Blogs by tag - Companies that Care™

Cognizant Earns Perfect Score in Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2022 Corporate Equality Index

TEANECK, N.J., Jan. 27, 2022 – Cognizant (Nasdaq: CTSH), earned a score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2022 Corporate Equality Index, the nation’s foremost benchmarking survey and report measuring corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ+ workplace equality.The results of the 2022 CEI showcase how companies promote LGBTQ+-friendly workplace policies. Cognizant’s efforts in satisfying all of the CEI’s criteria earned a 100 percent ranking and the designation as one of theBest Places to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality.“We are pleased to receive this important recognition,” said Shameka Young, Cognizant’s Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion. “It codifies our efforts to foster a sense of belonging, where all employees feel safe to bring their whole selves to work and feel valued, respected, and motivated.”“When the Human Rights Campaign Foundation created the Corporate Equality Index 20 years ago, we dreamed that LGBTQ+ workers—from the factory floor to corporate headquarters, in big cities and small towns—could have access to the policies and benefits needed to thrive and live life authentically,” said Jay Brown, Human Rights Campaign Senior Vice President of Programs, Research and Training. “We are proud that the Corporate Equality Index paved the way to that reality for countless LGBTQ+ workers in America and abroad. But there is still more to do, which is why we are raising the bar yet again to create more equitable workplaces and a better tomorrow for LGBTQ+ workers everywhere. Congratulations to Cognizant for achieving the title of ‘best places to work for LGBTQ+ equality’ and working to advance inclusion in the workplace.”The CEI rates companies on detailed criteria falling under four central pillars:Non-discrimination policies across business entitiesEquitable benefits for LGBTQ+ workers and their familiesSupporting an inclusive cultureCorporate social responsibilityThe full report is available online atwww.hrc.org/cei.About CognizantCognizant (Nasdaq: CTSH) engineers modern businesses. We help our clients modernize technology, reimagine processes and transform experiences so they can stay ahead in our fast-changing world. Together, we're improving everyday life. See how at www.cognizant.com or @cognizant. About Human Rights Campaign FoundationThe Human Rights Campaign Foundation is the educational arm of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) people. Through its programs, the HRC Foundation seeks to make transformational change in the everyday lives of LGBTQ+ people, shedding light on inequity and deepening the public’s understanding of LGBTQ+ issues, with a clear focus on advancing transgender and racial justice. Its work has transformed the landscape for more than 15 million workers, 11 million students, 1 million clients in the adoption and foster care system and so much more. The HRC Foundation provides direct consultation and technical assistance to institutions and communities, driving the advancement of inclusive policies and practices; it builds the capacity of future leaders and allies through fellowship and training programs; and, with the firm belief that we are stronger working together, it forges partnerships with advocates in the U.S. and around the globe to increase our impact and shape the future of our work.This article was originally published here.

(Cognizant) The power and impact of managerial allies

The power and impact of managerial alliesManagers have the greatest impact on a sense of belonging, according to Gen Y and Gen Z employees across a range of under-represented groups.Visit our Diversity & Inclusion webpageIncreasingly, allyship — standing up for, supporting and actively advocating for others who are different from ourselves — is being promoted as a tool to support diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) efforts. But so far, there’s been little empirical research examining who the most effective allies are and what they can do to create a culture of belonging in the workplace. To answer that question, this past June we surveyed over 3,000 Gen Y and Gen Z individual contributors in the US.While anyone can be an ally, the majority of respondents in our study (70%) say the person with the greatest impact on feelings of belonging is their manager. Because under-represented groups can face greater challenges to organizational entry, advancement and promotion, managers as allies can play a critical role in support of early careers.As a female client recently shared, “I have allies in many places, but as I think back, when my manager was my fiercest ally, he is the one that created a real launching pad for my career.” Managers are that pivotal connection point between the organization and the employee.The most powerful actions managerial allies can takeAll under-represented groups expressed similar thoughts as to what, specifically, managerial allies can do to materially impact a sense of belonging, although there were differences of intensity among the groups’ responses. Our analysis found that managers exert the greatest impact on belonging when they do the following:Build relationships. First and foremost, establishing allyship requires building authentic relationships based on trust and accountability. In fact, more than 80% of respondents in almost all respondent groups named authenticity and trustworthiness as an important managerial characteristic when it comes to their sense of belonging.Little wonder: Under-represented groups need to know they can confide in their managers about their workplace experiences — the subtle and not so subtle forms of discrimination. Allies put others at ease by building rapport, listening, sharing and understanding. They also follow through when they commit to doing something on behalf of their team members. Educate themselves. Allies understand that our personal identities are complex. They are shaped by the intersections of multiple characteristics — gender, race, sexual orientation, age and so on — each of which may cause varying degrees of workplace discrimination. Seventy-eight percent of our respondents overall said that managerial willingness to understand differences in others’ backgrounds, experiences and difficulties has an important impact on their feelings of belonging in the workplace. Storytelling can be a powerful tool for creating an inclusive work environment. These shared personal stories serve to reinforce the universality of certain experiences and help build empathy for differences. In particular, women (83%) and LGBTQ+ respondents (81%) identified empathy as an important trait for managerial allies.Are self-aware. To be effective, managerial allies need direct and immediate feedback on their workplace behavior. While they hope to catch themselves when they make assumptions about others, they won’t always get it right. It takes being humble, vulnerable and open to feedback to be a great managerial ally. Self-awareness was particularly important to LGBTQ+ (70%), women (69%) and Black/African American (68%) respondents.Actively listen. Great managerial allies listen more than they talk. They listen without interrupting — regardless of who is speaking. They ask clarifying questions. They listen to understand, not to judge. They see differences as assets that can help them make better decisions, as well as drive team innovation and performance. Women were most adamant about the importance of active listening (83%) and considering different points of view (79%).Speak up and stand up. Managerial allies use their position and social capital to advocate for others. For women (75%) and LGBTQ+ respondents (75%), it is particularly important that managers speak up when they observe non-inclusive behavior and use their personal power to intervene when others are ignored, interrupted or belittled. When they encourage other team members to do the same, they effectively build a community of allies.They also stand up. Because managerial allies are part of the formal career process, they have the power to advocate for inclusive practices broadly. They actively campaign for individuals — in the hiring, development and promotional processes — creating a launching pad for diverse talent. While this trait was important to overall respondents, Black/African Americans were most passionate about managers’ ability to attract (67%), develop (69%) and promote (73%) people of diverse backgrounds.Organizations that place a strong strategic emphasis on developing managerial allyship skills will ultimately create a culture of belonging. By being an ally, managers can significantly increase employee motivation, commitment, emotional and physical well-being, overall engagement and retention — all of which will lead to greater innovation and productivity.When it comes to attracting, growing and retaining the diverse talent they need to survive and thrive in the future, organizations can rely on managerial allyship to deliver. For more on this topic, see “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion through a Gen Y/Z Lens” and “The Great Resignation: It’s Time to Restart the Belonging Engine.”This article was originally published here.

(Cognizant) How Singapore can lead the way on future-preparedness

No matter how you slice it, Singapore's economy is an outlier. Born out of political turmoil, the city-state blazed a trail of economic prosperity to become one of the most technologically advanced nations and an example for big cities everywhere to emulate.Thanks to its prioritization of human capital, the natural resources-starved nation is the best in the world in human capital development, as well as one of the most competitive countries. As a result, Singapore’s businesses have access to unmatched digital infrastructure and talent compared with many of their peers.But the Asian tiger faces harsh climate realities. With almost 30% of its land less than five meters above sea level, the country has set ambitious targets to mitigate environmental risks. Singapore’s businesses realize their role in this evolving landscape, but they also face a unique set of demands. For instance, there is growing demand for additional digital skills among already highly skilled digital workers. There is also room for improvement in sustainability efforts and deriving value from tech investments.In our work to define what it takes to be future-ready—and how close businesses are to reaching a future-ready state—Cognizant commissioned Economist Impact to conduct a survey of 2,000 senior executives, including 130 executives from Singapore, across industries and geographies, as well as create a future-ready benchmarking tool (see our full report, “Ready for anything: What it means to be a modern business”).Our own analysis of this data underscores what executives in Singapore and globally need to do now to prepare.The original blog was published here.

How IBMer Nishtha is Bringing AI Fairness to Bollywood

The women of IBM are doing some amazing things to change the world, so let’s celebrate them! We caught up with Nishtha Madaan, Research Engineer at IBM India and an AI superstar! In 2017, Nishtha and her team published a viral paper on the presence of gender stereotypes in Bollywood movies and how we can use AI to remove these stereotypes from the text.Want to learn more about the incredible women at IBM and how you can join them and work at IBM? Head over to our Careers Page.Tell us a little about yourself!I started my professional journey 5 years ago with IBM Research in India and it has been incredible. Currently, I work as an Advisory Research Engineer with the Trusted AI Team. We work on integrating fairness into machine learning models so that the solutions are trustworthy, inclusive, and explainable.What set you on the road to where you are?In 2017, my senior manager and I started studying Bollywood movie storylines to show that AI fairness is necessary. We explored ways to mitigate the biases present in these stories.During this time, I mentored some fantastic interns, who helped work on this problem. Soon after we completed this work and published our research online, it was cited by several news companies and premier newspapers like Times of India and Hindustan Times. More than 50 platforms published articles on our work and I even got invited to talk at several international and national venues.What has been your biggest success?I was named among the Top 100 Women in AI Ethics 2019 globally. I was the only selection from India. It led to my increased interest in the area. We now have a formal team of researchers working on AI Fairness with many of our clients.Why did you choose IBM?I attribute all my achievements to the flexibility and inclusive work environment offered by IBM. We are allowed to collaborate freely, which has been fuelling my personal growth.What do you enjoy doing outside of work? How do you find a balance between these things and your work?I like to mentor students outside of work. This helps expand my horizon and get some experience on how to fail or succeed in various different ways. Therefore, I learn every day that there is no set path of success or possible failure. So, I try to do my best in everything and leave the rest.The original blog was published here.

Does Your Company Walk the Talk on ‘Diversity and Inclusion’?

