identified by employees. These metrics are only tracked in the U.S. Employees in other countries do not have the ability to identify in any of these areas. This data is voluntarily self-reported, which means there may be a discrepancy between employees who are part of these groups and employees willing to report that they are part of these groups.
New hire data breakdown reported as of December 31, 2023, and excludes employees whose race is unknown or undeclared. All veteran, disabled or LGBTQ+ data is voluntarily self-reported.