We’re incredibly proud that Fujitsu has been named as number 48 in Stonewall’s top 100 most inclusive employers for 2017.This is the second year running that Fujitsu has made it into the top 100 and we’re also the only technology company to make the list. This is a huge achievement for the company, and I wanted to take the opportunity to set out why
diversity and inclusion is engrained into everything we stand for as a business.
Why is diversity and inclusion important to us?Diversity and inclusivity are essential to the modern business, as we see first-hand the positive impact it has on our workplace.
This is particularly true in technology companies, and I believe it’s key to achieving true innovation. This can’t be realised without full inclusion so people feel they can be completely themselves at work. This is why our mantra for Diversity & Inclusion in Fujitsu is
#BeCompletelyYou.
This culture of inclusiveness is created by authentically communicating the activity that Fujitsu proudly attaches its name to. This starts with ensuring our people understand the issues and feel empowered to change them. We offer unconscious bias training to all employees, with classroom-based learning for managers. This gives employees an opportunity to reflect on the way they communicate and gives them techniques they can use to support inclusiveness in the workplace.
This year we’ve worked really hard to extend this out to our customers and suppliers and we have some new initiatives in place. We have built a fantastic relationship with Celebrate - the LGBT network of our previous charity partner Action for Children- that has done so much to shape our strategy and improve our resources. It’s not about showing how well Fujitsu is doing; it’s about sharing that knowledge and best practice to everyone.
We took part in
Digital Pride for the first time– a global event that looks to promote LGBT inclusion, where we linked up with Fujitsu offices in Helsinki and India, and the EY office in Tokyo, to discuss Identity and Belonging. It was one of the standout highlights for me – logging into Twitter that day and seeing all the retweets from Fujitsu staff around the world. It shows we’re paying attention to this issue on a global scale!
I’m looking forward to taking part in Digital Pride again this year, where we will talk about LGBT inclusion in the digital era and the ways in which technology can impact and support LGBT communities.
We also launched a regular call featuring inspiring stories from LGBT+ women. Giving people the space to share stories and talk through the unique difficulties LGBT+ women face increases understanding from allies and engages women who feel represented and listened to.
For the next 12 months we’re going to build on the success of our trans-inclusion programme. Following the success of our
Trans Inclusion Guide for Managers, we’re producing a guide for non-binary identities.
On top of that, we are increasing our presence across our different offices. This ensures people have opportunities to meet other members of our inclusion network Shine, no matter where they are.
I think it’s fair to say that for LGBT communities, 2016 was quite a frightening year. There is such much going on in the world that suggests backwards trends as a whole for the LGBT community.
However, the fact Fujitsu has been able to achieve this shows that our views on inclusion shows are of the utmost importance in these turbulent times and I believe that global organisations will be key to realising equality and the celebration of diversity.
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By Fujitsu's Caroline Shrader. Caroline is a Project Manager in the central team of Fujitsu’s Global Delivery Centres (GDCs). She is a member of the GDC Responsible Steering Committee and drives Diversity & Inclusion initiatives across 8 global locations. She is also proud to be the chair of Fujitsu’s UK&I LGBT+ staff network, Shine.