IBM has a long history of actively supporting diversity and inclusion — from policies enacted for equal pay for equal work in 1935 to providing domestic partnership benefits over 20 years ago (being one of the first major corporations to do so) to active opposition to Texas’s anti-LGBT proposed legislation. In everyday life at IBM, there are programs, policies, and people driving inclusive behavior, including ensuring equal representation for growth opportunities and anti-bullying training required for all employees. Just recently, I got to speak at Silicon Valley Forum’s Women in Tech Festival as IBM was the premier sponsor for the event.I started my career at IBM many years ago. I left after 11 years and spent 3 years in startups and doing independent consulting and then returned to IBM. I spent my career applying new technologies to solve client problems and driving the evolution of the technologies into hardened software products and cloud services. In 2014, I founded the IBM Garage to co-create innovative solutions with clients using IBM Cloud and I’ve been the CTO thru our incremental growth and now exponential growth with IBM adopting the IBM Garage Methodology across the company. In 2017, I was appointed IBM Fellow by our CEO, the highest technical executive level in IBM. I am one of 89 active Fellows developing and driving our technical strategy. A key role of IBM Fellows and all technical leaders in IBM is to grow our technical talent and I believe that diversity and inclusion are fundamental to our success as a company and as a technical community. This year we reached a milestone with 4 out of our 8 new IBM fellows being women!Step one to driving the expansion of diversity and inclusion is to establish a personal deep belief that they are core to business success and are personally enriching. I learned to value diversity at a young age as my mother has always fought for equal rights. I later learned the value of diverse teams in business, both from my personal experience and from studies such as McKinsey’s ‘Delivering thru Diversity’ and IBM’s ‘Women, leadership, and the priority paradox.’ I take actions every week to ensure inclusion. This week I consulted our Diversity and Inclusion office on diversity of photos for a publication, worked on shaping a job role for a high potential woman architect, and nominated attendees for Grace Hopper from outside of North America.Walking the TalkOur team has a diverse set of designers, developers, and architects. We have Garages focused on IBM Cloud in 12 countries. We have men and women, people of various ethnicities and religions, recent graduates to 30 year IBMers, right brain and left brain thinkers, introverts and extroverts, geeks and sports lovers. The diversity and inclusion in the Garages have been critical to our success innovating with clients.Here are some of the things we are doing to foster diversity in IBM, and I’ve added some advice for potential employees too:• Hiring diverse leaders who have empathyWe focus on ensuring diversity in our leadership team at all levels. We ask our minority (of all kinds) leaders to take a leadership role in improving diversity. Leaders who empathize with different points of views and ways of working will foster a culture of lively interactions maximizing the benefits of diversity. As a prospective employee, consider the diversity of the leadership of the company and the part of the company you would work for. At IBM, our female CEO Ginni Rometty is a truly inspirational leader and caring person. In the IBM Garage for Cloud, we have 7 male leaders and 6 female leaders of various ethnicities, religions, and ages across the world.•Ensuring interviewers come from diverse backgrounds – matched to candidates when possibleI often remind hiring managers that any candidate who is a woman or minority and/or places priority on diversity will absolutely notice the diversity of a team when they interact or interview with that team. We have a lot of women leaders in the Garage. We make a point of having women interview women candidates and matching roles (e.g. a technical woman interviewing a technical candidate), and do our best to have diversity in all sets of interviewers. Is there diversity in who is interviewing you appropriate for the region you are in? Just this week, I got a good lesson in considering the regional population diversity – don’t apply what would be diverse representational from one region to another.•Having an intentionally inclusive public presenceImagine a 25-year-old Latina researching a company she is interviewing for and sees a speaker lineup that is mostly white male over 40 on their conference website. If I were her, I might not even show up for the interview. Is the company you are interviewing for showing and actively promoting diversity in their public presence? At IBM, diversity and inclusion are considered core to the success of our business and it shows on every public platform. This week, when asked to recommend a few Garage consultants to include in a social media event, I recommended women and men from geographies outside of US and of different ethnicities and different job roles.BeingTruly Inclusive, Not just DiverseDiversity and inclusion must go to together. In an article on inclusion, the Society for Human Resource Management defines inclusion as “the achievement of a work environment in which all individuals are treated fairly and respectfully, have equal access to opportunities and resources, and can contribute fully to the organization’s success.” I think what makes an environment truly inclusive is:•Value, action, and continuous improvementInclusion isn’t just to be talked about, action must be taken. Missteps occur, in life and work, that need to be addressed, differences need to be celebrated, and everyone must be held accountable. There was a mistake in scheduling a recognition event in conflict with a major religious holiday of one of the people being recognized. That team is now checking for religious holidays against the planned attendees. As a potential employee, ask how missteps are handled by the company you are considering? If you are determining whether a company is right for you, ask to talk to potential colleagues so you can ask them about the culture and what efforts are made to continuously improve. If you are considering IBM, I am confident you will be impressed with what you hear (as I am impressed by what we do).• Programs and policies, and use dataDoes the company you are interviewing at have programs that are proactive in matching women and minorities with growth opportunities and mentors? We have lots and lots of programs and communities. I co-lead a women’s group for technical women in our IBM Cloud and Cognitive organization building community and providing valuable guidance. Another example is that I always check and drive that the diversity of attendees nominated for a special training match the diversity of the organization’s population. My favorite new program IBM has is ‘Tech Re-entry’ which provides paid apprenticeships to talented technical professionals who took a break from the workforce for whatever reason, and would like to come back and relaunch their careers.• Setting expectations and actively addressing issuesThe IBM Garage recently published a blog series. We sent out a request for diverse population of writers. However we got submissions mostly from men in North America, coming from the experienced population. Upon seeing this, we proactively asked consultants from other geographies, women, and people with different experience levels to write additional blogs. We also discussed it as a senior leadership team, and I’m optimistic we will do better in the future.• Knowledge and sensitivityAs you start a new job, you can respect people’s privacy while getting to know them at a more personal level. Take the time to get to you know your colleagues more holistically, so you can better benefit from their different points of view and become knowledgeable about them in order to be more inclusive. Imagine you learn that a third of your team doesn’t have kids. Change the ‘how was your weekend’ discussion that is getting dominated by ‘teenagers are a delight…’ (I know as I have one) and unintentionally excludes non-parents to a more inclusive discussion.Seeing Real ResultsDiversity and inclusion aren’t always easy – it is easier to relate to people like ourselves, but that is simply not as interesting or productive or innovative. No one and no organization are perfect on inclusion. When we aren’t inclusive, we need to recognize it, learn, correct, and address how to avoid the lack of inclusion going forward. The starting point is to truly care about diversity and inclusion and continuously improve.I see the difference diversity and inclusion make every week in our Garage work and in IBM. I learn from differences in thinking far more than I do from homogeneity. The quality of creative ideas we develop for our clients are very much improved by bringing together different points of view. The breakthrough ideas most often come from reaching beyond our own experiences. And for me personally, seeking and having diversity amongst my team, my colleagues, and my friends greatly enriches my life.I and my career have benefited from IBM’s inclusion programs. I’m participating in IBM’s public Be Equal program, a call to arms to society at large to promote gender equality. I hope you will join our Be Equal community and make a pledge too. In conclusion, I’m proud to be a female IBM Fellow, proud to be a female IBMer, and proud to be an IBMer.The original blog was published here.

