Cisco Opens Up About Its Struggle To Diversify Its Workforce

On Wednesday, the network giant Cisco Systems CISCO -0.98% released demographic data update employee. He stressed how difficult it is to increase for technology companies on the gender and ethnic diversity of its employees.

SPPL unlike Apple, Google 0.33%, 0.21% FB Facebook and many other players from Silicon Valley who recently opened the kimono in its demography, Cisco has information on the diversity of its employees since common 2005. And yet, despite the consistent data, the numbers do not move much in almost a decade.

Like most of his colleagues, Cisco template is mostly composed of Caucasian and Asian men. A total of 77% of the workforce is male, identified 54% of all workers (men and women combined) than Caucasian and 36% to Asia. The number of employees who had to identify themselves as Hispanic and African American, 5% and 3%, respectively. For the first time, Cisco has also started gender breakdown for specific functions, and the numbers are not even bleaker. 85% of technical positions in the company are held by men. When it comes to the manager, only 19% are women.

Cisco has a growing number of women in management team. Just last week, the company announced a new CFO, Kelly Kramer. She joins a handful of other women to management team of the company, including numbers Padmasree Warrior and Chief Information Officer Rebecca Jacoby.The technical and high-level strategy are important to us, but even more important are the conversations and the changes that we, Francine Katsoudas, HR and another woman on the management team of the company, said in an interview earlier this week.

Last, after a meeting with Facebook COO (and creator of lean meat in the women's movement) Sheryl Sandberg,weighed Cisco CEO John Chambers, on the topic and asked each year of its senior managers to diversify the workforce is a priority. After Cisco Katsoudas now who are not experiencing one woman in each panel survey talent,so each employee perspective is interviewed by at least one female executive. Katsoudas believes that this will help attract more women.

The numbers are not there yet, "says Katsoudas the plan." But directionally, go to way.Warrior, CTO of the company, says he is more concerned about the lack of women in technical roles. With the increasingly interdisciplinary technology, says Guerrero, there are new areas that open to women.We can do more as an industry and as a company, "Guerrero said in an interview with Fortune magazine.

To do this, Guerrero is personally mentor women in his team. Like other technology companies, Cisco has formed internal groups for employees (there is even a group called Real Change Cisco Men Defender) and partnered with organizations such as Girls Who Code to empower young women to love the computer. Earlier this year, the company also named Shari Slate their inclusion in chief and officer collaboration. So while diversity numbers have yet to yield, Cisco has started to put more action behind your desire to change.

Guerrero admits that Cisco numbers are far from where you would like them to be. But he says the company is taking steps in the right direction. And Guerrero is not willing to wait another decade for more change. The worst thing people say is that going to take time, says Guerrero.In technology, we are proud that the pace of change. Why can we not talk about that same rate of change when women in leadership?