Employees

Symantec defines diversity as all of the differences that make each of us unique individuals. Our ability to attract, retain, and fully engage diverse talents leads to enhanced innovation and creativity in our products. As such, we recognize that a continuing commitment to inclusive hiring practices is a business imperative tied directly to our bottom line.

Our recruiting success to date affords us the distinct competitive advantages of a first-class global workforce. With more than 17,000 employees at nearly 270 sites in more than 47 countries, we are able to address the needs of businesses, governments, organizations, and consumers in all of the markets in which we do business.

Management oversight

Symantec’s commitment to diversity starts at the top with an Executive Steering Committee that drives and champions Symantec’s global diversity and inclusion initiative. Symantec has also formed local Diversity and Inclusion Councils. These councils are composed of employees that reflect the diversity of their site and who volunteer their time and talents to build diversity awareness and promote an inclusive work environment.

Engaging employees

We offer a variety of programs to teach our own employees how to conduct business successfully in a multicultural and multiethnic world. New employees receive diversity training as part of their orientation, and all employees have access to “Globe Smart”, an online tool designed to raise awareness of cultural differences among people around the world. The homepage of Symantec’s intranet includes a “Cultural Heritage Calendar”, and employees are encouraged to visit our internal diversity and inclusion Web site for easy access to information on diversity issues, outreach activities, and other resources.

Symantec conducted a significant overhaul of the diversity and inclusion content available to employees on the company’s intranet in FY09. The new web content includes a question and answer section, a diversity toolkit, information on affinity groups and outreach events, and links to the Global Diversity Message Board, where all employees can post messages, blogs, and articles relating to diversity.

Additionally, more than 8,000 employees participated in the 2009 Diversity and Inclusion Survey. Symantec received high scores on questions assessing the overall climate of respect and openness to differences.  More than 85 percent of respondents indicated that their manager is respectful of employee differences and unique perspectives and that their department makes it easy for people of different backgrounds to fit in.

In an area that needs improvement, the majority of employees agreed that Symantec managers can do more to challenge behaviors or incidents that could be considered insensitive or disrespectful. There was also a gap in the perception of men and women relating to opportunities for women to advance at Symantec, with women responding less favorably than men.

The results of the survey have been presented to the Diversity and Inclusion Executive Steering Committee and are being shared with Executives and Diversity and Inclusion champions around the globe.  Each site will develop an action plan to address low scoring areas for their site.

Enhancing opportunities for women in technology

In the technology industry, women are under-represented in technical and leadership positions. Symantec recognizes that a commitment to systemic change and a proactive and deliberate initiative to address this disparity in the workforce are needed in order to attract and retain female technical talent and to ensure a diversity of perspectives in business planning. To this end, we launched a women’s initiative with the goal of increasing the number of women in leadership, technical, and sales positions. Our overarching objective is to build a work environment that supports and encourages all women in their career aspirations.

Women currently comprise nearly 28 percent of our workforce, consistent with women’s representation in the industry as a whole. We are working to build on this foundation and are seeing some early results of our women’s initiative: hiring of women is up by two percent globally and turnover of women is down by 1.2 percent globally (reflecting an annual comparison of the years ending December 2007 vs. December 2008).

Calvert Women’s Principles™

In October 2007 Symantec’s Diversity and Inclusion Steering Committee adopted the Calvert Women’s Principles™. The Principles are the first global code of corporate conduct focused exclusively on women’s issues.

Over the past two years, we have partnered with the City of San Francisco, Calvert, Verité, and sixteen prominent Bay Area companies on broader Gender Equality Principles (GEP). The San Francisco GEP adapt and promote the Calvert Women’s Principles™ to address local challenges and opportunities, and offer clear, practical standards and measures against which private sector entities can assess their progress. We participate in quarterly roundtables where we share peer-to-peer discussion and work to create indicators and other benchmarking tools that will accelerate implementation of the GEP. Symantec also provided a grant to the City of San Francisco to support the underlying technology needs for this initiative.

In March 2009, Symantec participated in “Advancing Women in the Global Marketplace”, an event sponsored by the United Nations Global Compact and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). The event identified ways in which businesses can empower women, with a special focus on the role of the Calvert Women’s Principles™ in setting a corporate agenda to promote gender equity.

Symantec Women’s Action Network (SWAN)

Symantec’s Women’s Action Network (SWAN) is designed to attract talented women and to support and encourage them to further their careers here at Symantec. Through SWAN, women employees have a forum for personal and professional networking throughout all levels of the company, providing them with opportunities to build relationships and share information about how to make Symantec an even more rewarding place for women to work.

Globally, we now have 12 SWAN chapters including new chapters in India and the United Kingdom. SWAN members have built awareness at the grass roots level which has led to increased employee engagement reflected in the significant increase in the number of Symantec women not only attending conferences on leadership and technology, but also presenting at these conferences and participating on webinars and panels.  For example, in FY09, 18 technical women were nominated by leadership to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, up from four nominees in 2006. SWAN members in Culver City, Roseville, and Heathrow also reached out to local schools and Girl Scout troops to connect with young girls and serve as role models to get young girls interested in and excited about a future in computing. 

Reaching out to the LGBT community

Symantec supports its Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community. Due to the continued leadership of Symantec’s Diversity and Inclusion Councils and its Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Allies (LGBTA) affinity, we offer domestic partner benefits, facilitate a virtual networking group, and sponsor Gay Pride events throughout the year. These groups also promoted revisions to Symantec’s Equal Employment Opportunity Policy and Policy Against Discrimination and Harassment to include provisions around gender identity. Gender identity language will be added to Symantec’s Code of Conduct in the next round of revisions.

As a result of our efforts, Symantec was one of 260 companies to receive a 100 percent score in the Human Rights Campaign’s 2009 Corporate Equality Index (up from  a score of 85 percent in the previous year).

Employee Engagement and Development

We rely on our employees to think creatively and constantly seek out new ways to meet our customers’ needs. By ensuring that our employees are highly satisfied with all aspects of their work experiences and by giving our employees the opportunity to develop new skills and refine existing talents to do their jobs better, we are, in fact, investing in the long-term success of our company.

Employee Satisfaction Surveys

Symantec conducts an annual employee satisfaction survey, which is circulated each spring to all employees globally. The results of the 2009 survey indicate that most employees understand how their day-to-day work impacts the customer experience.  Employees suggested, however, that Symantec can improve in terms of effective career development planning and allowing them to meet customer needs effectively.

In response to these concerns, Symantec is working to improve its processes and procedures that allow employees to meet customer needs. Furthermore, Symantec is focusing on reward and recognition programs, such as the Symantec Applause program, to support employee achievement and advancement with proper training, resources, and career planning. Additional career planning programs are being designed to connect employees with the business strategy and continue building a climate of trust and transparency.

In addition the annual employee survey, Symantec measures employee engagement quarterly through the use of Employee Net Promoter Scores (ENPS).  The one-question survey asks “Overall, how likely are you to recommend Symantec to a friend or colleague as a place to work?“ Over the past four quarters ending in April 2009, Symantec’s ENPS scores have increased significantly.

Training

Symantec’s robust employee development program offers a curriculum that is applied globally across all functions. The program enhances employees’ business, technical, and interpersonal skills and enables them to excel in their chosen career paths. We combine instructor-led and e-learning classes to ensure that our people can reach their maximum professional potential. We also offer tuition reimbursement for qualifying employees.

Number of full- and part-time employees who registered and/or completed one or more training activities.