2022-March-21

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Getting Women Back To Work

BY SONALI NATARAJAN WITH HELEN GALL

4 MINUTE READ · 7 MINUTE LISTEN

Editor's note: We acknowledge that the world has transformed since Russia invaded Ukraine, and we will continue to lighten your day by sharing the good work and hope that surrounds us.

As Sponsor for Women Back to Work, Sonali Natarajan is creating the pathway for Returnships through the program.

These days, Priyanka Lala, a Senior Software Engineer in Cloud Networking organization is excited to wake up to a busy and full day at work.

But a few years ago, her thriving career came to a halt when she paused her career to care for her family.

Not one to give up during her break, she taught herself Python and enhanced her programming skills. Fortunately for Cisco’s Return to Work program, she now applies those skills to solve real business problems on her team at Cisco.

Priyanka’s story is just one of 2.5 million women impacted by the pandemic.

Despite signs of recovery, the future of women in the workforce still hangs in balance.

Women now lead the Great Resignation and are quitting their jobs at a faster pace than men. Economists warn that the U.S. economy may not regain its footing until women fully return to the job market. Women’s unpaid labor is globally worth $10.9 trillion.

Priyanka and other moms who were forced to give up their dream careers remind me of my personal struggles as a young mother when I decided to stay at home. I had to re-train myself to pivot my career.

I was fortunate to be hired at Cisco where I felt nurtured, mentored, and had the opportunity to grow. Mine is the story of loyalty to an amazing Cisco work culture that allowed me to reinvent myself and continuously to reskill and learn on the job.

But the past two years were dismaying.

As I watched women leave the workforce in droves, I knew we had a responsibility to bring them back.

Cisco 2019 Back to Work Cohort celebrating the culmination of their 16-week “returnship”.

At Cisco, we have programs to help moms to return to work without anxiety and guilt.

I knew we could be a part of the solution. Creating pathways for all women — and especially mothers — to return to work had never been more important. And returning moms are an underutilized talent pool we can’t ignore.

I tapped into Cisco’s approved staffing partner, Akraya, and their signature diversity initiative, Women Back to Work, Founded by Sonu Ratra. The Women Back to Work-Cisco Return to Work Partnership piloted in 2019 in Enterprise Networking for 11 technology roles.

A program like this could enable us to have a profound impact on the lives and careers of women, all while aligning with Cisco’s mission to power an inclusive future for all.

So we got to work!

We kicked off our Return to Work 2.0 with a virtual conference specially designed to match Cisco with technical, professional, and highly qualified women coming back to work.

On that inspiring morning, over 400 “returners” participated in the conference.

We built a program where returners would work in a rewarding role while working on their professional development. Workshops, mentorship, and training were included to help them navigate the inner workings at Cisco.

Cisco attracts some of the finest technical talent in the world, and participants worked side by side with talented engineers and learn from the best.

Return to Work was designed to directly hire returners for full-time roles.

We operationalized the program by training leaders to hire with a different mindset. We had a 60/90-day plan upon onboarding, where empathy and support goes a long way to make moms feel comfortable in their roles.

Priyanka Lala returned as a Senior Software Engineer in the Cloud Networking organization.

Priyanka was one of our first few hires through our 2021 partnership.

Cynthia Ector, a Technical Program Manager in the Cloud and Compute group, and many others followed soon after. Cynthia was nominated to the Empower 2021 Leadership Coaching Program and was offered a rare opportunity to participate in a personalized North Star Leadership Program, where she learns from senior STEM leaders on topics and skills where she wants to grow.

Cisco blazed the trail with a pilot partnership in 2019, and we built on the success to launch a larger program in 2021. In 2022, we intend to replicate our success to expand and scale the program across Cisco Enterprise.

Leading by example has started a movement.

Cisco was a leader in recognizing the opportunity to bring technical women back into the workforce. Several Silicon Valley companies have now taken a page out of our Cisco book and developed similar programs.

Bringing women back to Engineering or technology was just the start. At Cisco we are now expanding across all functions and joining hands across the company! Cisco was recently featured on France TV and NBC Bay Area sharing our story.

If you know of someone in your network navigating the difficult journey returning to work, share their profiles with our partner, Women Back to Work. If you are interested in learning more about the internal implementation and interested in leveraging this talent pool, contact Sonali Natarajan.

The team will offer coaching and guidance to returners, so they can recharge their career. Be sure to also ask Sonali how her team is helping scale this work across Cisco in the coming months.