iRobot has achieved many important milestones since its inception in 1990 – not only creating the robotic vacuum cleaner industry, but driving technology innovation, fortifying global category leadership and delivering strong growth over the past three decades. Those accomplishments – enormous both in scale and scope – are the result of creating a culture that permeates conviction, courage, and unyielding resolve. iRobot continues to make substantial investments to attract the best and brightest in the business, leverage the diverse experience and backgrounds of our global workforce, harness the collective talents and skills of our people, and help individuals reach their full potential.
We have grown significantly since our founding in 1990. Celebrating our 30th anniversary in 2020, our iRoboteers are mission-driven builders who are passionate, determined and results-oriented about their work and in making iRobot the world’s #1 global consumer robotics company. iRobot is committed to fostering invention, discovery and technological exploration in the pursuit of practical and valuable robot products for the next generation home. As an organization, we believe in taking pride in our work, taking responsibility for our actions, being more cooperative, communicating with clarity and instilling passion into our everyday lives.
Employee Fast Facts
iRobot’s Commitment to Racial Equality and Diversity
iRobot is an inclusive organization, seeking out the best and brightest minds to help us meet the new global requirements of our business. We are excited to welcome new perspectives, ideas, skills, languages and cultural backgrounds to our global iRobot family.
iRobot stands firmly against racial discrimination and social injustice. At our company, we are committed to equality, inclusiveness, respect and kindness. Around the globe, iRobot has been and will continue to be a safe, inclusive environment for all, supported by our values as an organization and as individuals.
The iRobot community is built upon the diverse perspectives, beliefs and backgrounds of incredibly talented people from around the world who have all had a hand in shaping who we are as an organization. Strengthening diversity within our global workforce enables iRobot to bring our collective ideas together to invent a future that seamlessly fits the unique, personal and diverse needs of our global consumer base. We have and will continue to take action and hold ourselves accountable to continue to foster equality and diversity on a global scale. Each day we learn from each other, grow and evolve, seeking out new opportunities to strengthen our support for all employees and the communities in which we work.
iRobot has and always will be committed to racial equality and diversity, but that does not mean that we are sitting idle. As a symbol of our commitment, iRobot Founder, CEO and Chairman Colin Angle has signed the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion Pledge on Juneteenth 2020. We remain aligned with our values and beliefs, and are creating opportunities to have an ongoing dialogue with employees. We have also prioritized a series of training programs to educate and empower our team, including Creating an Inclusive Workplace and Unconscious Bias. Additionally, we continue to focus on developing new capabilities and programs that will continue to raise awareness and education around racial equality and discrimination.
iRobot is working with community and education leaders to prioritize and deliver STEM educational resources, curriculum and Root programing robots to students in underserved communities. iRobot Education is built upon the principle that all students should have access to high quality STEM education resources. In order to support students with social emotional learning, we are developing tools to help families and classrooms facilitate conversations about social justice and to make these discussions a staple of the education experience.
We continue to listen and remain committed to continue to create mechanisms for positive change within our company and across our communities.
Gender Diversity
Women comprised 31% of the iRobot workforce in the U.S. in 2019 with representation at virtually every management level including the Board of Directors. In 2019, approximately 36% of all new hires at the company were women.
*% levels based on U.S. employees except Board of Directors
We continue to invest in adding talented women to our company at all levels and in all functional areas. These investments include:
• Modified R&D Hiring Practices: In 2020, a woman must be interviewed for all R&D openings at manager level and above. In cases where a woman is being interviewed, at least one member of the interview team will be a woman.
• Recruiting: Participated in recruiting events specifically aimed at attracting female candidates through Grace Hopper and Women in Technology
Training and Development: iRobot promotes gender diversity and support career advancement by women iRoboteers in a variety of ways including:
• Unconscious Bias training program for managers and above
• Annual participation for our company’s female leaders in the Strategies for Success program by the Commonwealth Institute, a non-profit organization devoted to advancing businesswomen in leadership positions.
• iRobot sponsors its female employees to attend Bentley College’s annual Gearing Up Conference, which is dedicated to female professionals in the first decade of their career.
• AnitaB.org – iRobot is a corporate sponsor of this nationwide non-profit that supports women in technical fields, as well as the organizations that employ them and the academic institutions training the next generation. A full roster of programs helps women grow, learn, and develop their highest potential.
Ethnic Diversity
iRobot’s workforce prides itself on perpetuating a culture that pushes the boundaries of what’s possible in consumer robotics in order to improve our quality of life. Changing the world requires embracing diversity to ensure that we attract and retain the best and brightest in our field. Approximately 30% of the company’s workforce identifies as non-Caucasian. Our policies and practices support equal opportunity where all iRoboteers can thrive, regardless of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, military or veteran status, disability as well other classifications protected by applicable state, federal and local laws. Our workforce continues to expand in terms of diversity with local employee resource groups aimed at fostering community among our female, Latinx, and LGBTQ employees.
Labor Practices
iRobot is committed to ensuring that its employees, customers and suppliers are treated with dignity and respect. As detailed in the company’s human rights policy, we compensate employees competitively relative to the industry and local labor market, and in accordance with terms of applicable collective bargaining agreements. Additionally, we are committed to maintaining a workplace that is free from violence, harassment, intimidation and other unsafe or disruptive conditions due to internal and external threats. The safety and health of our employees is also of paramount importance. Our policy is to provide a safe and healthy workplace and comply with applicable safety and health laws and regulations, as well as internal requirements.
In addition to women-centric development programs, iRobot provides a broad range of leadership and professional development programs to foster the next generation of senior managers and leaders.
• Leadership Training – Approximately two dozen senior leaders (director-level and above) from across the company’s global operations are selected to participate in a multi-day leadership workshop that focuses on helping these individual better understand their current management styles, learn how to work more effectively across functional areas and refining the skills necessary to lead teams. This program is now in its second decade.
• Management Training – One to two times per year, dozens of first-time and junior managers are selected to participated in a multi-day management workshop in which they learn skills and gain the insights necessary to improve their overall time management, oversee teams of varying sizes and advance cross-functional problem solving. Entering into its second decade, this program also includes respectful workplace and bystander training. In addition to this workshop, in 2020, the company has added specific training sessions for managers who have needed to adapt to the impact to COVID-19 to manage remote teams.
• Quarterly Business Reviews – These full-day executive leadership team briefings are opportunities for the senior leadership of the company to align on key issues and develop and refine plans for achieving short-term and longer-term goals. Rising stars are often asked to participate in these forums and provide updates on key projects.
• Mentoring Program – This program is aimed at promoting professional development by linking an employee with a more experienced senior-level manager who will focus efforts to help the mentee grow and advance in his or her career.
• Educational Assistance – Eligible employees will be reimbursed for successfully completing job-related courses up to a maximum of $6,000 per calendar year.
• Chairman’s Awards – Every year, outstanding work by both individuals and teams that best exemplify the company’s culture and values is recognized at a company-wide meeting with winners receiving a commemorative plaque and an equity grant in front of the colleagues.
Attracting & Retaining Talent
iRobot created the robot vacuum industry back in 2002 and has continued to set the pace for the consumer robotics industry as a category and technology leader ever since. We’ve assembled a global team of the best and brightest in our industry by providing our people with unique opportunities to make a tangible impact in helping our company thrive while also advancing their careers. We continue to evolve our approach to attracting and retaining our talent – from having a well-defined process for hiring to providing competitive compensation packages complemented with a wide-ranging set of benefits.
