Inclusion

It is intrinsic to who we are — and who we intend to be long into the future. We prioritize inclusion, recognizing that connecting people of all experiences and backgrounds allows us to improve innovation and collaboration and helps to inform how Cisco engages our people.

In 2020, we launched our Purpose to Power an Inclusive Future for All, and by that we mean dignity, respect, and equal access to opportunity for all.

In fiscal 2023, we strengthened our top-level commitment with the key appointment of Brian Tippens, Cisco's first Chief Social Impact and Inclusion Officer.

Our vision is to become the global leader in building equitable, accessible, and resilient communities to accelerate business growth and power an inclusive future for all.

Accelerating business strategy

Our inclusion strategies are designed to embed inclusion and collaboration across the business, helping our leaders and people better understand identities, needs, and challenges.

Attracting and hiring the best talent

Cisco partners with organizations that share our vision for unlocking the potential of all talent. We joined the One Ten Coalition as a founding member. One Ten's mission is to upskill and reskill 1 million workers without college degrees over the next 10 years. Since fiscal 2020, Cisco has hired 159 new employees through One Ten.

We help veterans and service members transition and upskill through the Cisco Veteran Talent Incubation Program, preparing them for Cisco Services entry-level engineer roles. We also partner with our Talent Hub team to add recently discharged talent from military bases to our recruitment pipeline.

Fostering innovation and collaboration

We recognize that connecting people of all experiences and backgrounds allows us to improve innovation and collaboration. Our strategies are designed to create a movement-a movement to connect, to better understand identities, needs and challenges across all groups, and to reimagine how we come together and create a Conscious Culture where everyone can thrive.

Connecting across differences

One in three Cisco employees is now in at least one Inclusive Community, with 335 chapters in 77 countries, representing over 30% of Cisco's employee population. Cisco's Inclusive Communities help drive our Conscious Culture, spawn innovation, and deepen our partnerships across the organization. Each year, they continue to expand their impact on how we retain, develop, and engage talent, how we drive business results, and how we positively impact people in communities across the globe.

Enhancing the employee experience

Cisco's Global Inclusive Communities drive employee engagement and opportunities for belonging through monthly events featuring guest speakers, discussion forums, personal testimonials, and activities that build cultural awareness. These events and programs are open to all and designed to create proximity and transform the way we work together by sharing authentic stories and connecting with others, leading courageous conversations and helping to deepen our understanding of each other. Through cross-collaboration, Inclusive Communities create learning opportunities that help bring us all closer together.

Supporting and developing our people

The Veteran Enablement and Troop Support (VETS) Inclusive Community established our Military Career Day event in 2011 to educate veterans on career opportunities at Cisco, and conversely educate Cisco employees on the value that veterans can bring to the Cisco organization. Our October 2023 installment of Military Career Day was our second global event, hosting over 600 veterans across the globe. The Veteran Mentorship Program pairs attendees with volunteer Cisco Mentors. These mentors guide the veteran through the discovery process, educating them on interested parts of the business and introducing them to a network that can help them transition into the business. This hands-on sponsorship process is critical in the military transition.

In fiscal 2024, The Veteran Leadership Program was established to focus on those veterans that may have transitioned out of the military in the past two to eight years, had a strong record in the military as well as at Cisco, but needed focused and tailored leadership development that would help them take the next step in their private sector career.

PRIDE LGBTQ+ & Allies Inclusive Community provides a safe space for employees to make connections, develop their allyship, and thrive in their careers. The community offers various virtual, hybrid, and on-site events each year where members can build their network and develop their skill sets. Flagship programs include the Proud mentorship program offered regionally and the Drive and Amplify series. Through our strategic partnerships and Pride-led participation, members can attend development conferences such as Out and Equal, Lesbians Who Tech, and the Diversify Nordics Summit.

Cisco has been recognized by the 2023 Workplace Pride Impact Awards as an ambassador-level achiever with a 78% rating. Our rating is one of the Most Improved year-over-year among hundreds of companies. Cisco was also the Top Scorer by Industry Sector in the Information & Communication Industry category.

Our Global Executive Shadow Program, coordinated by Women of Cisco and open to everyone, provides a unique opportunity for participants to embark on a transformative journey of personal growth, career readiness, and professional enrichment through a personalized shadow engagement with seasoned leaders. Through shadowing executives in their day-to-day activities and meetings, participants will gain practical insights into various leadership roles, business operations, and decision-making processes. The program aims to leave participants empowered with essential resources, including creating their own personal brand. Engaging with executives and their networks helps to build valuable connections for future career opportunities.

