HCL's diverse and inclusive work culture makes it stronger

 July 29, 2021

A diverse and inclusive work culture makes for a stronger enterprise.

The strength of HCL Technologies (HCL) lies in its ability to come together as one. HCL believes equality and mutual respect must prevail and this belief has helped the company excel because diverse voices and cultures bring fresh perspectives that strengthen HCL's ability to make decisions and draw insights.

Making a pledge to nurture a more diverse workplace

HCL CEO & MD, C Vijayakumar, signed a pledge with CEO Action. With this pledge, HCL committed to doubling its efforts to cultivate an environment where all ideas are welcome, and all employees are empowered.

CEO Action advocates for a safe environment for employees of diverse backgrounds. It is the largest CEO-led organization of this nature, with close to 2,000 signatories committed to creating a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

This pledge is HCL's commitment to make HCL a torchbearer for equality in the workplace. HCL is doing this by encouraging meaningful conversations, spreading awareness on unconscious biases and prejudices, helping other organizations enhance their diversity strategies, and creating enterprise-wide strategic diversity plans.

“Diversity is the most sustainable driver of innovation and a primary genome of resilience. It is no surprise, therefore, that teams and organizations with a higher degree of diversity and inclusion almost always outperform those without them. At HCL, this has been one of our core guiding principles as a team, and a cultural differentiator that we are most proud of," says C Vijayakumar.

Diversity & Inclusion means embracing and encompassing Identities

HCL understands that everyone has a unique identity that influences how they work most productively. No matter how different we are, all of us need an environment that is safe, positive, and nurturing.

HCL’s Diversity and Inclusion strategy was crafted keeping in view that every employee feels included and valued. By fostering a climate free of bias, where equity and mutual respect are intrinsic, HCL is a result-oriented, and caring organization that draws intellectual strength and produces innovative solutions from the synergy of its people.

Diversity wins when everyone is included

The company’s DNA of innovation, and its tradition of creating customer value by going far beyond what is expected, happens only because its diverse employees come from different backgrounds, countries, and cultures.

HCL's strength lies in its global workforce, which is spread across 50+ countries, with 159,000+ Ideapreneurs belonging to 157+ nationalities—all working together to build a culture that respects inclusion.

Unleashing the true potential of a diverse workforce

Having built and scaled a multinational enterprise, HCL Technologies believes that diversity in the workplace is an asset for both businesses and their employees, in its capacity to foster innovation, creativity, and empathy in ways that homogeneous environments seldom do.

Yet it takes careful nurturing and conscious orchestration to unleash the true potential of this invaluable asset. Because to get the best from someone regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, disabilities, HCL knows it must actively include them so that they can contribute to their fullest.

Translating a business strategy to a human strategy of inclusion

HCL is hugely focused on inclusion to maximize talent attraction, growth, and retention. HCL's talent strategy is focused on the four pillars of Diversity and Inclusion, which includes Gender Inclusion, Cultural Inclusion, Disability Inclusion, and LGBTQIA+ Inclusion.

• Gender Inclusion: Gender Inclusion is a practice that helps empower and improve the status of women employees at all levels.
• Cultural Inclusion: Cultural inclusion is a belief that ensures that every individual is respected irrespective of their backgrounds, cultures, nationalities, their way of working, and their lifestyles.
• Disability Inclusion: Integration of people with disabilities into the workforce by providing them an inclusive and accessible work environment.
• LGBTQIA+ Inclusion: LGBTQIA+ inclusion aims to foster an inclusive, safe, and supportive work environment for all LGBTQIA+ people and allies.

Groups and networks keep the conversation going

From tapping into professional networks that support women and people of color to supporting the development of employees, HCL's Employee Resource Groups are indispensable to the long-term vitality of its workforce and business. Its Employee Resource Groups have been an integral part of HCL's diversity and inclusion journey—and a key to maintaining a richly diverse talent base.

Employee Resource Groups at HCL include:

• Pride@HCL: The group shares unique insights from LGBTQIA+ inclusion, helping contribute to an inclusive workplace that welcomes and values differences.
• Ability Connect Network: This is a community that helps and supports all people with a disability through awareness, advocacy, resources, and opportunities.
• Women Connect Network: The Women Network provides members with opportunities to facilitate their professional development, help reach their career aspirations, and have open dialogues about the barriers and misconceptions that exist for women in the workplace.
• Single Parent Network: Single Parent Support Network is a voluntary, employee-led group of active single parent HCLites who contribute both by improving social and emotional wellbeing for other single parents and their families, and by being the catalysts to improve inclusion in the workplace.
• Multicultural Employee Resource Group: The network is for "like-minded" HCLites who feel strongly about understanding different cultures and sharing knowledge about their own.

