Diversity, equity, and inclusion

To attract and retain a diverse workforce, we must ensure that Baker Hughes maintains access to and supports a diverse pipeline of talent. We are managing our DEI priorities by improving our data collection and enhancing our reporting.

Beginning with our US-based employees, we invited people to update their demographic information in the HR portal. This voluntary self-identification on gender, race/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, and sexual orientation helps to better inform and position support of an equitable work environment for all employees at Baker Hughes. For example, this information informs which benefits, programs, and resources can best support our employees. We plan to expand voluntary self-identification to other countries in 2022, subject to local regulation.

Globally, our most visible diversity opportunity is increasing representation of women in our workforce and leadership, while an additional focus in the US is increasing minority representation. In 2021, we did not see significant shifts in the percentage of those who identify within these categories. While this was partly a function of limited hiring across the organization, we recognize that we have much more to do. We also began to collect and report on age diversity for the first time. as well as women in STEM roles and people of color in the US who identify as women.

During the year, we continued to advance projects to improve our DEI performance. For example, we have enacted a number of talent acquisition initiatives, such as launching pilot projects on blind resumes and debiasing job descriptions, interview templates, and assessments. We also expanded our talent acquisition focus to include executive search services with strong track records in locating diverse candidates.

*New 2021 metric

Our Global DEI Council was established in 2021 to increase accountability on this strategic priority. Our DEI Community of Practice facilitates sharing best practices across the enterprise. We reinforce our inclusive culture with tools, resources, and learning opportunities that raise awareness, foster inclusive behaviors, and build cross-cultural competencies. Through a collaborative partnership with the Baker Hughes Global Learning team, the DEI Community of Practice designed learning paths for leaders, employees, and our HR community on topics ranging from basic DEI fundamentals to training on unconscious bias.

Our inclusive culture is further reinforced by our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), groups of employees who have joined together based on shared interests, characteristics, or life experiences. These groups can have a powerful influence on driving change by elevating the conversation and awareness around key issues and engaging with the communities where we operate. All employees are welcome to join ERGs either as members of represented communities or as allies. In 2021, total ERG membership increased by 24%. This effort has enhanced our DEI focus and fostered closer connections between employees in communities around the world.

The ERGs provide learning and development opportunities, professional mentoring and networking, a sense of community, and opportunities for volunteer service.

We seek to expand our commitment to DEI across our supply chain, increasing equity and economic opportunity while simultaneously building a more resilient and innovative supply chain for our business. We want to support and build strong partnerships with a diverse array of local and global suppliers that share our values.

In 2021, we spent $82.6 million with diverse suppliers or small businesses globally. Our supplier diversity programs are fully operational in those two areas, and we are in the process of expanding our program.

We recognize that we have work to do in cultivating a diverse supply chain. We increased awareness of our supplier diversity program across the company through internal training and networking, including dedicated educational outreach to our ERGs, and building a diversity focus into the company's Supply Chain Days communication campaign. To engage with our supplier community, we hosted a conference that was attended by more than 900 global suppliers and featured sessions dedicated to the importance of supplier diversity. We also conducted peer-to-peer and customer-to-vendor engagements and met with external organizations, associations, and consultants, such as the Women's Business Enterprise Alliance and WEConnect International. We were recognized by Houston Minority Supplier Development Council with the Rigel Award for reporting the largest increase in annual expenditures with HMSDC Certified Minority Business Enterprises in 2021.

We recognize the importance of recruiting and retaining the best talent to lead in the energy transition. To do this, we provide a welcoming, diverse, and inclusive workplace, opportunities to grow and develop, and the ability to contribute in a meaningful way, both on the job and in the community. We also recognize that flexible and competitive compensation and benefits are an important part of our employment value proposition. While turnover is inevitable in any business, we seek to minimize it. Our voluntary turnover during the year was higher than prior years driven by industry and workforce trends, but we remain confident in our ability to attract and retain the talent needed to serve our customers and advance our strategic priorities.

In addition to our commitment to providing a welcoming and inclusive culture, as described in the previous section, we also focus on giving employees flexibility in their work and benefits, and opportunities to be the architects of their own development. Underpinning this employee value proposition is a belief in fair and equitable compensation.

In light of the many changes that have taken place in the global workplace, we have taken a fresh look at our approach to traditional workplaces and schedules. We have put global, flexible work guidelines in place to support workers and managers in navigating the future of work while balancing business needs, safety, and ergonomics, cybersecurity and data privacy, and other considerations. We encourage employees to explore ways to better balance work and personal life through arrangements such as flexible schedules, compressed work weeks, hybrid work, remote work, and other options. This policy is applicable to all employees, but individual circumstances vary based on local laws and regulations, positions, and job requirements.

We recognize that change and uncertainty are ever present, and we can play an important role in helping our people manage the pressures of work and personal life. To do this we offer a number of mental health programs through our global employee assistance program (EAP), training for people leaders, peer support networks, and wellness seminars. We offer EAP support in all countries in which we operate, for employees and their immediate family members. This program provides immediate counseling on the phone and connection to support resources in the community and via telehealth.

People leaders have the closest relationship with our employees around the world, and so we have built personal well-being awareness into our learning and development program. These courses are focused on the importance of well-being, the role of managers, discussion guides, and how to provide resources to help. We also established peer support programs during 2021. For example, our UK team established a formal program to train our people as mental health first responders. We also successfully piloted the integration of mental well-being risk and awareness into safety training for our front-line managers.

To engage our global workforce, we offer a wide variety of live and virtual seminars on health and wellness topics that involve our senior leaders, ERGs, and external experts. These programs range from weekly live fitness and yoga classes to frank conversations on burnout and workplace stress. One of our most successful events was a panel discussion entitled Everyone Struggles Differently, which was widely attended by our global employees.