22 Ways Women Continue to Advance Their Careers at IBM – 2023 Update

Last year, we sat down with IBM’s D&I Women’s Community Leader, Julie, to discuss the many ways women have found success in their careers while working at IBM. We’re happy to provide an updated list of new and expanded programs and opportunities for women at IBM to leverage as they continue to build their careers.At IBM, women have been making contributions to the advancement of technology since the company’s founding, playing a critical role in driving innovation and transformation. IBM hired its first woman employee in 1899 and has been creating meaningful roles and opportunities for women ever since.IBM recognizes that a diverse leadership team and a culture of conscious inclusion, belonging, and active allyship are vital to fostering innovation and business growth. We’re proud to offer several career, leadership, mentorship, sponsorship, and upskilling opportunities for women all around the world.Career Acceleration ProgramsWe’ve had several thousand women at IBM participate in a career acceleration program aimed at growing leadership and networking skills. Below is a sampling of our global offerings, as well as some of our many geography-based programs designed to address specific regional needs.Global Programs:1. Building Relationships & InfluenceA global leadership program for women with executive potential, designed to accelerate their IBM career through face-to-face sessions and action-centered learning. Women at IBM explore ways to advance their leadership experience, build more effective business relationships, and improve influencing skills.2. Creating Your Leadership JourneyAlso known as “Level Up”, this program is designed to develop executive potential women for leadership roles. It offers participants the opportunity to learn strategies for increasing visibility and identify ways to balance the demands of work and home life.3. Unleashing Your Leadership PotentialA book club-like learning series designed to strengthen leadership skills of IBMers to become influential leaders. Women at IBM have the opportunity to learn how to enhance their personal branding, build stronger relationships, and find better work-life integration.4. Women in the Corner OfficeThis program focuses on fostering a more inclusive work environment to support the career acceleration of IBM women. It features quarterly round tables with executives who provide career advice and networking, as well as opportunities for women to connect with a mentor, coach, or sponsor.Geography-Based Offerings:5. Elevate Women Leadership DevelopmentFor IBM women in Central and Eastern Europe, East Africa, and Latin America, this program is an opportunity to develop leadership skills through a customized and tailored learning plan. It focuses on how to create a leadership journey and build a personal brand that resonates.6. DACH Women & LeadershipFor IBM women in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, this program is designed to help women at IBM develop 21st century leadership skills. It’s a chance for women to gain confidence while creating personal strategies for career development.7. TanmatraFor IBM women in India, this program offers a blend of academic, experiential, and reflective learning to help participants develop personal, functional, and strategic leadership skills. Over the course of nine months, women learn how to prepare to become executives through job shadowing and networking sessions with business leaders, as well as opportunities for mentoring and one-on-one consulting.8. Lean In for AllyshipAlso for women at IBM in India, this new program educates managers on the importance of advocacy for women to ensure they’re on the slate for promotions to leadership positions.9. Top Women Elite CircleFor IBM women in China, this program accelerates the personal and professional growth of early career women, blending group and personal coaching activities to assist in gaining a deeper awareness and connection to oneself.10. Europe Elevate+This program is designed for women across Europe who want to reach an executive level in their career. During this 12-month program, participants partake in leadership development sessions, individual coaching, and sponsorship.11. Women Advancement Through Leadership & KnowledgeFor early career, IBM women in Mexico, this program offers structured mentoring and learnings to develop leadership skills, enhance business acumen, and improve personal branding.12. W50 Women in LeadershipFor IBM women in Japan, the goal of this program is to develop and promote early and mid-career women into management roles, which are characteristically held by men in Japan. It focuses on developing leadership skills, networking, job shadowing, and sponsorship.Mentorship & SponsorshipMentorship and sponsorship are at the forefront of IBM’s culture. IBM mentors and career coaches take the time to actively listen to mentees, while empowering them to build a plan to advance their careers the way they choose to. An IBM sponsor will stand up for women even when they’re not in the room.IBM has also developed several programs to advance women at IBM in technical roles, which helps increase the representation of women in the technical executive population. Additionally, IBM’s emphasis on skills over degrees has opened a route to the technology industry for women from underrepresented communities.13. Tech Re-EntryWomen may need to leave their jobs, mid-career, for a variety of reasons. They may need to care for children or elderly parents, relocate with their family, or complete their higher education studies. IBM designed the Tech Re-Entry program for technical professionals who left the workforce and want to restart their careers and transition back into the workplace.In this paid, six-month program, returning professionals can refresh their skills with prescriptive learning plans and work on high-impact projects alongside multi-disciplinary teams to deliver client-critical solutions. The program is available worldwide and may vary by country or circumstance. You can learn more here.14. IBM ApprenticeshipThis full-time, earn-and-learn program, is designed for individuals, often without traditional four-year degrees, who are looking to reinvent their careers and make the shift from less flexible careers, such as food service, retail, and manufacturing, to become Cybersecurity Analysts, Digital Designers, Developers, and more.Participants can collaborate and network with real IBMers, receive mentorship from experts in their field, earn digital credentials, and fast-track their technical and professional development. You can learn more here.15. Journey to AllyshipThis unique campaign to increase allyship at IBM is comprised of a cohort of women and allies joining forces for ten months to participate in education and learnings, collaborate on careers and leadership, and work together to embrace a collection of high-impact actions everyone can take to create, and become, better allies across IBM.16. STAR Executive Sponsorship ProgramThe Systems Talent Acceleration and Recognition (STAR) Executive Sponsorship Program is designed to help mid-level women grow their leadership skills for executive potential positions. The program lasts between 6-12 months, with participants hearing from various IBM speakers to gain a greater understanding of leadership opportunities at IBM.17. Pathways to Technical LeadershipThis program is designed to recruit, develop, and retain mid-career, diverse technical leaders. Participants can identify their career aspirations and develop leadership skills with self-paced education, workshops, mentoring, and personalized training. Senior leaders actively engage with participants, offering shadowing opportunities and hosting roundtable career discussions.Business Resource Groups (BRGs)BRGs at IBM are global and local, employee run communities for individuals with similar identities, along with their allies. IBM offers more than 65 virtual and in-person BRGs specifically for women worldwide that helps expand their personal and professional networks, develop key skills, gain access to mentorship and sponsorship, and advocate for issues important to women. Simply put, BRGs are the feet on the ground for the engagement of women at IBM.18. Here are a few examples of the many BRGs for women at IBM:“SWIFT” (Successful Women Inspiring Future Talent), is a global BRG with a membership of over 5,000 women from North America that provides tailored support for personal growth and career development through networking and mentoring activities.India has the largest BRG for women, with multiple chapters around the country, for women at IBM to participate either in-person or virtually. They work closely with diversity and inclusion leaders to create allyship, improve women’s health and well-being, and host career strategy events.The Americas also have very active BRGs in cities like New York City, NY, Austin, TX, Atlanta, GA, San Francisco, CA and the surrounding Valley area, and many other cities across the U.S., Canada and Latin America. They host events and workshops all year long, with multiple celebrations during Women’s History Month in March. These events focus on topics like intersectionality, volunteerism, leadership, career journeys, managing work and home life, and caretaking.“Connecting Women”, one of the largest BRGs in Europe, Middle East, and Africa, includes several countries and regions that host both in-person and virtual events. Topics are centered around issues that women want to learn about…everything from careers to menopause.We recently launched a BRG in the Greater China Group region, focused on growing careers and women representation across all technical and non-technical roles.External PartnershipsIBM teams with external organizations devoted to making a difference, leveraging research, and offering resources and support to women at IBM.19. Conferences for WomenConferences for Women is the largest network of women’s conferences in the U.S. Its mission is to promote, communicate, and amplify the influence of women in the workplace and beyond. Women at IBM have the opportunity to participate in these conferences in California, Texas, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. You can learn more here.20. Women’s Business Collaborative (WBC)This alliance of national professional women’s organizations works together to achieve equal pay, position, and power for all businesswomen. Tens of thousands of diverse, professional women and men and business and media organizations help accelerate change through collaboration, advocacy, action and accountability. All IBMers can participate in any WBC event. You can learn more here.21. Society of Women Engineers (SWE)A global, non-profit organization, with a membership of nearly 30,000 individuals, focused on issues of interest to women who specialize in engineering and other technical careers. IBM has been a long-standing partner and sponsors membership for technical women at IBM to join. You can learn more here.22. The WIT NetworkA global and local Not-for-Profit organization that provides inspiration, education, mentoring, networking, and practical advice to empower individuals to help build and grow their careers in technology. Its mission is to encourage women and girls to study STEM and pursue careers in technology, enable more women to attain leadership positions and career advancement, and help companies change the landscape of gender equality in their business. All IBMers can participate in any WIT event. You can learn more here.

Solo mom to thriving leader: How Avanade's support enables growth

I am Kylie Dimstas, solo mother by choice, world traveler, adventurer and delivery management lead at Avanade. Since joining Avanade, I have been afforded many opportunities to wear multiple hats and explore various leadership roles in delivery within Australia and Growth Markets. I can confidently say that joining Avanade as a delivery lead was the best decision. It was as if all my professional experiences up to this point led me to where I truly belonged.One of the things that continues to impress me is Avanade’s commitment to inclusion and diversity. As a solo mom by choice, I wasn’t sure how supportive my employer would be regarding my decision to create a unique family structure. But from the get-go, I felt accepted as Avanade isincredibly supportive of people from all walks of life – whether it was cultural diversity, gender equity or non-traditional families like mine. At Avanade, you get the freedom to be who you are and bring your true self to work.Avanade as an organization has been supportive through wellness and flexible work arrangements, maternity and development programs, as well as promotion opportunities and equals chances for everyone to excel in their roles.Each location within Avanade has a special and inclusive culture. I was originally based in Brisbane (though I’ve since relocated in Melbourne) where the local team was like an extended family - colleagues and their families connected, and our kids became friends.Career growth and development at Avanade is not just a catchphrase; it's a way of life. With endless opportunities to pivot your career, accelerate or experiment in a safe and supportive environment, the sky is the limit. When you're in a room filled with some of the brightest minds you've ever met, you know you’re in the right room. It feels energizing and inspiring to learn and grow alongside this incredible team where each one is pushing the boundaries of possibilities.As a proud recipient of Avanade’s global Delivery Hall of Fame award, I can attest to the power of a supportive team and mentorship from senior executives in achieving success. Working in teams having people from different backgrounds can be challenging. But at Avanade, it’s special. New project teams all go through “forming, storming, norming, performing" cycles, but we come out stronger than ever. We learn, we connect, have fun and deliver optimal results for our clients.As a working mother, I have experienced Avanade’s support first-hand. When I returned to work after having my children, I suffered a crisis of confidence. Their “let’s walk before we run again” approach helped me ease back into my role and find a balance that worked for me.Imagine having the flexibility to work full-time and still spend quality time with your family. It sounds like a dream, right? But for me, it's a reality thanks to Avanade's Alternative Work Week Program.What’s more, at Avanade, every day is a day of celebration! Whether it’s International Women's Day, Diwali or Lunar New Year, we are always ready to come together and celebrate the diversity that makes us who we are.Professionally, I love pushing boundaries and my STEM background and client-centric attitude led me towards delivery work. Personally, what I love is travelling and experiencing new places, and Avanade allows me to do that.Avanade's commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace extends beyond just policies and programs and empowers employees to find the work-life balance that works for them. For me, that means being able to be present for both my career and my family. I'm proud to work for a company that values its employees as whole people, not just cogs in a machine.It’s indeed refreshing to be a part of a workplace where everyone has a place and feels comfortable being their true authentic selves.The original blog was published here.

Wendy Komadina: No one excited me more than Cloudflare, so I joined.

I joined Cloudflare in March to lead Partnerships & Alliances for Asia Pacific, Japan, and China (APJC). In the last month I’ve been asked many times: “Why Cloudflare?” I’ll be honest, I’ve had opportunities to join other technology companies, but no other organization excited me more than Cloudflare. So I jumped. And I couldn’t be more thrilled for the opportunity to build a strong partner ecosystem for APJC.When I considered joining Cloudflare, I recall consistently reading the message around “Helping to Build a Better Internet”. At first those words didn’t connect with me, but they sounded like an important mission.I did my research and read analyst reports to learn about Cloudflare's market position, and then it dawned on me, Cloudflare isleading a transformation. Taking traditional on-premise networking and security hardware and building a transformational cloud-based solution, so customers don’t need to worry about which company supplied their kit. I was excited to learn that Cloudflare customers can simply access the vast global network that has been designed to make everything that customers connect to on the Internet secure, private, fast, and reliable. So hasn’t this been done before? For compute and storage that transformation is almost a commodity now, but for networking and security, Cloudflare is leading that transformation and I want to be part of that.As I continued to learn more about Cloudflare, I connected with the mission ofProject Galileo, Cloudflare's response to cyber attacks launched against important, yet vulnerable groups such as social activists, humanitarian organizations, minority groups and the voices of political dissent, who are repeatedly flooded with malicious cyber attacks in an attempt to take them offline. I was inspired that Cloudflare was part of something beyond a technology transformation. Vulnerablegroupsandcommunitieswho are part of Project Galileo, have access to Cloudflare security services at no cost.So now that I’m on the inside I shouldn’t be surprised that I continue to find reasons why Cloudflare isthe placeto work for. Female leadership is well represented, including our President, COO, and co-founder, Michelle Zatlyn, who took the time to meet me during the interview process, and Jen Taylor our Chief Product Officer, whom I met while she was in Sydney meeting customers and partners, gave me a warm welcome.In my third week in the company, I met a new colleague at a team gathering. We immediately hit it off chatting and getting to know each other. She had built a career in the sports industry which was ripped from under her during the pandemic, where she was one of the many who lost their jobs. What inspired me about her story was how Cloudflare embraced this as an opportunity to bring diverse talent into the company. They opened their virtual arms and doors to offer her an opportunity to build a career. Cloudflare crafted a path that led her into a Business Development role and now into an Associate Solutions Engineer role. Who does that? Cloudflare does, and I’m working with inspiring leaders who are committed to making that happen.Finally, early in my career I learned the importance of working with Partners. It is important to commit to joint goals, build trust, celebrate success and carry each other through the trenches when things get tough. As a freshly anointed Cloudflare employee, my top priority is to build a strong culture of partnering. Partners are an important extension of our team and through Partners we can provide customers with deeper engagement and expert knowledge on Cloudflare products and services. My initial priority will be to focus on building Zero Trust Partner Practices supporting a significant number of APJC businesses who are planning aZero Truststrategy, driven byan increase in cyber attacks. This year, we are rolling out sales and technical enablement, in addition to marketing funding to accelerate the ramp up of our Zero Trust partners.In addition, the team will lean into partnerships who offer professional services and consulting practices that can support customer implementations. Our partners are critical to our joint success, and together we can support customers in their journey through network and security transformation. Finally, I’m excited to share that our co-founders Matthew Prince and Michelle Zatlyn will be in Sydney in September forCloudflare Connect. I look forward to leveraging that platform to share more detail on the APJC Partnerships strategy and launching the APJC Partner Advisory Board.The original blog was published here