COVID-19 and the importance of inclusion

COVID-19 a humanitarian crisis affects the health, wellbeing, and lives of all communities in different ways. For HCL, the transition to new ways of working, in the context of the global pandemic presents both challenges and opportunities for promoting diversity, and for fostering inclusion.

• Women at the workplace: The COVID-19 crisis has put working women under pressure owing to taking on greater care of demands at home. This could result in women taking reduced pay or leaving their jobs in the future.
• New ways of working: There has been a radical shift in the mindsets of people in terms of embracing work-from-home, demanding more flexible work arrangements in place, transparency and agility in the system, and having equitable access to technology and resources, which experts suggest, might lead to a substantial change in how businesses are run and operated post-COVID-19.

Inclusive in new ways of working

Diversity and Inclusion are at risk in the long-drawn COVID-19 crisis and is no longer just a matter of compliance or something to tick off. To respond to this situation, HCL has taken some definitive steps. 

A Virtual Inclusion Lab: The Inclusion Labs adopt a top-down approach across key diversity and inclusion elevators to improve the “Inclusion Quotient” of Senior Leaders, Business Leaders, and People Leaders.

• C-Suite/Executive: Leaders as Sponsors
• Business Leaders as Inclusion Champions
• Managers & Leaders as Inclusion Practitioners

Recognition for HCL's diverse and inclusive workplace

The company has received countless accolades and awards for efforts related to diversity and inclusion. 

• Honored by the diversity and inclusion platform, ‘2020 Working Mother & Avtar 100 Best Companies for Women in India (BCWI),’ as one of the Top 100 Best Companies for Women in India.
• Won the prestigious 'Exemplar of Inclusion' award in the ‘Working Mother & Avtar Most Inclusive Companies Index (MICI)’ 2020.
• Included in the Gender-Equality Index by Bloomberg. The Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI) tracks the performance of public companies committed to disclosing their efforts to support gender equality through policy development, representation, and transparency.
• Won the Gold award for the ‘Best Inclusion and Diversity Strategy’ in Brandon Hall Group: HCM Excellence Awards 2020 The award recognizes a workplace strategy to improve inclusion and diversity to support an organizational vision and create positive organizational outcomes.
• Secured top honors at the ‘DivHERsity Awards' presented by jobsforher.com 2020 for Top5 Most Innovative Practices - DivHERsity Programs
• Won the NASSCOM Corporate Award for Excellence in Gender Inclusion 2019
• Awarded the prestigious NASSCOM corporate Award for Excellence in Gender Inclusion. This was presented at the NASSCOM Diversity and Inclusion Summit 2019.
• Won Silver for its diversified practices and strategy in Brandon Hall Awards 2018
• Won the Silver award on the global platform in “Best Inclusion & Diversity Strategy” for its diversified practices at the Brandon Hall Group: HCM Excellence Awards 2018.
• Won Gold for “ASCEND” in Brandon hall awards 2017
• Won the Gold award for the ‘Best Advance in Women Leadership Development Program’ for our ASCEND program at the Brandon Hall Group: HCM Excellence Awards 2017.

Celebrating the contribution of women

Women empowerment is an important part of HCL's holistic diversity agenda, and the company believes in initiating changes that will play a pivotal role in this direction.

HCL is committed to women empowerment, celebrating the contribution of its women employees as well as women in its client and partner ecosystem, and nurturing the next-generation women leaders through mentorship.

• HCL's Women Lead initiative is a 1:1 mentorship program for aspiring women leaders. It began in Australia as a response to the lack of women leaders in Australia’s top companies. After three successful chapters in Australia, HCL launched the first chapter of Women Lead Nordics in 2020, and aim to launch subsequent chapters in the US and other key geographies, because when they look at their global business landscape, they believe there’s still room at the top for more women.
• HCL's She Inspires campaign - As a future-oriented organization and a corporate citizen, HCL Technologies aims to be at the forefront of encouraging diversity. With a message to create role models for the next generation of STEM leaders, #SheInspires captures the life stories of women who’ve blazed a trail in the STEM fields. HCL is hopeful, with these stories, they will help inspire the next generation of women leaders in STEM.
• International Women’s Day - For more than four decades, HCL has been at the forefront of employing and empowering women. HCL partners with the International Women’s Day organization. IWD plays a critical role of pointing out the significant gaps that still exist today. This helps organizations, like HCL, create and sustain a gender-equal world.

Work for a company making strides in its diversity strategy 

HCL's DNA of innovation and its tradition of creating customer value by going far beyond what is expected happen because its employees come from different backgrounds, countries, and cultures.

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