Democratizing Hiring to Accelerate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Recruiting and retaining top talent isn't an easy problem, while the war for talent is only spiraling. And a long-term and sustainable approach over a quick fix is a way to win. First, the key differentiators are the organizational culture, skills development, transformation, and a sense of belonging. Next, there is a vast market of talent which we miss by adopting a traditional recruiting strategy. After all, the next-gen talent forms a majority population in most organizations with the most prolonged retention period. Talent isn't exclusive to gender, race, ability, school, socio-economic background, and location. There is an urgent need to evolve and shift to a diverse, equitable, and inclusive approach by acknowledging that talent is not restricted to premier colleges. We introduced Cisco Ideathon, an innovative university hiring program offering an inclusive opportunity to students from Tier 2/3 colleges in India. Within two years of inception, Cisco Ideathon has reached over 20,000 students across 24 out of 28 states in India, including remote villages, and has achieved 50% diversity in hiring. We are now exploring expanding the program to Cisco Global.