When it comes to diversity in technology, Symantec is lending it’s voice and taking action, joining the U.S. Government at two important events to expand and effect positive change.
The dialogue around diversity in technology companies isn’t new, but its gaining visibility. What was once a conversation primarily around gender now includes race, sexual orientation, age, and nationality—and is challenging organizations to go beyond rhetoric and take action when it comes to building talented and diverse workforces.
It’s a conversation we at Symantec know well and are passionate about. We believe inclusion drives innovation. And we know that a diverse workforce, one that encourages different ideas, can help foster better outcomes and inspire the cybersecurity breakthroughs that drive our product development and corporate success.
You have likely heard about our support of non-profits such as Global Fund for Women, the Anita Borg Institute and Net Impact, among others. We are incredibly proud of these efforts, but believe there’s more that can always be done when it comes to diversity and inclusion. With that in mind, Symantec joined with the U.S. government at two major events in August—the White House LGBT Tech and Innovation Summit and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute’s Annual Policy Conference to raise the profile of our diversity and inclusion strategies and collaborate with other technology leaders to develop solutions to these challenging social issues.
Rolling up our sleeves at the White House
On August 10 the White House hosted it’s second LGBTQ Tech and Innovation Summit, bringing together 170 LGBT leaders from organizations such as IBM, Microsoft, Intel, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Symantec.
Participants discussed the hot topics facing both the tech and LGBT communities including criminal justice reform, inclusion of LGBT citizens in the healthcare and housing sectors, and support for LGBT citizens in their entrepreneurial endeavors through expanding talent pipelines, mentorship, and coding boot camps. Participants then rolled up their sleeves putting aside industry competition and working together to come up with solutions.
One innovative idea came during a discussion on ways to bridge the gap between short-term training programs and permanent employment, with participants suggesting the creation of freelance or temporary positions for candidates to “try on” newly gained job skills.
Ruha Devanesan, Manager, Global Diversity and Inclusion, represented Symantec at the event and highlighted the importance of LGBT developers pursuing careers in the cybersecurity field. She noted that this industry needs talented employees from all different backgrounds to ensure we are customizing our products to solve the unique challenges different communities are facing.
“As a diversity team within Symantec, we know we’re doing our job well when diverse talent can enter and thrive at Symantec on their own steam and talent. Our job is to make our company an inclusive environment for all innovators, which ultimately allows us to create cybersecurity solutions for every kind of customer’s needs,” said Devanesan.
Following the daylong gathering, attendees were placed in working groups tasked with spending the next three months focused on coming up with solutions, ensuring the conversation and impact continues.
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Founder of Lesbians Who Tech, Leanne Pittsford.
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Ruha Devanesan, Symantec's Manager Global Diversity & Inclusion, addresses a group at the White House LGBT Tech and Innovation Summit.
Collaborating with the Congressional Black Caucus
Symantec’s D&I leadership was also on full display at the 14th annual Congressional Black Caucus Institute’s Policy Conference—a three-day event attended by more than 900 government officials, community and public sector leaders—where we hosted a roundtable on the underrepresentation of African Americans in technology.
The roundtable featured Congressional Black Caucus members as well as Dell, HP, Microsoft, Intel, and other leaders who engaged in vibrant discussions on diversity in the C-Suite, building partnerships with black universities, and increasing the talent pipeline.
During the roundtable, congressional members challenged tech companies to think differently and take action, resulting in several tangible outcomes, including the Congressional Black Caucus members creating a database of African American leaders that can be potential company board members, engaging with CEOs regarding diversity, and building joint government and company teams that focus on tech-specific issues.
“Symantec’s relationships at the highest levels of government give us a voice,” said Dena Graziano, Director of Federal Government Affairs at Symantec. “We’re in a great position to effect positive change when it comes to diversifying the talent pool, protecting minority and LGBT communities online, and addressing the major cybersecurity issues facing the world today.”
Pursuing meaningful changes
While we know improving diversity across the technology sector is a broad challenge and one that will require a community effort, we consider diversity and inclusion a top priority at our own company. As stated in Symantec’s 2015 Corporate Responsibility, we have aggressive goals to increase the diversity of our workforce by 15 percent, at all levels within the company, by 2020. Putting action behind our words, we’ve created an expanded Diversity and Inclusion team and have invested resources more heavily in areas beyond gender to include LGBT, veterans’ programs, professionals of color, people with disabilities, and more.
We continue to make great strides in creating an inclusive workforce and are proud of the many recognitions we’ve received including:
- Human Rights Campaign Best Places to work for LGBT Equality, 7 consecutive years
- Best Diversity Company, by readers of Diversity/Careers
- Engineering & IT Professionals Magazine Top 50 Employer List in Workforce Diversity for 2014
- Minority Engineer Magazine Top 50 Employer List for 2015
- Woman Engineer Magazine Top 50 Employers for 2015
- A 2020 Women on Boards’ Winning Company for board diversity
- Latino 100—selected by Latino Magazine as a company providing the most opportunities for Latinos
As evident by these August events, the discussion around diversity in technology is gaining visibility and Symantec is honored to lend our voice to the conversation, engaging with the government, and other corporate leaders in new and innovative ways to effect real change.
For more information on Symantec’s Diversity and Inclusion efforts visit:
- Achieving our 2020 Goal
- Symantec Corporation: The Diversity Conversation is Evolving
- Symantec 2015 Corporate Responsibility Report
Questions or comments? Contact global_diversity@symantec.com.