As a woman leader in the technology industry, diversity and inclusion (D&I) is something I care deeply about. It’s why I have been a vocal champion of women in business everywhere. It’s also why I’m excited that diversity and inclusion will be among my responsibilities in my new role of Chief Customer Officer after the Dell- EMC integration is complete.
Dell is serious about diversity. DiversityInc recently ranked us No. 28 on its annual Top 50 Companies for Diversity and awarded us several specialty awards, including No. 2 for Supplier Diversity, No. 3 for ERGs, No. 5 for LGBT and No. 10 for Global Diversity. More than 1,800 companies were considered for a spot on this prestigious list.
The fact is women and minorities are under-represented in the technology industry. Women make up only 30 percent of tech employees but 59 percent of the entire US labor force (CNET). It’s imperative that industry leaders like Dell actively pursue strategies to increase and influence diversity, and that includes investing in women-led businesses via our supply chain.
This is why our #2 supplier diversity ranking is a point of pride for me. Dell’s commitment of over $1 billion in annual supply-chain spending with diverse suppliers has landed us on the Billion Dollar Roundtable for eight years running. Not only is this good for diverse suppliers, it’s an asset to Dell as we leverage the absolute best of what the supply chain has to offer.
But that wasn’t our only recent D&I-related recognition:
- Last week, Springboard honored Dell with an Award of Excellence for our True Ability ERG.
- WEConnect International named us the Corporate Advocate of the Year for supplier diversity in China.
- Dell Panama ranked among the Top 10 Dream Companies for Millennials and, in the United States, we climbed to No. 27 Preferred Employer (up from No. 65) in the annual Millennial Career Survey of the National Society of High School Scholars – due in large part to our inclusive culture and commitment to diversity.
- We scored 100 percent in The Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, earning us a Best Place to Work for LGBT award.
We’ve been hard at work at Dell to evolve our business and influence the future of our industry. To me, these achievements are proof that we’re doing it the right way and haven’t lost sight of what really matters—people.
