2017-Dec-7

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12 Reasons I am Proud to Work at Cisco

BY MARIA ABEYTA MORETA · GLOBAL CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS · SPAIN

Maria with Phoebe Leet working hard to spread Our People Deal culture.

What a year it’s been! Between natural disasters, several humanitarian crises, a very different President of the USA, and my own family’s ups and downs—I haven’t been able to catch my breath. But before we start a new year and make those well-intentioned resolutions, I’ve always believed in taking some time to get a bit of context. 

A huge part of my life is spent working, so reflecting on my job seems like the right place to start. I feel extremely grateful that I have work that gives me purpose and enables me to make peoples’ lives better —nearly 70,000 employee lives that is!

As the Global People and Culture Communications Lead, I help shape what life at Cisco feels like for our people. Working in partnership with HR, I get to influence the different experiences that make up our career journey. We’re on a mission to spread Our People Deal, the culture we want and need for success, and we’ve started with the moments that matter most to our people.

Reflecting on work has been on my mind for the last few weeks since I’ve recently had to say goodbye to some longtime colleagues who had become more than just co-workers, they had become friends. I can’t pretend that parting ways with good friends doesn’t affect me. Seeing them go both by choice and not by choice has led me to ask myself why I stay.

I am proud of the work I’m doing, even though I know we still have a long way to go to achieve the aspirational experience that Our People Deal describes.

But it’s not just the work I do that makes me proud, it’s what we’re able to do together at Cisco that I could never do on my own. So here’s what’s making me feel proud this year:

#1 In 2017, we’ve given over 343,000 hours of our time and donated more than $12 million to different causes across the globe. Giving back is just a part of our culture and who we are. In fact, we celebrated our 25 years of partnership with Dimension Data by completing 25 community service projects around the world.

#2 We now have four generations who work at Cisco so we’ve adjusted our benefits to match the needs of our people. For example, not everyone has kids in the same way so, our new Becoming a Parent program supports people in whatever way they embark on this journey. This includes expanding the minimum time off across the globe (through FY19) and giving three days off to grandparents to bond with a grandchild.

#3 49% of employees (35,662) from 89 countries participated in our second Innovate Everywhere Challenge as either a founder, investor, judge, mentor, sponsor or commentator. That’s over half of our people that are eager to be part of the next big idea. It’s inspiring to know that innovation can come from anywhere

#4 We’ve had our 1 millionth check-in on our Team Space platform, which means we’re driving more frequent, future-focused conversations between team members and their team leaders. The data shows that more interactions with our people makes them more engaged, so investing in a platform that helps leaders make this happen more easily is pretty amazing.

#5 We launched Rethink to help our people who may have children with developmental disabilities get access to information and resources that could help their kids thrive. It makes me feel good to know we’re looking after the whole of our people’s lives.

#6 We held our first ever global mindfulness session with over 16,000 employees during Cisco Beat, our video enabled live employee all hands events. Imagine the power of all those minds getting focused all at once. And the fact that we’re willing to try something so different really reenergizes me.

#7 When life’s emergencies happen, we need to give them our focus. To help support our people and their loved ones, we’ve launched a new Emergency Time Off program that includes paid time off to deal with any unexpected situations that might impact our people or their families. We’ve even expanded the definition of family to include the people you rely on and those who rely on you daily for support.

#8 We were named one of the top 20 companies on the 2017 World’s Best Workplaces list. Knowing that Cisco is recognized across the globe makes me feel good about where I am.

#9 Transitioning back to work after any kind of leave can be tough. So we offer options such as Connected Touch, to help make life easier when coming back to work by temporarily providing a DX80 to make remote working even better.

#10 We’re setting new standards for leadership, and we started on this journey with our very first Leader Day. The 24-hour, follow-the-sun global event was designed to bring together every leader across Cisco, get them in the same place (virtually and physically) and have them collectively commit to raising their game. The pace of change is relentless, so we have to change the way we lead to keep our best talent and attract the best talent too!

#11 This year marked the 20th anniversary of our Networking Academy. Since 1997, we’ve been impacting people and changing communities. We’ve reached over 7.8 million students in 170 countries. And it’s more than IT skills training; it's a community whose members are the students, educators, and business leaders shaping the future.

#12 Our CEO Chuck Robbins, not only made People and Culture one of his business priorities, but he committed and asked all of his leaders to commit to putting equal focus on our people as well as our business. And I am proud to say there are too many business accomplishments this year to mention here— that’s a whole other list!

So all of this is to say that I stay at Cisco because of the amazing people and the significant things we make happen together. There is no other culture like ours!

I can’t wait to see what else we’ll do in 2018. Thank you for making my life at Cisco something that I can be proud of.

To my friends and colleagues who have left, I hope your experience at Cisco will help you thrive wherever you go next because of who you are and because of what you learned here. Thank you for creating the wonderful experience I have had so far.

Reflecting on the year helps me be grateful for all the things that I might have missed or that I just take for granted. But most importantly, it gets me ready for what I want to achieve in the year to come. For now, I’ll just savor these twelve things that make me proud of the work we’ve done in 2017.

What makes you proud? Tell us more in the comments below and be sure to share on social media using #WeAreCisco.

Related Links

• Cisco Networking Academy
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Dimension Data and Cisco—25 projects. 25 years. Thousands of lives transformed.
• Frank Katsoudas’ blog on The Future of Leadership
• Our People Deal
• Careers at Cisco

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