When the program was first launched as a pilot project in 2009, 47 shadow members participated. In 2024, the program surpassed 1000 shadow members worldwide, including 993 executives, 47 at the global level. The strong participation of executives demonstrates their willingness to collaborate and share their knowledge, skills, and values.

2023 was the Inaugural Cisco Radiate Conference, hosted by our Connected Black Professionals (CBP) Inclusive Community. The conference brought together more than 200 professionals at Cisco from all over the world. This year, Radiate expanded its reach by offering a hybrid program across eight locations globally, impacting 650 in person and over 1000 virtually.

Cisco was named Top 50 places to work for Indigenous Professionals in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) two years in a row and provided US$2000 in scholarship donations to the Seven Generations Scholarship Fund. For the fourth year, Cisco was a sponsor of the American Indian, Sciences and Engineering Society (AISES) National Conference to promote Cisco to Native STEM students.

Advocating for what’s right

In 2021, our Connected Disability Action Network (CDAN) Inclusive Community lobbied for Cisco to join The Valuable 500 and commit to supporting a global movement to put disability on the business leadership agenda. In connection with Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2023, CDAN hosted the first-ever Cisco-wide event explicitly featuring disabled and neurodivergent employees, signaling a shift toward being more community centered and neuro-inclusive. The community collaborated with Cisco TV to address accessibility issues that arise when we don't expect disabled people to be leaders and presenters for Cisco. In 2024, Cisco created its first Office of Accessibility.

This year, three employees who are deeply passionate about fostering inclusion—and who serve as the global leads of Native American Network (NAN) and CAAN Inclusive Communities—collaborated to bring to life a formal Indigenous Land Acknowledgement ceremony to Cisco, as a global company, to publicly and permanently acknowledge the lands on which its offices now occupy. This ceremony, which was celebrated at Cisco's headquarters in San Jose, California and Research Triangle Park, North Carolina (with other locations planned), physically and symbolically demonstrated Cisco’s commitment to inclusion and belonging. The team was also recognized as the winner of an internal Culture Champion Award.

Connecting Employees and Impact

PRIDE LGBTQ+ & Allies has 24 global chapters that give back to their local communities through civic, volunteer, and development opportunities. Organizations supported include Habitat for Humanity's Build with Pride, local LGBTQ centers, humanitarian organizations, Gay Games, Pride House at the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and many more.

With 3200 members across 25 employee-led teams, the Global Green Team Network promotes sustainability in local communities through volunteerism, resources, and training. For example, the Green Team has hosted recycling events for 25 years—with the fiscal 2024 event gathering 3500 metric tons of material.

Driving business engagement

The NAN Inclusive Community, in partnership with MuralNet, provided community connectivity installs for the Zuni Tribe, worked on the Alaska Tribal Libraries Initiatives, and is currently working with Pala Tribe. NAN sent six Cisco volunteers to Alaska and installed Starlink transceivers, cleaned computers, installed video conferencing software, and trained tribal coordinators in 11 Alaskan Tribal Villages. Three remote and nine onsite volunteers inventoried, configured, and installed Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) on homes for the Zuni Tribe in New Mexico. Cisco provided ongoing broadband volunteer support for the Fort Peck (MT) Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, Crow Creek Sioux Tribe (SD), and the Pauma Tribe (CA). NAN is also collaborating with Cisco’s Country Digital Acceleration Team on a Tribal Advisory Council and leading Cultural Enablement Training. Cisco signed an MOU with three tribal colleges to provide cybersecurity infrastructure to each institution, which allows them to be NIST compliant so they can receive future grants and funding.

In 2021, our Women of Cisco Inclusive Community held its first 'The Bridge' event, which gathered 5000 attendees from 28 countries and 300 companies. They committed to boosting girls' participation in STEM through Cisco Networking Academy's Women Rock-IT program. In 2023, The Bridge introduced the Unified Action Program focused on the intersectionality of inclusion and sustainability. The Bridge aims to invest in STEM youth, fostering innovation and sustainability for communities, Organizations, and societies. Executives from several notable companies, such as Intel, Ford Next, and Amazon Web Services committed to The Bridge and the Unified Action Program. This year, Women of Cisco hosted the Bridge event at Cisco Live to discuss the challenges faced by children in underserved schools and taking concrete steps toward creating a more inclusive future for all.

