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Maintaining the inclusivity is a critical element of our company culture. And the recent achievement of the Cisco PRIDE community in Poland only proves it. This year our team has been recognized with Pavelka’s Pioneers of the Year Award. Particularly, it’s a big honor for me to be recognized as a “Rising Star” for the leadership of the Cisco’s PRIDE inclusive community (an employee driven resource organization) in Poland. Curious to know how this achievement became possible?
PRIDE organization in Poland
I strongly believe in allyship as a value. The world is not equal for all of us. Your life can be predetermined depending on when and where you were born. Some people are privileged by default, while others face many barriers because of their sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, religion, etc. This is where Allyship begins – understanding that opportunities are not the same for everyone and working all together to compensate them.
I got involved in CISCO PRIDE immediately after I joined Cisco, volunteering for all the activities run by the organization at that time. I must admit it speeded up my onboarding in a new company. Also, as a new Cisconian, I had an opportunity to meet lots of different people from various organizations.
Poland PRIDE is a part of the Cisco Global PRIDE inclusive community, with its structure and representatives. We work closely with other EMEAR chapters, following the same strategy, but we also run activities to achieve our local goals. Within the last 5 years, things got changed significantly. The turning point for our PRIDE organization was the Sponsorship and support of the senior leadership, which brought us more visibility and helped connect PRIDE Poland with the business.
Celebrating the PRIDE month to raise awareness for the LGBTQ+ community and human rights (October 2019)
Building the LGBT+ friendly company
The PRIDE mission is to ensure Cisco is recognized internally and externally as an inclusive, LGBT+ friendly company where all employees can bring their whole self to work and be part of an engaging, passionate, and socially responsible community.
Our goals are focused on three main areas:
- First, is a local impact -we work closely with DOMEQ- Krakow Equality Centre, which has 9 non-profit LGBT+ Polish organizations under its umbrella. Thanks to that collaboration, Cisco employees can participate in many Time2Give activities organized during the whole year. Also, we are part of a network that includes other international companies operating in Krakow.
- The second is creating safe spaces where Cisconians can talk openly, share their feelings, and get support from the community.
- The third is related to the internal promotion of Inclusion & Diversity as a strategy for the company. In this aim, we run onsite events and work with our Leadership to promote Cisco’s culture.
Currently, we have 300+ people in the PRIDE Poland network, 39 active members, 6 people within the core team.
The way WE do it
Each year PRIDE team organizes significant events: PRIDE month in June, Coming Out week in October, and Inclusion week in November, which also reminds us that November is International Transgender Visibility month. Within those events, we run some activities such as inclusion workshops for leaders, mentoring sessions for employees with our executives, fun games, like online quizzes, or Drag Bingo. Also, we organize many more, smaller events during the year like Drag Revia, Summer LGBT+ film festival, Time2Give activities.
Our PRIDE community supports LGBT+ communities primarily by creating safe spaces with availability to talk and connect and by promoting and celebrating their beautifulness and greatness as people and colleagues.
PRIDE is the best thing which happened to me at Cisco. I am surrounded by amazing people who share the same values. Passion of the team is very contagious, that is why our community keeps growing and growing. PRIDE is a family, group of friends, comrades, where you can share how you feel, but also inspire each other and motivate.
The only challenge we might have, comes from the fact that Poland Inclusion & Diversity culture is still in a growing phase. But also, it gives us a chance as Ciscionians to make a difference at the local level, thanks to Cisco’s global visibility.
Being recognized as Pioneers of the Year
For those, who don’t know, Pavelka’s Program aims to help create a shift in the culture and coach individuals on how to make a positive change in their organization. Quoting Jessie Pavelka: “Pavelka Pioneers are the beating heart of our work within organizations – our eyes and ears, our advisors and those who deliver the important message of well-being to their colleagues, leaders, and teams’’.
The latest Pavelka’s recognition means a lot for the PRIDE Poland team. Cisco PRIDE promotes an inclusive culture, where you can be a part of a socially responsible and engaging community. In this way, PRIDE also promotes mental health by bringing your whole self to work, preventing LGBT+ people from being put under too much strain in everyday life (not being able to bring your whole self to work, being closeted, masking, avoiding talking about self, being guarded about self). All these are essential aspects of our mental condition, and we are so glad they are noticed and included in well-being discourse. PRIDE or any other Employee Resource Organizations are crucial to make the employees feel confident by having full acceptance from the company side.
Pavelka’s award brings more visibility to the PRIDE organization and recognizes its team members for the effort and passion they put into this community. We are so glad the value that employee organizations like PRIDE bring to the community is noticed.
We plan to keep the growth of the community (100% per year!) and collaborate closer with other Inclusive Communities within Cisco (like Men for Inclusion or Women of Impact) to increase diversity within PRIDE, define an allyship program in full operation within next year and have lots of fun!
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