Inclusion & Diversity

Overview

The Cisco Black Employee Network (CBEN) was created develop a dynamic environment for black employees that cultivates career growth, community involvement, and business excellence. The Cisco vision is to be a valued resource for new market opportunities in the global black community and for engaging top black talent into the Cisco leadership pipeline. In addition to this vision, it is extremely important to understand that Cisco is inclusive of the global black communities. Some of the initiatives supported by CBEN include:

• Meeting with executives within The 100 Black Men of America list, at both a local and national level, to explore opportunities to partner with those individuals in their mentorship efforts, and to see how they, or the companies at which their members work, could make use of Cisco technology
• An ongoing partnership with Cisco Networking Academies, Sales, and University Relations to help recruit, retain, and develop top talent
• Collaboration with Cisco Networking Academies and Channels to create a college hiring program for select Cisco partners

CBEN is a global employee resource group with chapters in the United States, EMEAR, Nigeria, and South Africa. CBEN members have had preliminary meetings with local media industry professionals to see how they can use Cisco collaboration technology to deliver remote experiences to consumers.

What Makes CBEN Most Proud

CBEN allows employees interested in supporting and celebrating unique aspects of the Afro-American culture to do so through positive and enriching activities. These activities are meant to develop business skills and influence organizational culture, and help enhance Cisco's corporate culture by improving teamwork, opening communications, and benefiting Cisco profitability through increased productivity.

CBEN is proud of the work we do in the community:

• Some of our CBEN volunteers recently mentored a group of students from the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology, as part of their Senior Capstone Experience program. Cisco representatives guided this group as they learned about Cisco technology and designed the "device of the future," which could be used for mobile communications, entertainment, learning, and e-wallet capabilities.
• Similarly, CBEN has taken on leadership and mentorship of student teams with the Junior Achievement (JA) Fellows program, teaching them business and entrepreneurship principles as they launch their JA-sponsored companies. These teams meet for two hours each week at a Cisco facility, and utilize CBEN members' business experience as they seek to develop and market environmentally friendly products.

Spotlight

Sheri Slate, Cisco Chief Inclusion and Collaboration Strategist, was recently spotlighted in the Profiles section of Diversity Journal's 10th Annual Women Worth Watching list. Read More