How Wolfspeed Demonstrates Our Support of Our LGBTQ+ Employees

How Wolfspeed Demonstrates Our Support of our LGBTQ+ Employees

From Margaret Chadwick, CHRO and Neill Reynolds, CFO

Wolfspeed’s leadership believes diversity, equity, and inclusion drive better business results and make all of us better employees and people. We are building a culture where inclusivity is real and active, rather than theoretical and static.  We celebrate our employees’ differences and authenticity, and understand that diverse ideas, perspectives, thinking styles, and backgrounds produce higher quality decisions, enabling us to solve problems other companies think to be impossible.

As we work to be an employer of choice, with an emphasis and priority on diversity, equity, and inclusion in every realm, we continue to implement benefits to engage and that are attractive to our current and potential future employees. We are committed to providing a broad set of benefits and resources for employees and promise to continuously evaluate those benefits to ensure inclusivity and representation. We are proud to offer a number of benefits and programs to specifically support our LGBTQ+ employees, some of which are listed below.

• We expanded our Anti-Harassment policy, which is applicable to all employees throughout the company, to expound on protections for members of the LGBTQ+ community;
• Our health plan(s) cover a range of benefits for gender dysphoria/transgender and/or non-binary needs and services;
• Our parental leave and bereavement leave benefits are available to new parents, regardless of their marital status;
• Our Short-Term and Long-Term Disability plans include coverage for infertility and gender reassignment procedures;
• Our PRIDE Employee Resource Group lends support and a greater voice to our LGBTQ+ employees and their allies; and
• We use gender neutral terminology and pronouns in our HR policies and other documents.

While some companies and state legislatures are introducing policies and bills that seek to deprive the rights of the LGBTQ+ community, Wolfspeed is committed to expanding our inclusive support for our current employees and our outreach to potential future employees in this community.

As policy-makers and members of our local communities, we reject calls for differential or discriminatory treatment of any member of the LGBTQ+ population, as that treatment is inconsistent with our values and limits our ability to attract, recruit, hire, and retain top talent we need to revolutionize our industry.

We will continue to partner with our PRIDE Employee Resource Group to provide support, awareness, and resources for all lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, non-binary, or otherwise-identifying employees, and their allies.  We will also engage in our communities to raise awareness of - and seek positive solutions for - a variety of injustices impacting the LGBTQ+ community, including but not limited to:

• Disproportionate rates of attempted suicide among LGBTQ+ youth, with higher rates among transgender and non-binary youth;
• Exclusion of the transgender community from medical care, parental rights, social/family services, youth sports, and access to public facilities;
• Violence and harassment specifically targeting the transgender and gender non-conforming community, specifically transgender women of color; and
• Disparities for LGBTQ+ individuals of color as they navigate interconnected forms of discrimination.

We will continue to educate ourselves and our employees about these issues with a commitment to perpetuating diversity, equity, and inclusion within our organization and in our communities.

Thanks to ALL of our employees for bringing their voices, talents, and commitment to our company – you are the most important part of our success.