Embrace equity on International Women’s Day (and every day)

Happy International Women’s Day! The global theme for 2023 is#EmbraceEquity, which is part of an ongoing effort to raise awareness around “Why equal opportunities are no longer enough.” Today is a time to highlight achievements made by women, but also an opportunity to become better informed, and collaborate and brainstorm about the path forward.“People start from different places, so true inclusion and belonging require equitable action.”— internationalwomensday.comHelp put an end to gender bias and discriminationConsider taking a few minutes today to learn about pervasive challenges affecting women, including in the workplace. Since unconscious bias is a major driver of hurdles holding women back, it is beneficial for people of all gender identities to educate ourselves about the varied experiences of others.Here are some resources to get help get you started:Recognize the difference between equity and equality and see why striving for equality can interfere with inclusion-related efforts.Read highlights from the Women in the Workplace report from McKinsey and LeanIn.Org to examine factors that are holding women back from advancement and in many cases making them decide to leave a company. One notable statistic: “For every 100 men who are promoted from entry-level roles to manager positions, only 87 women are promoted, and only 82 women of color are promoted.”Watch a five-minute video of the history of the concept of intersectionality, explained by Kimberlé Crenshaw, who coined the term. Intersectionalityrefers to the “double bind of simultaneous racial and gender prejudice.”Better understand challenges within the tech sector in the report What (and Who) is Holding Women Back in Tech? One finding from this survey, conducted by Girls Who Code and Logitech, is that 90% of women report experiencing microaggressions at work. The report describes key career drivers and the importance of communities of support.What is Womenflare and how are we celebrating International Women’s Day?Womenflare is a Cloudflare employee resource group (ERG) for women and people who advocate for women. We are an employee-led group that is here to empower, represent, and support.At Cloudflare, we are continuing our tradition of building community and celebrating women’s achievements together throughout March. We are also encouraging discussion on equity vs. equality and how we can champion equity for ourselves and those around us with these internal events in the weeks ahead:Celebrating with comedy:We are kicking things off with some fun and jokes from Laugh.Events! Offering “Laughter as a Service (LaaS),” they will deliver stand-up comedy, musical comedy, and other comedic activities for a celebratory “Workplace Variety Hour.”Equity and allyship chats:After our celebrations, we are opening forums to discuss equity and what this means for each of us in our unique intersectionalities. We have invited some of our fellow employee resource group leads from Asianflare, Nativeflare, and Proudflare to share with us and dive into how we can be both supported and supportive.Equity leadership panel:Our internal leadership panels were always well received in previous years, so we decided not to mess with a good thing. This year, we will be inviting another group of inspirational women leaders in Cloudflare to share their experiences with us and explore the areas where we can promote equity in the workplace.And more:We have so much more planned for March! From Book Club and meetups to Cloudflare TV episodes and networking events, we are partnering across teams to ensure there are plenty of opportunities to participate and join in on the fun and discussions.No matter how you plan to celebrate International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, consider how you can do your part to champion an equitable world. Join the #IWD2023 movement — #EmbraceEquity today (and every day)!Life at CloudflareLearn more about how we are cultivating community, including through employee resource groups like Womenflare, via our careers page—and check out our open positions.To read about our progress on the UN Ten Principles and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), download our latest Impact Report.The original blog was published here.

Building a sustainable workforce, through communities

At Cloudflare, we have our eyes set on an ambitious goal: to help build a better Internet. Today the company runs one of the world’s largest networks that powers approximately 25 million Internet properties. This is made possible by our 1,900 team members around the world. We believe the key to achieving our potential is to build diverse teams and create an environment where everyone can do their best work.That is why we place a lot of value on the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion. Diversity, equity, and inclusion lead to better outcomes through improved decision-making, more innovative teams, stronger financial returns and simply a better place to work for everyone.To become more diverse, equitable, and inclusive, we believe it’s important to focus on communities within and around our company.Building internal communities at CloudflareAt Cloudflare, like most workplaces, there are built-in communities: your direct team, your cross-functional partners and (because we take onboarding very seriously) your new hire class. These communities, especially the first two, are important to help you get your job done. But we want more than that for our team at Cloudflare. We believe that community builds connection and fosters a sense of belonging.Because of that, we have supported the growth of over 16 Employee Resource Groups (ERG’s). We use the term ERG broadly at Cloudflare. We have many ERG’s focused on traditionally under-represented groups in tech: Afroflare (Black, African diaspora), Latinflare, and Womenflare; groups that have been historically marginalized: Proudflare (LGBTQIA+), Cloudflarents (parents and caregivers); as well as interest and affinity groups like Mindflare and Soberflare. To read more about all of our ERGs, visit our diversity, equity, and inclusion webpage or read about them on our blog. In addition to creating a community of support and belonging, our ERGs also work to enhance career development of their members and contribute to the development of a more inclusive culture at Cloudflare.Building the skills to build communitiesWe define an inclusive culture as one where everyone feels safe, welcome and respected with a sense of belonging. We do not leave this to chance. We make investments in training and programs to develop and deepen the skills needed to nurture and preserve inclusive communities at Cloudflare.One of our earliest offerings was Ally Skills training. The aim of this workshop is to help build awareness of the types of behavior and language which can be harmful to inclusivity at Cloudflare, and teach simple, everyday ways to support people who are targets of systemic oppression. During the workshop, team members share strategies on how to act as allies and how to create a long-lasting, inclusive culture at Cloudflare. As the program was being rolled out, the management team did the workshop together and quickly realized these were not skills reserved for ‘allies’ but it was our expectation that this was how all of our team members treated each other. These were necessary skills to be successful at Cloudflare. As a result, we reworked some pieces of the workshop and renamed it: How We Work Together.We have also partnered with Paradigm IQ and Included to create a three-part Unconscious Bias Education Program. These workshops are a mix of eLearning and facilitated workshops where we learn about how to help mitigate unconscious bias and make our company a more welcoming and inclusive place for everyone.tEQuitable is an additional comprehensive resource which helps us create a safe, inclusive, and equitable workplace. They provide an independent sounding board where our employees may confidentially raise a concern, access a just-in-time learning platform, and get advice from professional Ombuds. They also help us identify systemic workplace issues and provide us with actionable recommendations for how to improve our workplace culture. What we especially love about tEQuitable is that it’s all about empowering our employees with tools and resources to address issues that may be impacting them, or they may witness impacting others, so we all play an active role in maintaining and nurturing our culture.One other program worth highlighting is our Week On: Learning and Inclusion. This program came as a response to the murder of George Floyd in the US at the end of May 2020. Our Afroflare global leaders suggested we use Juneteenth as a full-day of deep learning from external experts on topics ranging from the history of race and racism to the psychological impact of racism on people of color. In 2021, we expanded it from a one-day program to a week full of programming with topics ranging from antiracism keynotes, inclusive people management workshops and inclusive recruiting practices.Holding ourselves accountable to an inclusive cultureIncreasing awareness and skill-building is valuable, but it is not enough. We also have to hold ourselves accountable by analyzing data, setting goals and measuring progress objectively. Each year we set company-wide goals around our diversity, and for the last few years we’ve added individual goals for managers — one focused on building a more diverse team, and one focused on building an inclusive team culture.We also place a high value on behaviors at Cloudflare. This is imperative because we believe that culture is defined by the behaviors we reward. So in order to have a healthy and inclusive culture, we must reward the behaviors that promote and preserve that. We have defined these behaviors as our Cloudflare Capabilities.We screen for these Capabilities during our interview process, and they are used in performance and promotion conversations. We hold ourselves accountable by using a very simple formula: Performance = results + behaviors. Equally weighted.Our Recruiting EffortsSpeaking of interviewing, hiring is an important part of our diversity story. We believe that diverse teams win, and we put in a lot of effort to build diverse teams across the company. We have many team members who took unconventional paths into tech, and we believe that makes us stronger as a company. In fact, many of our job descriptions read:We realize people do not fit into neat boxes. We are looking for curious and empathetic individuals who are committed to developing themselves and learning new skills, and we are ready to help you do that. We cannot complete our mission without building a diverse and inclusive team.In addition to an inclusive and expansive mindset around hiring, we also have interviews dedicated specifically to fit against our Capabilities, as well as leveraging technology and tools to help identify great talent who help to increase the diversity of our teams.We have also made investments in events and partnerships that help support our diversity recruiting efforts. In August 2016, Cloudflare was one of the first companies to partner with Path Forward when it first launched its program in California. [Fun fact: that’s how I learned about Cloudflare and became interested in working here]. In Singapore, we have a similar partnership with Mums@Work.We also engage with organizations and participate in events that help us reach talent from underrepresented groups. We have sponsored and spoke on stage at events like Lesbians Who Tech and Grace Hopper, where our co-founder, President and COO, Michelle Zatlyn, delivered the keynote in 2020. We regularly attend events and conferences hosted by AfroTech, Women Who Code, Girls Who Code, TAPIA, NSN, and more.Engaging with external communitiesOur ethos is to support and connect with external communities as well. Prior to the pandemic, when our offices were fully open and social and professional events were a thing, we regularly hosted external organizations to host events in our communal spaces. One example of such an organization is Wu Yee Children’s Services, a San Francisco Chinatown-based nonprofit that connects parents and caregivers to affordable childcare options, offers payment assistance to low-income families, and other family and community services. We were honored to host their orientation session. Another organization we hosted was Women Who Code SF. We regularly hosted their “ algorithm and interview prep” workshops, which helped women coders gain the skills they need to land good jobs in the tech industry. Unlike many of our tech company peers, we did not offer free lunch five days a week. It was important to us that our team members got out of the office and supported local businesses and restaurants. It is important that we do not isolate ourselves, but rather are part of a larger community.We also believe in giving back to our local communities. Prior to COVID, Cloudflare dedicated one week every year to volunteer efforts. Coordinated across many of our large office locations, we would dedicate each day for a full week volunteering at employee-nominated, local non-profit organizations. Our participation pivoted to virtual during COVID, but we are anxious to return to in-person giving when we can.While we are proud of these efforts, it is in using Cloudflare products and services for good that is truly special. Cloudflare’s mission to help build a better Internet means we are in a unique position to help vulnerable websites, applications and services be safer, faster and more reliable online.A few to highlight:Project GalileoOrganizations working in the arts, human rights, civil society, journalism, or democracy, may apply for Project Galileo to get Cloudflare’s cybersecurity protection, for free. Since 2014, we’ve been leveraging our services to support vulnerable public interest web properties including, but are not limited to: minority rights organizations, human rights organizations, independent media outlets, arts groups, and democracy and voter protection programs.Our support of one of these organizations has blossomed over the years. We are proud to announce our partnership with The Trevor Project. Founded in 1998 by the creators of the Academy Award®-winning short film TREVOR, The Trevor Project is the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning (LGBTQ) young people under 25. We support the organization through monetary donations, a partnership with our LGBTQIA+ Employee Resource Group, Proudflare, and free Cloudflare services through our Project Galileo Program.Since 2017, we have donated about $8 million in cybersecurity tools under Project Galileo.Athenian ProjectCloudflare launched the Athenian Project in 2017 to provide our highest level of cybersecurity services for free to state and local governments in the United States that run elections. The project is designed to protect these websites tied to elections including information related to voting and polling places, voter registration and sites that publish election results. And voter data from cyberattack, and keep them online. During the 2020 U.S. election, we worked closely with civil society and government agencies to share threat information that we saw targeted against these participants and protected more than 292 websites in 30 states, including the Missouri Secretary of State, Solano County in California and The Colorado Department of State.In recognition that election security is a global issue, we recently announced our partnerships with the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, National Democratic Institute and International Republican Institute to extend our cybersecurity protections to election management bodies around the world, as well as organizations that support free and fair elections. We look forward to continuing our work to protect resources in the voting process and help build trust in democratic institutions around the world.Project FairshotAround the world, governments, hospitals, and pharmacies are struggling to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine. Technical limitations are causing vaccine registration sites to crash under the load of registrations. At Cloudflare, we want to help. Cloudflare's Waiting Room feature allows organizations with more demand for a resource — be it concert tickets, new edition sneakers, or vaccines — to allow individuals to queue and then allocate access. Waiting Rooms can be deployed in front of any existing registration website without requiring code changes. As we watched the world struggle to fairly and efficiently distribute the COVID-19 vaccine we wanted to lend our technologies and expertise to help. Under Project Fair Shot, Cloudflare is providing Waiting Room to any government agency, hospital, pharmacy, or other organization facilitating the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine for free until anyone who wants to be vaccinated can be, until at least 31-December 2021.We all need to work together to get past this incredibly difficult time worldwide and are humbled to have helped so many different organizations around the world such as the County of San Luis Obispo,Verto Health, and the Ministry of Health for the Republic of Latvia, and more!Why we are publishing our diversity dataAt Cloudflare, we believe in being principled, curious and transparent. Publishing our diversity report is aligned with these values.We are Principled: One of the Cloudflare Capabilities is “Do the Right Thing” — that includes long-term thinking about how we build an innovative and sustainable workforce. We have a fundamental belief that fairness is the right thing. We believe that equity is the right thing.We are Curious: Creating a more diverse and sustainable workforce is hard work. We want to draw lessons from the things we try, and we want to learn from what others are trying. Sustainable communities is not a zero-sum game, and we believe we can all benefit as an active part of the broader community.We believe in Transparency: For many years, we have been transparent with our team about our diversity data and our goals, and we have measured our progress regularly. Now we are taking the step to share publicly because we believe in accountability and accept the responsibility to build a diverse and sustainable workforce.You can check out our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion webpage with our diversity report here.While there is always more work to be done, we are grateful for the empathetic and curious team that makes Cloudflare what it is today. Together, we are optimistic we can build a better — and more inclusive — Internet.The original blog was published here.

