Our commitment to advancing diversity and inclusion across the company continues. As of December 31, 2021, women accounted for 38 percent of our workforce globally and 38 percent of all new hires globally were female. All good then? No, our investment in women goes relentlessly on, not the least in the Nordics.
At Cognizant Nordics, we are strongly committed to the principles of non-discrimination and equal opportunities, and we celebrate diversity and inclusion across our workforce, in our communities and partnerships. This is essential to building a world-class, diverse and inclusive team and fostering a high-performance culture.
Our diversity and inclusion work is organized across the organization on different levels, globally and locally, and here are some examples of what we do:
Completely Cognizant. This is our overarching diversity and inclusion program that helps us build a diverse workforce and promote a culture of belonging. Diversifying our associate population starts with our talent pipeline. So, we’ve implemented programs that are improving our hiring initiatives, including establishing more diverse hiring panels and creating gender-neutral job descriptions for our recruitment process.
The leadership program Propel. Propel is Cognizant’s leadership development program designed to build a strong pipeline of women business leaders. This initiative provides women leaders a community where they support each other, learn to amplify their leadership brand and presence, expand their strategic network and have access to internal and external thought leaders. By the end of 2021, 1,000 high-performing women went through the program.
Women Rising Program. The new Women Rising Program, which is an external program, is a holistic 6-month personal and professional development journey for women that wants to strengthen their leadership capabilities. Currently, we are doing a pilot with 21 participants – and I have high expectations for the outcome since women across the globe call it “life-changing”.
Women Connect. Within Cognizant, there are many different communities where members can support each other. This is a community of approximately 300 women at a senior level who informally discuss topics ranging from business strategy and career development to gender diversity issues.
The Women Empowerment (WE) initiative. This is part of Cognizant’s overall strategy to work on diversity and inclusion. In the Nordics, we have a vivid WE community where approximately 300 women engage in gatherings and networking. So far in 2022, we have organized several virtual events and an interactive session using Yammer, as well as lunches and picnics with inspiring speakers.
The Nordic WE community will continue to:
- Support the current workforce and the generation of a pipeline of new candidates
- Keep the female talents we have by engaging and involving them
- Support recruitment efforts for more gender diversity at Cognizant in the Nordics
- Arrange empowering activities for inspiration and learning
- Engage in Cognizant mentoring and sponsorship programs
- Focus on the unconscious bias and inclusion training offered by Cognizant
- Continue supporting women’s global leadership development initiative
I intend to lead with an inclusive mindset, and I will thus continue to keep diversity and inclusion a top priority here at Cognizant. I and my colleagues want this company to be the most diverse and inclusive environment possible, where all people feel empowered to exercise their imagination and do their best work. Learn more about our work here.
