Cisco employee resource groups (ERGs), affinity organizations that are recognized and supported by the company, are critical to our I&D efforts. All employees are eligible to affiliate with one or more ERGs. To date there are 11 unique Cisco ERGs, with 51 chapters in 23 countries.
ERGs provide nurturing environments within which Cisco employees can:
- Seek career and professional growth
- Advance the success of Cisco business initiatives
- Volunteer for projects that benefit the community
- Support Cisco’s efforts to recruit and acquire talent
- Celebrate and share diverse cultures and commonalities
In June 2008 the company held Employee Resource Group Fairs in 10 locations globally to introduce employees to the spectrum of ERGs that are available and give them an opportunity to meet with ERG members.
A Wide Spectrum of Interests
Cisco ERGs currently include:
- Asian Affinity Network: Provides a forum and a professional network for Asian employees worldwide
- Black Employee Network: Creates an environment for African-American employees to facilitate business excellence, career growth, and community involvement
- Conexion, the Cisco Latino Network: Facilitates Latino professional development, community and educational outreach, networking, and advancement of Cisco’s business objectives
- Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender (GLBT) & Advocates Network: Creates a climate where GLBT individuals are embraced as part of the Cisco family and valued for their contributions to the company and their local and global communities
- Indians Connected: Links the Cisco Indian community to facilitate professional development and networking for employees, drive business growth, market the Cisco brand, and give back to targeted communities in need around the world
- Middle East Inclusion and Diversity Network: Focuses on Middle Eastern employees who want to enhance their careers, support the community, and grow the business by facilitating business partnerships between Cisco and the community
- New Hire Network: Enables early-career new hires to succeed at Cisco by facilitating leadership, professional relationships, and shared experiences
- People With Disabilities Network: Welcomes employees who have or have had a disability, or who know someone within the disabled community
- Service Member Veterans and Family Support Group: Our newest ERG focuses on integrating the experience, values, and knowledge of both active-duty service people and veterans
- Women in Technology Action Network: Provides a forum for women at Cisco to advance their technical and career development, and to promote engineering as a career among girls and women in the community
- Women’s Action Networks: Empowers female employees to grow professionally by offering networking, mentoring, and career development resources to women worldwide; there are a total of 32 chapters in 24 countries
“While serving as professional development and social groups, ERGs have an equally important mission: supporting business partnerships, recruitment, and development. All of our ERGs are extremely active in their communities and at Cisco, and are expanding both in number of chapters and in membership. The ERGs are invaluable resources for employees, as well as for the company as a whole.”
—Marilyn Nagel
Director of Human Resources, Diversity and Inclusion
ERG Activities This Year
Some examples of the recent work and focus areas of Cisco ERGs:
- Women’s Action Networks (WANs) are critical to helping recruit women into careers in technology. For example, the ANZ WAN successfully launched a pilot for Speed Networking, which links Australian and New Zealand women together for professional development and knowledge sharing. The Hong Kong WAN partnered with a WAN at IBM Corporation to hold a one-day career development workshop titled “The Story of Your Success.” In June 2008, the India WAN participated in a Connected Women Leadership Forum that attracted more than 250 professional women from our partner and customer communities. The Korea WAN organized a development workshop that concentrated on increasing business presence and communication skills, while also strengthening the community of support among Korean professional women.
- The Black Employee Network has been focusing on recruiting, retention, and development. It hosted an event in which the National Society of Black Engineers visited the Cisco campus to hear about the Cisco experience, take part in a tour via Cisco TelePresence technology, and network with representatives from the ERG.
- Conexion has formed partner alliances with Hispanic-owned businesses to benefit local communities and to bring incremental revenue to Cisco.
- The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender (GLBT) & Advocates Network has established intercompany benchmarking, best-practice sharing, and social networking with other companies including Apple, Dell, Google, IBM, Microsoft, and Yahoo.
- The Asian Affinity Network and Indians Connected have both been working to establish mentoring programs.
- The New Hire Network hosted the first “Welcome to Cisco” event in San Jose in August 2008.
Diversity Award Recognizes Executive for Going “Above and Beyond”
Rick Moran, vice president of Cisco’s SMB Solutions Marketing, was honored with the first Above-and-Beyond Executive Sponsorship/Champion award from Working Mother Media and Diversity Best Practices. The award was presented at the Network and Affinity Leadership Congress event in New York on June 5, 2008.
This national award recognizes individuals who, in addition to their daily job duties, work to increase participation in employee affinity groups, nurture future leaders, and advocate on behalf of affinity group members to foster personal and company success. Nominated by their superiors and peers, honorees have helped to increase company participation, contribute to profits, champion future leaders, and advocate the values of their members.
Cisco leaders such as Moran are vital in helping realize our vision of creating a truly diverse and inclusive culture, both inside and outside the company. Informed by an understanding and appreciation of the challenges faced by Cisco’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender employees, Moran has been successful through the credibility, trust, and dedicated partnership he has built by delivering appropriate business advice.
As the executive sponsor of the GLBT & Advocates employee resource group, Moran has focused the group’s efforts on leadership, mentoring, and development, helping the group find its voice and spearheading significant changes in company policies. He has also raised the group’s stature as a “go-to” resource within Cisco.
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