How Avanade is Embracing Equity and Driving Change in 2023 and Beyond

This year’s International Women’s Day theme is #EmbraceEquity, inviting people from across the world to support gender equity by fostering inclusive, diverse environments in the workplace and beyond. At Avanade, we’re on a journey toward equality by first focusing on equity. Equitable policies ensure that everyone in our diverse workforce gets their different needs met.Speaker's informationCarla Ramchand - Chief Operating Officer, Growth Markets, AvanadeJoanna Reijgersberg-Siew - Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) Offering Lead Growth Markets, AvanadeWhat to expectWhat does Equity meanHow Avanade is striving to create a more inclusive organization in the worldSo how do we do what matters when it comes to gender equity at Avanade?Avanade’s global Women's Employee NetworkAbout Everywoman NetworkCareer journey stories and career advice. Watch the replay below!

The Future is Female: Meet the Women Shaping the Future of Autodesk

Autodesk is the global leader in design and make software. With over $4 billion in revenue, our teams bring better design outcomes to the most recognized technology and media companies in the world. On 16th March, we met some of Autodesk's women leaders and get the inside scoop on their company culture. Speaker's information - Padmaja Manjunath, Senior Manager, Engineering Specialized Services - Sissi Ren + Director, Finance APAC - Suzi Bryce + Director, Customer Technical Success APAC What to expect Meet the women leaders of Autodesk Asia Pacific Region - Learn about how to advocate for yourself in order to grow and succeed - Learn about career opportunities at Autodesk Asia Pacific region - Hear an inside perspective on working at Autodesk- Gain career advice from women leaders

Equality vs equity: How Lily Zheng changed the way I think about definitions

This year’s International Women’s Day theme is#EmbraceEquity, and its aim is to get us talking about why equal opportunities are no longer enough. Understanding the difference between equity and equality can help us do that.This reminded me of a book I read, “DEI Deconstructed” by Lily Zheng (they/their), whom we had the pleasure of inviting recently as a guest speaker at Avanade. In their book, Lily not only articulated some thought-provoking truths, but they also provided useful and practical ways for organizations to achieve better Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) outcomes.Lily described equity as this: “It has two parts: one, the presence of wellbeing and success across all groups; and two, the absence of discrimination and mistreatment for all groups.”Lily pointed out that – rather than asking, “Is our company trying to achieve equity?” – we should be asking, “Have we achieved pay equity, wellness, balance and flexibility for all groups?” because these are things that we can measure, achieve and celebrate.This view reminded me the importance of how we demonstrate equity in Avanade through measurable outcomes. Some key initiatives which we have already implemented that come to mind include:Equal pay for equal work – and we achieved 100% gender pay equity globally in December 2022.We offer flexibility and choice in our ways of working.In some regions, we already provide gender-neutral paid parental leave; and we're looking to expand it to all regions in Growth Markets.And what about Lily’s view on diversity and inclusion? Their approach is this:Diversity– the demographic composition of a given company that its stakeholders trust and feel represented by.Inclusion– the way you measure if a workplace is a place where everyone feels respected – from every group and every region – and feels able to bring whatever part of themselves they choose into the workplace.I see two important aspects to these definitions:First, they will resonate with a broad range of stakeholders because they aren’t prescriptive. The definition of diversity doesn’t specify the exact proportion of people that should be people of color, Asian, women or LGBTQ+. All it demands is that anyone of any identity can look at a company and say, “Yes, that company represents and includes people like me.” Otherwise, diversity just becomes about counting people who fit into certain boxes. Second, all these definitions give us a way to succeed in DEI because they are immediately actionable.At Avanade, we’re on a journey toward equality by first focusing on equity. Equitable policies ensure that everyone in our diverse workforce gets their different needs met. We are going to use this approach to look at our initiatives in terms of systems – not individuals.This is how we will invite everyone into the DEI conversation. Because if we’re going to build a better workplace for everyone, we need everyone to be involved.This blog was originally published on: Women at Avanade here.

Equity in Action: How our Companies that Care #EmbraceEquity and drive change in 2023 and beyond

At half the sky, we celebrate women 365 days a year. To us, International Women’s Day is yet another day to celebrate the amazing women who inspire us every day and who make a difference in the world. We recognize that, as a career platform, we are creating an essential tool for forging equity and empowering women in their personal and professional lives. Whether it's through mentorship, networking, or educational opportunities, we provide women with the resources and support they need to achieve their goals and pursue their dreams.On this day, it is important to remember that celebrating women is not just a once-a-year event but a constant effort to recognize their achievements and contributions to society. In IrnizahKhusaini of Johnson Controls words, it means to be “empowered, and take ownership to create the environment and space for every one of us to develop, succeed and thrive”.This year’s IWD theme is all about #EmbraceEquity. In this blog post, we have asked our incredible companies that care to share with us how they uniquely #EmbraceEquity in their organization. #EmbraceEquity is about ensuring that every woman, regardless of her background, has equal access to employment, support and opportunities for reach her full potential, despite the roadblocks they are be presented with. Janelle Delaney, Women@IBM A/NZ Executive Sponsor shares the importance of driving conversations about “flexible working, tackling tough issues like menopause, domestic violence, infertility – yes these are topics that need to be spoken about - as well as looking at how to support our teams in life after COVID”. And this isn’t limited to the global gender gap. Hwa Choo Lim from Equinix shares the organization’s commitment to “accelerating digital inclusion and closing the gender digital divide” through “empowering women specializing in technology roles, giving them the support and confidence, they need to succeed and thrive in the field.”Hearing their stories, we are proud to celebrate our Companies that Care, who share the same mission as us and inspire us daily with their profound and authentic commitment to helping women succeed in the workplace and beyond. Read on as we highlight some of our amazing clients who share our mission of how they #EmbraceEquity and celebrate their achievements! Hwa Choo LimVice President, Human Resources, Asia-Pacific, Equinix"Observing the theme “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”, this year’s International Women’s Day is an opportunity for us to recognize the achievements of women who forged their own path no matter the obstacles thrust in their way. Whether it’s dispelling stereotypes, speaking up for themselves and their peers or achieving beyond what was expected of them, we celebrate their accomplishments and courageous perseverance. At Equinix, we place great importance on making women feel “I’m safe, I belong, I matter.” Through long-standing communities for empowerment like the Equinix Women Leaders Network (EWLN), women are able to mentor, connect, belong and nurture one another through ongoing programs that encourage professional growth.Going the extra mile this year, Equinix Foundation, our employee-driven global charitable organization, has committed a $100,000 grant to World Pulseto support its work accelerating digital inclusion and closing the gender digital divide. In order to close the digital divide for women, we will continue to empower women specializing in technology roles, giving them the support and confidence they need to succeed and thrive in the field."Spring AiSoftware Development Manager, Autodesk"I'm embracing equity by taking a new role as the China Region Chapter Lead for Autodesk Women's Network (AWN), our Employee Resource Group dedicated to empowering and developing women at Autodesk. In this new role, I lead the community and collaboratewith other talented women in the executive team. Due to the pandemic, the China AWN community has been relatively quiet for the past three years. Now it's time to restart, reinvigorate, and reunite community members and empower people through various programs and activities. This position allows me to use my strengths to support other women, extend my network, and discover growth opportunities.I'm also embracing equity by engaging in the Autodesk Mentorship Program. This program has helped me learn a lot of practical knowledge, including people management and communication skills."Janelle DelaneyPartner, IBM Consulting and Executive Sponsor, Women@IBM ANZ"Working with our fantastic Women@IBM in Australia and New Zealand squads, we plan to continue to make IBM the best place for women to grow, work and flourish. We focus on initiatives that not only support women but support everyone in our workplace, such as looking at flexible working, tackling tough issues like menopause, domestic violence, infertility – yes these are topics that need to be spoken about - as well as looking at how to support our teams in life after COVID. We are also running events to enable technical women from different organisations to network and encourage each other in their career development. At IBM we care about our people and inclusivity is key to an organisation’s success, so I love having the opportunity to contribute to our success through the work of Women@IBM."Azadeh KhojandiManager, Engineering, The Trade DeskWe recently held our Global Convention in Singapore in February. We hosted a breakfast for all our members of APAC Women in The Trade Desk (TTD). It was a fantastic opportunity to network and we had the chance to meet lots of new people from many different offices. We also posed a challenge to our attendees. We created bingo cards with TTD leaders names on them, and asked our members to take photos with everyone on their bingo card. The pose was in light of International Women’s Day theme for 2023, ‘Embrace Equity’ and we asked each person to pose with a self hug. This challenge was an excellent opportunity for our members to engage with leaders outside their immediate work circle and for them to also have some fun along the way. In 2022, Women in TTD Circles was created to provide a space where women can pursue their own version of success, with a solid base of TTD members who will cheer each other on.Irnizah KhusainiHead of Talent Acquisition, Southeast Asia, Johnson Controls"Creating an equitable and inclusive culture is key for us at Johnson Controls, especially one that’s sustainable over time. For such a culture to happen, we recognize that the journey goes beyond creating appropriate resources and opportunities. It’s also about increasing visibility and support through a collective effort as One Team. Together with the rest of my colleagues in Johnson Controls, we are empowered, and we take ownership to create the environment and space for every one of us to develop, succeed and thrive. I’m committed to reducing bias in the recruitment process, and to amplify the voices of my team and people around me. This journey starts today, and I invite you to join us to build a better tomorrow together!"We are thrilled to have the opportunity to showcase some of our exceptional clients who are leading the way in promoting gender equity and creating a more inclusive and supportive workplace. Their dedication to empowering women and providing them with the tools they need to succeed is truly inspiring, and we are proud to partner with them to make this mission a priority in 2023 and beyond! By having a glimpse into their passion and commitment to women in the workplace, we hope to inspire others to join us in the mission of promoting equity and creating a brighter future for women everywhere.

