Women’s Initiative Network: How Logicalis Supports and Empowers Women
Logicalis is extraordinary in its commitment to diversity and inclusion (D&I). It is also committed to ensuring equal opportunity and treatment for all people that are part of our Logicalis community.
An essential part of our D&I initiatives are our employee resource groups (ERGs); as our CEO Jon Groves likes to point out, our people are our most important resource:
“I am proud of many things, but I am most proud of our people….our success as a company is driven by who we are. And that is directly attributable to our people.”
When I joined Logicalis in 2020 and was asked to become the executive sponsor of our women’s employee resource group, I was thrilled. The support that ERGs have from senior leadership, including encouraging them to nurture and celebrate their diversity and points of view, is a strong attribute of Logicalis.
Enabling all Logicalians to support women
We realized that to drive meaningful change within our company, we needed to include all Logicalians and not just women. As the saying goes “it takes a village” and villages are not “women only.”
To better reflect this philosophy, we changed our name from “Women of Logicalis” to Women’s Initiative Network (WIN). Then we changed our charter.
Here is where Logicalis truly distinguishes itself. The purpose of WIN is to “engage all Logicalians to promote and support the development and advancement of women at Logicalis while building a community to empower professional women.”
Building an inclusive community to empower women
To build a community that supports and empowers women, WIN set out to “work strategically with industry leaders, scholars and practitioners” to:
- Enhance knowledge, skills and expertise
- Facilitate information and resource exchange
- Create forums for dialogue and sharing of professional and personal experiences
- Recognize achievements and individual contributions of women at Logicalis
- Strive to incorporate diversity and inclusion of thought at all levels throughout the company
- Provide networking opportunities
You’ll notice that these goals are less about climbing the proverbial ladder and more about how to holistically empower and support women.
As a result, WIN is about creating a dialog and sharing experiences, including “personal experiences” because women are whole people with families and kids and responsibilities outside of the office. That matters.
There’s power in sharing experiences with those who may have the same struggles or in creating a dialog around solutions not previously considered. Perhaps some solutions have maybe even been considered and discarded because the surrounding culture didn’t support it—for example, solutions to manage competing work and family demands. Fortunately for Logicalis, we have a very committed CEO for whom family wins.
WIN also promotes opportunities to develop our hard skills and soft skills. Our hallmark event is a monthly Empower Hour where topics can range from business skills to personal interests. In fact, the most recent sessions focused on sharing our favorite productivity hacks with each other and learning how to protect ourselves in various situations—traveling alone, leaving the office at night, etc.—from a personal safety expert.
Learning also includes book clubs where we read and discuss relevant books chosen by the group. We recently read Crucial Conversations about how to have discussions “where the stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong.”
In addition, Logicalis remains committed to a diversity of thought and we strive to create an environment conducive to innovation with diverse teams comprised of employees from different genders, backgrounds and experiences. Building inclusive teams not only enables Logicalis to gain new perspectives and solve challenges, but it also helps foster innovation.
Finally, WIN aims to recognize women for their work and contributions and provide networking opportunities across the company.
Promoting Breast Cancer Awareness
One of our hallmark initiatives is our annual fundraiser for Breast Cancer Awareness. As we all know, donations can make a huge difference in promoting breast cancer awareness, care and prevention, enabling us to impact lives, support treatment and create hope.
This year we chose to support two small organizations so that our contributions would be more impactful: The Gathering Place and the Cancer Survivorship Program.
I am proud to report that we’ve already exceeded last year’s collection amount and have exceeded our goal of $5,000 for this year!
Logicalis: Walking the talk on diversity and inclusion
What makes our company great is the diversity of thought and the respect that we give to hearing different perspectives across the company. When we meet, everyone is encouraged to offer his/her opinions. After these 360˚ discussions, decisions are made and everyone feels comfortable moving in the same direction.
In terms of recruitment and retention, Logicalis has an exceptionally talented HR team that consistently presents slates of qualified and diverse candidates to hiring managers, for open positions. Our CEO has set a goal that at least 30% of our mid-level managers must be women. While we are actively pursuing that goal, I’m pleased to say that, today, half of the Logicalis executive team are women.
At the end of the day, Logicalis walks the talk. We don’t promote diversity and inclusion because it’s a soundbite or looks good on paper. We advocate for diversity and inclusion because it is at the core of our company values. The best part is that doing the right thing is also good for business. Diversity enhances our offerings to our customers and our overall value proposition.
Learn more about our D&I initiatives. Or contact us for more information.
Nancy Saltzman is Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary and the executive sponsor of the Logicalis Women’s Initiative Network.