At Cisco, we continue to improve the way we support our Inclusive Communities in the powerful roles they are fulfilling to deliver programs that can drive development, business, and social impact. This included bringing over 600 members together for the IC Connect Breakfast at Cisco IMPACT; the Inclusive Community Leader Forum where we brought 500 of our Inclusive Community leaders and champions together for the first time worldwide with in-person networking in five locations; attending the GPTW ERG Summit where 18 of our Inclusive Community Global Leads networked, learned, and were inspired by top industry experts and companies; and hosting the first-ever Inclusive Community Summit where our community leaders and executive sponsors were brought together to reinforce our shared commitment to fostering an inclusive culture, elevating our impact together through collaboration, inspiration, and celebration.

Innovating and expanding our impact

We're innovating solutions to our most critical inclusion and collaboration challenges-and scaling our initiatives to extend our impact across our ecosystem.

Promoting inclusive leadership through sponsorship

In 2017, we pioneered and introduced a groundbreaking initiative, The Multiplier Effect, harnessing the power of sponsorship to transform the landscape of our culture. We call upon leaders to leverage their influence and social capital to actively champion and advocate for the career advancement of talent. Since its inception, 2178 sponsors and 3231 sponsees have participated in this transformative program, driving a future where talent thrives at every level.

Sponsorship is an inclusive action driven by Cisco leadership expectations. To accelerate the impact, we've set enterprisewide goals for leadership participation at all levels. Over the last four years, 100% of Cisco Vice Presidents have taken the pledge. The benefits of the program are reciprocal, a rewarding journey rooted in trust and respect.

Innovating beyond pay parity

We continue to innovate and expand on our longtime commitment to paying our people fairly. In 2016, Cisco took a national leadership role in advancing fair pay for everyone as one of the 28 founding signers of the White House Equal Pay Pledge. We joined forces with companies across multiple industries to form the Employers for Pay Equity Consortium to help make the promise of fair pay a reality for all employees.

Our Pay Parity initiative is designed to ensure that all people are paid fairly, regardless of gender (globally) and ethnicity (in the United States, as defined by the federal government). Our regular reviews look at key factors that influence an equitable talent environment, from new hire offers to individual rewards, so that we can continue to design and deliver fair, inclusive, and competitive pay for our people.

We expanded our fair pay program in fiscal 2021 beyond base salary to include additional forms of compensation fairness such as promotion, bonus, and stock decisions made in our reward programs.

Driving mindset, skillsets, and toolsets

We're developing leaders at all levels to create true connection within our Conscious Culture. We thrive when we continue to learn, explore, and evolve.

Our development opportunities are designed to support leaders at every level to build inclusive mindsets, skillsets, and toolsets. Participant feedback suggests that the quality and efficacy of our development opportunities are factors that contribute to people choosing to stay and grow their careers at Cisco. Leadership development program highlights include:

What is it?	How does it work?
What is it?Building Skills for a Conscious Culture	How does it work?Available globally for all employees in six languages, the training provides us with the language and skillset to cultivate respect and identify harassment at work and fulfills Preventing Workplace Harassment training which is required by law in some US states.
What is it?Next Generation Leaders (NGL)	How does it work?NGL is an innovative approach to leadership development where managers and employees participate within a cohort, developing a trust-filled partnership to establish a foundation for connecting across differences and cultivating leadership excellence.
What is it?DARE	How does it work?DARE is a global career development program, open to all, designed to empower learners to take charge of their career, own their success, and understand the live experience of women at Cisco. It provides an array of exercises, activities, and tools to help employees articulate their unique value to the business, build a community of support and influence, empower each other to create bold career visions, and plan to get there.
What is it?JUMP	How does it work?JUMP is a global leadership acceleration program, open to all, designed to equip learners with the knowledge and skills to understand the experiences of women at Cisco. Participants connect over three multiday, instructor-led workshops on everything from building gravitas to learning to take risks.
What is it?Cisco Inclusive Communities	How does it work?Our Cisco Inclusive Communities, open to all, are a critical link in leadership development at Cisco. They create and organize learning and development events and programs for their members and all employees—like our Linkedln Learning/Degreed pathways, CBP's Elevate Series, CAAN LEAP Pathways, and Conexión's ConexTALK series. Our Women of Impact program continues to expand its value through a month of opportunities for all every March.