International Women’s Day 2023: “Why equal opportunities aren’t enough”

“Equality is giving everyone a shoe; equity is giving everyone a shoe that fits.” ~ Dr. Naheed Dosani, advocate for equitable healthcareToday is International Women’s Day (IWD), a day dedicated to celebrating the achievements of women, raising awareness against bias, and taking action in support of equity. This year’s IWD theme “Embrace Equity” is especially important as it calls attention to why, in order to advance women, we need both equality and equity.Equinix is proud to support IWD 2023. As the executive sponsor of our Equinix Women’s Leadership Network (EWLN) and an ally who pushes for the empowerment of women, we want to inspire a conversation about how everyone can collaborate to achieve equity in and out of the workplaceEquality vs. EquityEquality strives to give everyone the same opportunity; equity recognizes differences that prevent equal outcomes with the same opportunity. While equality and equity get used interchangeably, they are inherently different concepts.Equality assumes we are all starting from the same place with the same shared experiences, background and privilege and that by providing access and support equally, everyone will have equal opportunity for success. Equity accounts for the fact that not everyone starts from the same place with the same privilege of access and support, which can create significant disadvantages, making it more difficult to achieve the same goals. This difference is subtle, is often misunderstood and stands in the way of providing real access to opportunity. Equity removes the barriers that get in the way of people’s ability to thrive.Everyone starts from a different place, so how do we learn how to spot inequity? How do we raise awareness? How can we help forge positive change?Allies are necessary to drive equityHere’s how The Great Place to Work organization describes allyship: “Allyship in the workplace means using your personal privilege to support colleagues from historically marginalized communities. Allies wield their influence to amplify the voices and elevate the employee experience of their underrepresented coworkers.”[1]Women are a truly diverse group and not all policies and practices benefit all women equally. Women of color, LGBTQ+, disabled and economically challenged are often disadvantaged which is why women must provide allyship to each other, but women cannot achieve equity alone—we need male colleagues to join this effort as allies who collaborate, promote and fight for equity in the workplace. Getting this buy-in is crucial to systemic improvements to workplace policies, practices, and culture.Diversity of thought helps all of us. Get excited about knowing you can always achieve the best outcome by hearing all views. Allyship is an active, iterative process that starts with recognizing that you don’t have all the answers when interacting with people that may be different than you. An ally asks—and doesn’t assume—what another person needs.”- Mike Campbell, Chief Sales Officer, EquinixWhile many of our male colleagues already believe in gender equality, they may not be sure how to turn gender equality into gender equity. If you’re looking to evolve as an ally and want to take steps to learn how to build equity in support of your woman co-workers, we recommend a few steps to get you started:Be curious, don’t assume and educate yourself– First, read, listen, watch and deepen your understanding. When you do speak with someone to understand their challenges, be fully present and suspend assumptions, ask for permission to discuss, and don’t assume everyone shares the same experience. Listen and pay attention to the specific ways they want to be supported.Own your privilege– Has someone ever questioned your ability to “juggle” raising children while excelling at work? Do you adjust your speech, appearance or behavior to fit into a particular culture because you are the only one like you in the culture? Recognize the advantages, opportunities and resources accorded to you as an ally. By doing so, you can understand how privilege is a resource to deploy for good. Don’t sit back and wait for others; own taking action yourself.Seek and accept feedback– Seek to understand if you have unconscious bias. Ask others for feedback. Establishing trust with women and anyone from a marginalized group is critical before they will feel safe in the power dynamic to provide “unvarnished” feedback. If you miss this step, you risk creating additional stress and work for the person from whom you are seeking feedback. Show appreciation and that you value their feedback (even when it is painful) and be thoughtful and sincere.Become a confidant– Research shows that women advance when they have trusted relationships with male partners at work. These relationships provide women with a space to confide in someone they trust about issues like microaggressions encountered in the workplace. Make the time to be available and to empathize and validate the woman’s experience.Take action– When you witness microaggressions, racist or sexist comments and behavior, be clear and decisive in shutting them down and giving your support in the moment. The key is right in the moment. Explain that you are offended by the comments or actions and that they aren’t acceptable. When you see someone taking up most of the space in a meeting, ask specific questions of women whose contributions and expertise are being overlooked or devalued.Expect challenges as you venture into this new world of allyship, but like any other learning experience, it will get easier. What’s important is that you continue checking in with yourself and others to ensure you’re not slipping back into biased thinking and get feedback about how you can fine-tune your approach.Equinix paves the way for allyship in the workplaceThe Equinix Women Leaders Network (EWLN), one of many in the Equinix Employee Connection Network (EECN), is open to all employees. EWLN is a network of women and allies pursuing growth, visibility and opportunities to increase business impact, and they’ve been doing so for over ten years. Men are welcome to participate as sponsors, mentors and allies. By meeting together, women and men can learn from each other and understand different perspectives. The EWLN is an excellent opportunity for women and men to network and discover new talent. As gender equity becomes core to the company culture through the active allyship of men, it will be exciting to observe the advancement of even more women into leadership roles."EWLN is a network of women and allies pursuing growth, visibility and opportunities to increase business impact, and they’ve been doing so for over ten years."Our Allies Council, which includes 50 senior leaders, promotes gender and racial equity through various programs designed to empower them to become advocates for diversity, inclusion and belonging (DIB). In a six-month reverse mentorship program, the Allies Council partnered with our EECNs to connect leaders with mentors to learn and experience communities with a different perspective.Equinix is also helping close the gender digital divide worldwide with our continued support of World Pulse. We recently announced the expansion of our long-time commitment with a $100,000 grant from the Equinix Foundation to help accelerate digital inclusion for women and girls globally.To learn more about how you can become part of this inclusive and empowering culture, we invite you to explore opportunities to join the Equinix team—worldwide.You might also be interested in:Equinix Employee Connection Networks[1]Claire Hastwell, What Is Allyship in the Workplace?, Great Place to Work, December 14, 2022The original article was published on Equinix Interconnections Blog.

Autodesk’s Renée Pinto on How to Harness Your Creativity to Advance Your Marketing Career

