Gaining the 'Diversity Edge' at the Workplace

Authored by Sheenam Ohrie, VP, Enterprise Data & Mobility Engineering, Dell  

Over two decades back, when I entered the world of technology, there weren’t too many women leaders in the industry. Technology, similar to Maths and Science, was still considered as a male-oriented profession. Over a period of time; however, this trend has changed significantly. When one looks at diverse industries, one would often find women leading organizations at the helm. Let’s name a few, the banking industry in India, Biotech industry, Beverages….why go far, the appointment of senior women bureaucrats to lead complex cabinets is a clear example of women moving ahead into challenging leadership roles. 

The recent appointment of Debjani Ghosh as the president of NASSCOM speaks volume about the gender diversity in the technology sector. Top-notch organizations, including Google and Facebook, are hiring women 238% faster than men. According to a study by NASSCOM in partnership with the Open University in the UK, the technology sector in our country is the second largest employer for women. Studies conducted across the globe lead us to understand how diversity, at any table, results in higher business value and better customer satisfaction. 

Well-known organizations in today’s time have been founded by extraordinary women, comprising SlideShare by Rashmi Sinha, Cisco by Sandra Lerner, Flickr by Caterina Fake, and so on. The ratio of women in technology leadership roles is growing, slowly and gradually. 

Charting a road map that enables brighter prospects for women in tech 

Having said that, findings of the Belong Research team state that, the Indian technology industry has only 26% women in engineering roles, while 50% women engineers are still quitting technology careers. Across the industry, a lot of work has been done by organizations enabling women to progress in their careers. Policies, guidelines, etc. are now common in most technology companies that provide women with a great deal of flexibility. In my experience, the ability of organizations to attract talent is high. The degree of enablement and growth is also increasing steadily. For the industry to see a sustained women leadership pipeline, it needs to focus on the retention pillar as well as on the growth pillar. 

At Dell EMC, we are now profoundly focused on these two pillars. We believe that we need to invest into our male managers and leaders and groom them to be sensitive towards diversity. Enabling male leaders, through carefully designed sensitization programs, leads them to understand and appreciate women behaviours. Armed with this understanding, they will then be able to groom women out of the comfort zone and provide a safe environment to take high visibility roles that will eventually lead to growing careers. 

While doing that, we run several programs for both future women employees and technology leaders. These programs consist of classroom and experiential learning, enabling them to overcome their own fears and leverage their strengths for future growth. 

STEM Education: Need More Focus 

It is also equally important to contribute to the future society in the STEM area. The STEM gender gap begins right from the school. If we go by the World Economic Forum's 2016 Global Gender Gap Report, just 16 % female students graduate with STEM degrees as against 30 percent of their male counterparts. Another study revealed that in India, women make up for 46 percent of all enrolled undergraduate students in STEM, while a few only continue to pursue careers. At Dell EMC, we encourage our women leaders to become role models for girl students at schools and technology colleagues, enabling the future women leaders to become more confident and #BeFutureReady for the technology area. 

Tides are Turning for Good 

The millennials entering the workforce today are confident, have immense clarity of their life goals and are hungry to grow. Dell EMC provides this generation with several programs to learn, contribute, and mature into the leadership role much faster than ever before. At a recent speed mentoring session, I met over twenty women who had joined us less than a year ago. The passion for a successful career was quite apparent from their questions and the hunger to learn from others’ experiences. 

Time has come for us to continuously evaluate what more can be done to progress women into leadership through merit and opportunity. Time has come for us to lead this change by removing subtle impediments from the path of progress for women. 

It is time for rapid change…lets #PressForProgress. 

Happy Women’s Day!