Over the past few years, diversity and inclusion has become a focal point in the corporate world. Spurred by public outcry to do more, companies large and small are devoting themselves like never before to diversifying their ranks across racial, gender, ethnic, age, sexual orientation, veteran, and disability lines.
But creating a truly inclusive, supportive, and diverse workplace is not an overnight achievement—it’s an ongoing journey of hard work, commitment, and collaboration. While there is more to be done, we are both humbled and excited when we see the impact of our efforts.
That’s why we’re thrilled to not only appear on the Forbes’ America’s Best Employers for Diversity 2022 list, but to have moved up in overall ranking from the previous year. This recognition is a testament to the work of so many people throughout our company—across business groups, job roles, and regions—who have committed themselves to fostering a wider array of talent and empowering all our tens of thousands of employees to realize their full career potential.
The Forbes list is highly regarded because of the polling methodology implemented by Statista, which helps ensure unbiased results and reliable insights.
| “Dedicating our company to the mission of diversity and inclusion, from top leadership on down, has brought about tangible results.” |
| —Traci Wade, Oracle Vice President, Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion |
We’re especially proud to have made progress during the COVID-19 pandemic, when office closures and lockdown orders have challenged even standard workforce practices. Ushering in greater diversity and equity, however, couldn’t wait for the workplace to return to our past concepts of “normal.”
Lessons learned
Oracle has learned a lot along the way, says Traci Wade, Oracle vice president, global head of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I).
“We all know the tech industry still has work to do in hiring and advancing into leadership roles more women, racial and ethnic minorities,” Wade says. And the way forward isn’t always simple or straightforward; it often requires some creative experimentation.
“At Oracle, we’re applying our spirit of innovation and problem solving to this important imperative. And what we’ve been doing is working,” Wade says. “The 2022 Forbes awards are just another proof point of what we see internally, which is that dedicating our company to the mission of diversity and inclusion, from top leadership on down, has brought about tangible results.”
To drive these joint efforts, Wade’s D&I team closely collaborates with Oracle’s Talent Acquisition team on developing a comprehensive strategy to recruit, hire, and promote the brightest minds from across all diversity representations. That’s a project that involves our recruiting staff fostering a broad pipeline of diverse applicants, external employee branding of our commitment to a diverse and inclusive culture, and implementing a model of shared accountability for meeting those goals.
This process has revealed that the cause of diversity and inclusion is best advanced through a company-wide effort—one that extends well beyond senior management and HR; one inspired by our employees. We’ve seen incredible benefits from supporting employees who take it upon themselves to organize groups that strive to empower their peers and build allyship.
Employee resource groups, such as the Alliance of Black Leaders for Excellence and Oracle Latinos Alliance have created leadership development programs in the last year to expand leadership capacity for Black and Hispanic employees at Oracle. Oracle Women’s Leadership (OWL) is another key resource that offers programs, such as the EMEA Emerging Leader Summit and OWL TechFest to prepare future women leaders within the company. And we are committed to diversity and inclusion globally; we continue to focus on historical inequities to increase a balanced slate of talent in the nearly 100 countries where we operate.
We’ve seen positive results in these efforts, but our diversity and inclusion initiatives are still a work in progress. Oracle remains highly committed to championing an inclusive mindset and doing more to provide career opportunities for historically marginalized groups while continuing to do what we do best—leveraging our creativity and spirit of innovation to deliver results.
Taken from: Oracle climbs in Forbes employer diversity rankings