- Lenovo began developing its Product Diversity Office (PDO) as the authority on embedding D&I into their product design and development process. The PDO consults with a broad range of diverse users to validate designs and provide feedback.
Global Technology giant, Lenovo announces its third annual Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Report, highlighting its annual snapshot of workforce demographics, hiring and attrition data, and a recap of the diversity and inclusion highlights of the past year. Lenovo has always recognized the importance of diversity in competing in a diverse world. As a unique global business, diversity is one of Lenovo’s greatest strengths. Last year, over 1 million people worldwide were impacted by the Lenovo Foundation.
The report under the theme “Smarter for all” details Lenovo’s Diversity & Inclusion journey over the last three years to further embed the diversity and inclusion practices across its global operations.
Table of Contents
Lenovo’s Milestone achievements:
The third annual report celebrates Lenovo’s achievement of reaching its three-year representational goals for gender and race/ethnicity.
First established in its inaugural report in 2018, Lenovo’s representational commitments featured a goal of achieving 20 per cent female executive representation worldwide and 28 per cent racial/ethnic minority executive representation in the U.S. Today, the company reports a representation of 21 per cent and 29 per cent respectively.
Other highlights feature the addition of three new employee resource groups, greater support for disability inclusion, and announcing the company’s first Product Diversity Office.
Progress over the last three years
Since Lenovo first began reporting its workforce representation three years ago, the company has experienced progress in several key areas.
Representing Gender Equality Globally:
- The representation of women within the overall workforce remained consistent from 2019 at 36 per cent.
- Representation of women within executive roles worldwide grew from 18.5 per cent to 21 per cent.
- Since first announcing the company’s three-year goal of 20 per cent in 2018, the representation of global female executives has grown three per cent.
“Diversity and inclusion are core values that have been the building blocks of our history. In driving forward our corporate vision of providing smarter technology for all, we have to be sure that ‘for all’ piece is coming through our actions loud and clear, and that means really investigating the ways in which a diverse set of users might experience technologies differently, and accounting for that in our designs. Our goal is simple: People should no longer have to change themselves to fit the world. Instead, the world will change to fit its people – all of its people. Technology can and should be a positive catalyst for change and evolution. Lenovo is channeling this capability to build a smarter future, where everyone thrives, together.”
– Rahul Agarwal, CEO & Managing Director, Lenovo India
Inclusive Design:
Earlier this year, Lenovo began developing its Product Diversity Office (PDO) as the authority on embedding D&I into their product design and development process. The PDO consults with a broad range of diverse users to validate designs and provide feedback. This led to the designers digging deeper into elements of race, gender, and ability and how diversity shapes the user experience. The PDO’s “Diversity by Design” process ensures diverse teams are represented in both the product planning and execution phases. Additionally, the PDO consultants have a broad range of diverse users to validate designs and provide feedback from engaging employees through partnerships with employee resource groups and diversity partners like Lenovo’s accessibility and inclusion advisor, Haben Girma. Currently, in its incubation stage, the PDO is exploring concepts of design review, audit, incident management, and innovation programs through 2021. Lenovo Voice is one of the first products to complete the PDO process and recently entered the market as a “diversity approved” solution this year. It offers real-time translation assistance, subtitle assistance, voice input, and voice assistant capabilities, making the PC more intelligent, convenient, and efficient.
“As a project leader within Lenovo’s PDO development committee and a senior development manager within our software division, I was excited to begin the pilot phases with my team. The PDO is a genuine reflection of “Smarter Technology for All” and how we utilize our talent and insights to bring about the intelligent transformation of technologies.”
said Bridgett Rogers, Senior Development Manager, PDO Taskforce, Lenovo
Supplier Diversity:
Supplier Diversity is an integral part of Lenovo’s strategic sourcing and procurement processes. The success of the organization and society depends on enabling Diverse Business Enterprises (DBE) to share in economic growth. It helps in creating inclusive employment opportunities, which enables sustainable economic growth and produces leaders within the communities. In the U.S. Lenovo has partnered with a variety of national and regional organizations such as the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC), the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC), and other local Chambers of Commerce. Through these organizations, Lenovo also participates in national, regional, and local events aimed at promoting and creating opportunities for diverse suppliers.
Disability Inclusion:
This year, Lenovo has enacted several programs and initiatives that further their commitment to delivering greater value products and solutions for a diverse world and inclusive experience for their employees, including developing new accessibility guidelines, launching “ABLE”, the employee resource group for those living with or caring for people with disabilities, and signing on to the Valuable 500 commitment. These commitments have helped reinforce and magnify Lenovo’s focus on creating technology and innovative culture that is inclusive and accessible to everyone
India specific Milestones:
- Lenovo hosted a Webinar with an external agency to help their employees, who are parents to cope with remote learning for their kids. This webinar proved to be a fruitful experience for employees who are balancing working from home and helping their kids with online classes.
- A unique mentorship program called CATALYST was launched, where the senior leaders from WW, Asia Pacific, and India would mentor women employees from India. Along with this Lenovo also conducted a Survey to understand the experience of women employees and source ideas to improve diversity across levels.
- Lenovo has expanded its Health Insurance Plan to include domestic partners, including LGBTQIA+ partners, in line with Lenovo’s global approach to diversity & inclusion.
- During the Global Month of Diversity, Lenovo India celebrated the occasion by organizing a special ultramarathon where the employees had to walk /run for 50km in the month dedicated to this cause.
- WW Lenovo IDG group also launched a New Realities program, a dynamic global art project celebrating women who use smart technology to showcase and solve global social issues and empower empathy. The project highlighted 10 female change-makers from across the world narrating their stories through 360 degrees VR films and included a protagonist from India – Ashwini Doddalingappanavar who hails from a humble village in Karnataka. In addition to this, Lenovo – in partnership with Girl Up – is funding $100,000 in grants for these young women to pursue their desired education.
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