Renée Pinto is a creative soul.The Australian native’s passions include all things creative. “I love to paint. I also love to take photos. I was even represented by a gallery in Paddington, Sydney for many years showcasing my oil paintings , as well as my photography,” Renée shares.When she doesn’t have a paintbrush or camera in hand, she harnesses her creativity at work as a Senior Marketing Manager at global software solutions companyAutodesk.We sat down with Renée to learn how she has used her creativity to grow her marketing career and her tips to harness your creativity so you can do the same.From Hospitality to MarketingRenée’s career started with her love for people. “I started working within the hospitality industry, and that's where my love of marketing first took off,” she explains. “I'm a people person. So marketing and events were something that really suited me.”With a new-found interest in marketing, she moved from working in events to working with small advertising agencies where she enjoyed working in an intimate environment and getting to know people on a personal level. “I started off as a graphic designer,” Renée shares. “I worked in the studio with only two others, which taught me so much about the ins and outs of the business”This experience lent her valuable insight into the different roles it took to run a small business. “You are learning all aspects of the business which I believe is vital to understand how it operates and how your role fits into the bigger picture.While building her understanding of the different moving parts of the company, she started building relationships with her colleagues, regardless of their rank. “Being able to connect with people and not having the hierarchy in smaller organizations, has been something that I think has got me to where I am, because I don't see titles. If you are the the junior graphic designer, I'm going to ask you if you want a cup of coffee, just like I'm going to ask the CEO,” Renée says with pride.This people-first approach supported her when she took a break from the corporate world and turned her passion for photography into a full-time career — an unconventional career move that eventually led her to a bigger marketing role.Passion Project to Full-Time Career and BackRenée’s photography business started as an act of kindness over 15 years ago, first starting as a second job. “It actually started as a charitable thing. I started taking photos for friends and people who couldn't afford it on the weekends whilst still working full-time at an agency,” she shares.And it was through photography that Renée further developed her marketing skills. “It started by using social networks, friends, and family to nominate a family in need of a photo shoot,” Renée explains. “I didn't realize at the time that I was actually marketing, using multiple digital platforms and social channels. Back in those days, print advertising was the way to go, so we even made flyers that we put in letterboxes.”Eventually, her photography and marketing skills flourished so much that she was able to financially sustain herself through her business full-time. However, over time Renée realized that her passions didn’t need to be her full-time job. “I love photography, but I needed more than that. I needed a full-time job as well as an outlet,” she says. “I soon realized [photography] is something that brings me joy, it's almost like my yoga, my escape, my therapy.”After five years of full-time photography, Renée chose to opt for a corporate career that would fulfill her professional desires and allow her to keep her hobbies as passion projects.Landing the Ideal Role at AutodeskRenée eventually found her way to Autodesk, a tech company that is changing how the world is designed and made. Their technology and software span various industries and help customers solve problems and design a better world.She first joined as an events and marketing specialist, which went well with her previous experience. But when a former Autodesk co-worker went on maternity leave, Renée got the opportunity to step into the vacant marketing role on the demand generation team. “I loved it. A portion of that role was executing to our end customers, and then the second portion of that role was my introduction to partners and the channel ecosystem and the importance of building relationships,” Renée shares. “I was working directly with our partners. And that's when I [realized], ‘this is where I need to be. This is my calling.’”Renée has spent the past three years in the Channel Marketing organization at Autodesk as a Channel Marketing Manager, and has recently been promoted to Senior Manager for Channel Marketing APJ. Her day involves “working with Channel Marketing Managers across APJ, meeting with our partners, understanding the gaps and challenges they are facing, and also identifying the enablement our partners require to be successful. Also working alongside our key stakeholders internally, our channel sales teams, demand generation team, channel programs team, and making sure we're aligned with them and have the same priorities and same goals for our partners.”And it was her previous creative endeavors that helped build the framework for her success as a manager and working with partners. “Photography is the perfect starting point in understanding people, because you're sometimes photographing individuals that don't want their photo taken, you're having to get the best out of them,” she explains. “You need to gauge and learn more about their personality and how you will draw the best out of them. Photography's exactly the same as how you would manage and interact with people in the workplace.”Some of Renée's artwork and photography she created during the COVID-19 lockdown and an internal Autodesk painting class she led an internal conference.How to Harness Your CreativityCreativity can often be seen as something you do or don't have, not a skill that can be learned. But Renée disagrees. “I think we're all born with some sort of creativity. It's just how we utilize it or how we embrace it, practice, and develop it. It's like anything in life, the more you do something, the better you become,” Renée encourages.For those looking to harness their creativity and advance in the world of marketing Renée offers this advice.Think outside of the box.“It's great to have an analytical mind. And at the end of the day, data is key — but I think you have to have a balance.” Renée explains. “It's important to have that creative mind and look at things through a new lens so you can work out how you can market that product or solution differently. Sometimes you may fail and sometimes you may succeed, but never be afraid to speak up and share an idea no matter how silly you think it may sound. Usually when in a team environment, what originally sounds like a silly idea, becomes a group discussion with multiple stakeholder inputs and then develops into something that ultimately could be a huge success.”Try different things outside of work.“You are not going to know what you enjoy or what you are good at, in a creative sense, unless you try different things,” says Renée. In order to do this she recommends stepping outside of your comfort zone. “Do a drawing class. Take up the saxophone, whatever your passion is,” Renée urges. And once you try something new, take that same energy into the business world. “We think that we have parameters and we have to stay within those parameters at work. That's not always the case. I also believe having a creative outlet or hobby outside of work is something that is critical to our mental health and in turn will make you successful and happier at work”Try new things within your career and don’t be afraid to fail.At Autodesk, Renée has worked with people who have come to marketing from all different careers and walks of life. “There are definitely people within Autodesk, like myself, who have a very non-conventional background in the tech space,” Renée shares. “We are told when we leave high school that we must know what we want to do and move straight into studies. The pressure on young people can be immense to make a decision straight away, however you can also be successful by trying different roles, working within different industries, and actually getting first-hand experience, which will be valuable in finding where you truly are meant to be. I tried multiple different careers to learn what I loved and then went on to study. There is no one path you should follow and it is never too late to try something new.” To Renée’s previous point, trying new things can be key to success, but more importantly, you shouldn’t be afraid of failure. “If it doesn't work the first time, maybe there's a different way you could do it.”

Roundtable Recap: Key Challenges and Opportunities for Gender Diversity in the Post-pandemic Era

On November 24, Half the Sky gathered 9 leading corporates which included: Microsoft, Accenture, Equinix, Dupont, AkzoNobel, Avanade, Yara International, Johnson Controls, and Ciscofor our inaugural roundtable series: “DE&I Challenges & Opportunities for Corporates in a Post-Pandemic World.” This event was moderated by the HTS Founder & CEO Sabrina Hoand HTS advisor Duncan Hewett.The small group size and selective attendance maximized the opportunity for candid sharing, networking and learning value. We certainly got a lot of insightful pointers to share with you read on for a recap of the days event:It was noted throughout the roundtable that Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have the power to transform business by creating a truly inclusive workplace culture — which, in turn, drives employee satisfaction and retention. In fact, significant polls show that today’s jobseekers prioritize inclusion and want to feel like they belong over financial incentives.Although many companies believe in a DEI strategy many find they run into certain challenges that can complicate the process or keep it at a standstill.Here are the five key challenges identified during the roundtable: 1. Availability of diverse talent Ms. Irnizah Khusaini, of Johnson Controls, shared that one of the key reasons for such a scarce availability of diverse talent is because the industry is mostly pipelined by men. In the 2022 statistics, men are still dominant in the tech industry posing 73.30% over women that has only 26.70%. In addition, women who manage to work into a male-dominated tech companies are often met with lower pay for the same grade of work.Ms Khusaini also added that hiring managers should be encouraged to build more diverse teams and have more women in senior positions. Encouraging managers to view talent through a diverse lens, including the perspective of female talent, can bring valuable dynamics to teams in male-dominated industries, ultimately adding value to the business.2. Lack of initiatives for system changes For Ms. Lynn Dang of Microsoft, she mentioned that it is imperative that a system change should be implemented within the organization to create better roles and opportunities for female talents. “So, for industries like technology, we need systemic changes to enable a more inclusive workplace environment and it really starts from an early age so that young girls are encouraged to pursue careers in STEM” Ms. Dang said. Ms. Lynn also noted that one of the key challenges in implementing DE&I in today's corporate environment is the difficulty in maintaining the flow of female talents joining the tech industry. 3. Cultural challenges Ayaka Yamada, Senior Manager of Culture & Change at Yara mentioned that Japan is also facing cultural challenges when it comes to its female workforce. She shared that, “In Japan, it is unfortunate that women are not given the same level of appreciation for their work in the workplace.” Ms. Yamada also explained that in some cultures in Japan, women tend to stop working after they get married. “They think that they need to contribute a lot to the family and they need to dedicate their lives to housework and caring for their children and husband.” It was noted that Japan is ranked 120 out of 156 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index (GGI) in 2021 the worst ranking for an industrialized nation. 4. Nature of industry For Ms. Tiffany Chan of Accenture, one of the antagonists in improving gender diversity in the workplace is the nature of the of the industry. “I think all leaders are really supportive of having diversity and inclusion in our recruitment but I think the challenge is that the nature of our business makes it really hard to do so.” Ms. Tiffany explained. Further, for industries that focus on manufacturing and industrial work like Dupont, Ms. Angielina Tay noted that the real struggle for their industry is to find female professionals that fit in an operational manufacturing environment. “In our industry, it’s a real challenge to find field scientists, there are only a few female talents who are willing to be part of that kind of environment.” Ms. Angielina shared. 5. Hiring to fill not hiring to fitHiring quickly pose risks and possible detrimental outcome-- it may cause high turnover, lost time and wasted training resources. But most importantly, you might miss on diverse talent that’s critical to a company’s success.For Ms. Jalene Liu of Equinix, she shared the data that shows that female candidates should be nudged 7-9 times before they decide to join a company. Further, she said that hiring managers shouldn’t be in a rush to hire talent. “If the hiring manager is always in a rush, there's very little chance of onboarding diverse talents. So, they have to slow down and be focused on driving diversity, and you know, considering the diversity of candidates before deciding to hire.” Finding the right balance between speed and effectiveness should always be in the process of hiring managers. A lot of challenges on diversity and inclusion has been discussed but there are also key opportunities that were tackled in the roundtable. Here are 5 key opportunities that were discussed during the roundtable: 1. Remote work setup For Ms. Carole Hung of Akzo Nobel, she claimed that remote setups are especially conducive to working moms who are trying to get back in the workforce. “Remote work setups really help, it’s an encouragement to working moms to come back to society.” Ms. Hung said. Aside from working moms, Ms. Tiffany of Accenture also shared her learning experience on people with disabilities. She said that the option of being able to work from home opens a lot more opportunities for persons with disabilities. “They can have the flexibility to work from home now and I think this is an area that we can look into with more effort,” Tiffany said. According to Forbes, remote opportunities will continue to increase through 2023 and it’s been projected that more companies would move to remote setup.2. Culture of empathy in the workplaceForging a culture of empathy takes many shapes and forms in the workplace, even in a remote setup, this type of culture is supported by Ms. Jalene Liu, of Equinix. She said that having an environment with empathy makes a difference when it comes to mutual respect among employers, managers, and employees. She said “Being a good company also has something to do with the company culture, it should build a healthy environment for the employee, there should be.” 3. Right to disconnect Studies have shown that burnout and stress are the effects of an ‘always on’ culture on employees that are checking messages after work. Expert says that knowing how to disconnect after work is one way to resolve it.For Ms. Lynn of Microsoft, she shared her experience of learning the need to delay when it comes to reaching out to employees via email.“I realized I need to delay sending emails after working hours, it’s a way to respect and have empathy and not to disrupt other people's time.” Ms. Lynn explained. 4. Support for Diversity and Inclusion For Mr. Duncan Hewitt HTS advisor mentioned that men who supports women in the workplace are also the kind of allies the industry need to build diversity. On the same discussion, Denise Naidoo of Avanade Asia, added that leaders have the responsibility to ensure that the company represents the communities they live in. “It's about just rebalancing, everyone that comes there [should] feel like they can be their authentic selves and have a sense of belonging,” Denise said. In 2022, there has been a lot of progress when it comes to inclusivity at work. Progressive industries are now creating diversity campaigns to attract and welcome diverse talents around Asia and even the whole world.5. Better recruitment practices For Cisco’s, Mr. Gary Chua, in order to achieve a diversified pool of talent, one effective strategy is to encourage the participation of female talent from early career stages."We've just deployed techniques to start doing internships with female talent and we also started looking at cross-company mentoring of junior talent,” Chua said.In an article from the Guardian, it stated that gender-neutral job descriptions would reduce impostor syndrome among women looking to enter a male-dominated internship. When screening potential interns, companies should have diverse hiring panels and gender-neutral interview questions.The roundtable ended with a fruitful discourse of the challenges and opportunities each of their respective industries face. This discussion will surely reshape the culture of the corporate world to a better, more diverse environment. Join us on our mission to level the playing field for women at work and prepare for the future of work and become a company that cares.

The “boomerang” effect: Former Autodeskers in Shanghai share why they returned to work at Autodesk

Sometimes, you might decide to leave a company for another opportunity, and then after a while, return to the company you were at before – a lot of people call this being a “boomerang” employee. We love when former Autodeskers make their way back to us!We recently spoke with a few boomerang Autodeskers based in Shanghai, China, on why they decided to come back to work at Autodesk:Junyu Zhang first started at Autodesk in 2015 as a Senior Quality Assurance Engineer. After leaving the company for another opportunity, Junyu returned to Autodesk as a Principal User Experience Designer in the PDMS Gen/SIM UX team and is responsible for the user experience design of Generative Design territory in Fusion 360.Liang Shao was a Senior Manager of Software Development when he left the company. After just half a year, Liang decided to come back to Autodesk and returned to the same role.Monica Zhao started her career at Autodesk as an SQA Engineer, was a Product Owner on multiple projects, applied for a Product Manager job in a different division, then switched to an Engineering Manager role. She returned to Autodesk after one year and took a new role as a Product Manager.Renbo Jiang first joined Autodesk in 2007 as a Software Engineer working on Map3D, one of AutoCAD’s vertical products. After exploring other career opportunities for three years, he returned to Autodesk in 2014 in a new role as a Principal Engineer on the Map3D team. Today, he is a Tech Lead on the AutoCAD CI team.Wayne Wang was a Software Engineer at the beginning of his career with Autodesk and a Software Architect when he left to explore another opportunity. He came back to Autodesk after only three months and returned to the same role.What were the reasons for your decision to come back to Autodesk?Junyu: It’s a long story, but in brief, I faced a hard time due to the expansion of family duties during COVID, but the employer I was with wasn’t very supportive, and the repetitive overtime working schedule just depleted every bit of energy both physically and mentally. So, I looked for other opportunities with a better work-life balance. Luckily, former colleagues at Autodesk reached out at the perfect time. Based on my previous experience with Autodesk’s culture, I decided to come back. I’m so glad to be back and see all my old friends!Liang: After Autodesk, I took a role as head of engineering and product at a startup company, with 50 people reporting to me. It turned out my adventure was very risky, and the challenges there became serious concerns, including higher demand with limited resources, negative company culture and lack of psychological safety, and the pandemic’s impact on the company’s performance and overall economic health. My worries kept increasing while my feeling of safety kept decreasing, so I finally decided to quit and return to Autodesk. In contrast, Autodesk is doing so well in these areas, and I got a deep impression of how important these factors are to our professional careers.Wayne:I left Autodesk to join a start-up company. I came back to Autodesk because I needed to have more balance between life, family, and work. I also found it hard to fit into the local company culture at the startup, and I prefer to deal with the more technical work that I had in my previous role at Autodesk. Thank you for having me back!What are the things you enjoy most about working at Autodesk that you didn’t find at your other jobs?Monica: The company culture at Autodesk is very promising and charming. It fosters a psychologically safe environment for employees to bring up their ideas and opinions, guiding everyone on a much simpler and clear decision-making process. It reminds everyone to always collaborate with a One Autodesk attitude.Renbo: Autodesk’s company culture is very attractive to me. Managers care about the growth of their employees, and at the same time, they also pay attention to work-life balance. My colleagues are very friendly — whenever I have a technical problem, there are always colleagues who will proactively help me.Junyu: When I was job hunting, I did get some very good offers with high salaries and great titles. For me, money is an important factor, but not the number one priority. I am a very hard-core technology enthusiast and working for Autodesk, I just feel so proud to be part of such a great journey in technology. We are the voyagers and what we’re doing is a contribution to all mankind — although it may be very small, all the huge leaps are formed by the tiny parts.Liang: Without the comparison of being at another company, I would not have such a deep feeling about how company culture is so important for being successful. Among Autodesk’s company values, one I’d like to highlight is “inclusive.” At Autodesk, you will see being inclusive in the work at every level. Your thoughts are listened to and respected. Feedback is well accepted, and actions are taken. All of this is built on top of Autodesk’s people, who share the same values with our culture and are guaranteed with tools and processes (e.g., 360 feedback, 1-on-1 conversations, employee insight surveys, etc.).Autodesk always tries its best to build a psychologically safe environment. One example is the well-known BPM (blameless postmortem) process, which focuses on improvement rather than blame. Autodesk cares about people – you will find work-life-balance is a common question in the employee surveys, and no doubt, the care is about much more than just work-life balance, if you take the examples about how Autodesk has responded to the pandemic and other events impacting our employees. Also, Autodesk cares about people’s careers and supports them with very meaningful career paths for every job. I believe Autodesk gets paid off with continuous innovation and sustainable growth in business by retaining talent.Why should people consider a career at Autodesk?Wayne:Autodesk is technically driven, with plenty of hard problems to solve, great materials and opportunities to learn and grow, while also balancing life and family.Monica:The company really cares about its employees, from a lot of new initiatives on how to support the new norm of remote work to the support company provided to employees during the pandemic. Even the regular updates from our CEO on the status of the company really demonstrate how we work hard to gain customer trust, take new initiatives to adapt to the world’s changes, and embrace new technologies to help customers reimagine how they work today.Renbo: At Autodesk, you’re treated fairly. Your manager is very concerned about your growth, and there are plenty of training opportunities for you to choose from. You also have many opportunities to do things according to your ideas and influence the people and teams around you. Here, many decisions are made from bottom to top, instead of always top-down.Junyu: I think if we only consider the company culture, Autodesk is quite an ideal organization that is caring and supportive to the employees. Here, it’s easy to balance work and personal lives. But also, if you are the “geek” type like me, you’ll find you’ll always have amazing leading-edge creations to work on to fulfill your curiosities!Liang: From a technical perspective, the depth of the domain knowledge and the professional skills an engineer will learn at Autodesk promise great career growth opportunities. Here, we encourage knowledge sharing and everybody is nice and glad to do that, which is one of the factors that makes Autodesk a great learning environment for everyone. Second, Autodesk’s business is so successful today, but there are still new business opportunities we are exploring – for example, business opportunities with the Cloud Information Model.Finally, everything Autodesk does makes a positive impact on the world! More than 10 million professionals in 185 countries are using Autodesk software to save time and money, gain competitive advantage, and change the way ideas are brought to life — from manufacturing, architecture, engineering, and construction, to media and entertainment. As Autodesk employees, we are proud to say we are doing our part to make the world better and make people’s lives better!Interested in working at Autodesk in China? Check out our current openings!This blog was originally published here.

Six ways to create award-winning employee experiences

Research is proving what we at Avanade have known all along. Delivering an exceptional employee experience (EX) is a sound business strategy - after all, your people drive innovation, customer experience, and business growth. Moreover, the intensifying global war for talent has made it even more important to focus on EX to attract and retain top talent.So, what does it take to increase talent stickiness?According to a report, 65% of employees in Singapore are willing to accept lower salaries or forgo promotions for better work-life balance, overall well-being, and happiness. This mindset is reflected in LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends Report 2022, where people say they want flexibility, remote options, and jobs that care for their mental and emotional well-being.How do you deliver on these new expectations? I believe there are six key pillars to designing for transformative EX.1. Align to a common purpose– A McKinsey research found that people who are “living their purpose” at work had 4x higher engagement and 5x higher well-being. People want to make meaningful contributions, and companies that communicate and live a higher purpose resonate more with their employees. For instance, at Avanade, our purpose is “to create a genuine human impact,” and everything we do for our clients, with non-profits, and for our communities aligns with this greater goal.2. Offer abundant and empowering choices– In the post-pandemic era, companies need a fluid approach that gives everyone real and abundant choices about where, when, and how they get their work done. At Avanade, work and success look different for everyone based on their unique needs. For instance, our hugely successful Alternative Work Week enables people to choose a flexible schedule for their working hours to fit their life outside of work.3. Give people the freedom to be themselves– Your people should feel like they belong in the workplace. And for that, you must make consistent and deliberate efforts to promote an inclusive and bias-free workplace. Often that means breaking down walls, bringing people together, and giving them platforms to connect and collaborate. At Avanade, we have various programs - such as the Avanade Women’s Circle and a partnership with Autism Resource Centre Singapore- that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion .4. Create opportunities for constant learning– For 92% of people, professional development opportunities are important. Companies must show people they are invested in their growth by offering clear career paths, regular upskilling, and creative freedom. At Avanade, we help our people learn on the job by mixing up assignments, encouraging curiosity, and sponsoring hackathons and company-wide innovation contests such as our annual global!nnovateFest.5. Bring in holistic Workplace Experience (WX) thinking- Today’s employees expect intuitive, consumer-like experiences as they go about their workday communicating, collaborating, learning skills, or executing tasks. Companies need a WX strategy that aligns employee experience with productivity goals, business outcomes, and tech capabilities. At Avanade, we bring together IT, HR, and business stakeholders to design programs that amplify workplace experiences.6. Make employees your partners in success– A crucial aspect of EX success is never to assume what would work and instead ask your people. At Avanade, regular pulse surveys help us check in with employees to listen and act on their concerns. We also take this partnership a step ahead with an employee share purchase plan so that everyone can reap the benefits of the company’s success.The secret to winning hearts and mindsAt Avanade, this sentiment has been our guiding light in ensuring that our employees feel inspired, confident, and cared for. We have consistently enabled distinctive experiences, limitless learning, and ambitious growth for our people.I am proud to say that this approach has led to Avanade’s recognition as HR Asia’s Best Companies to Work for In Asia Award 2022 and won us the HR Asia Digital Transformation Award 2022.The original article was published here.

Debunking Myths in IT & Consulting

Are you currently or thinking about working in IT or Consulting industries? You must have heard some rumours about these fields. In this session, we will have women leaders from IBM who have been in the field for quite a long time to debunk those rumours and misconceptions, also they will explain their jobs and experiences, how they built their career path in IT & Consulting industries. Come join the event to learn the global trend of IT and Consulting industries and how women can play key roles in this field. Featured women leaders from IBM ASEANZK; Jeraldyn Lagman (SAP Project Manager) Charu Mahajan (Partner - ASEAN Garage & Ventures Leader, Sector Leader – Distribution) Carissa Hughes (AWS Alliance Lead A/NZ) What to expectDebunk rumours/misconceptions of IT & Consulting industries Discussion around the change to IT & Consulting industries Career journey sharing and career advice What other skills can you bring into the field

Companies that Care™