IBM’s Journey — Recognition Today and More Progress to Come

At IBM, our goal is to continue pressing for progress, not only within IBM, but in the marketplace too. As a 107-year old tech leader, we embrace the responsibilities we carry to effect real societal change.

Recently, many of the workplace and workforce initiatives we have launched over the past few years are gaining real traction and earning public recognition.

Last week, LinkedIn announced IBM made its annual Top Companies list, a distinction we were happy to receive. Also that week our CEO Ginni Rometty received the prestigious Catalyst Award, recognizing IBM’s global commitment to women and diversity in the workplace.

LinkedIn spotlighted one initiative, IBM’s Corporate Services Corps, which is staffed with teams of IBM experts from different disciplines to work in countries around the world. These teams assist governments on a pro bono basis with various development projects as they gain leadership experience.

The work we’re doing at IBM makes a real difference for our company, and most importantly, a real difference for the 366,000 people who work here and the ones we want to attract.

Let’s look at a few examples. Our Elevate program is designed to accelerate the professional growth of high-potential, mid-career IBM women globally. Participants develop leadership skills through education and experiences tailored to individuals’ career paths. Since its launch in 2015, more than half of the 600 participants have been promoted to senior positions.

Our Tech Re-Entry program isn’t about temporary internships but “returnships,” helping skilled women who’ve left the workforce — for whatever reason — come back to jobs in science, technology and engineering. They work at IBM for 12 weeks as interns; and in virtually all cases, they’ve been offered jobs at the conclusion of their internships. It’s great for them, and even better for us.

Finally, IBM’s Pathways in Technology Early College High Schools, or P-TECH program, is an innovative educational model for students to earn a high school diploma and an industry-recognized degree, while gaining relevant work experience in STEM-related fields. The program already has over 100 graduates and is supported by more than 400 other firms.

We’ve been at this for more than a century. What we know is that we are never done. We have to keep asking, what do we see now that we didn’t see before? What new solutions and experiences will the next era of technology require? And then we go back to co-creating with employees and continue refining.

Why keep working it? Because there are 500,000 open tech jobs in the U.S. Yet we’re leaving huge sources of talent untapped. When women in STEM hit their 30s, more than half in non-executive jobs stop working — even those with skills in hot technologies like AI and blockchain. By 2022, it’s estimated there will be 2 million unfilled roles in cybersecurity, yet women only make up about 10% of the current cybersecurity workforce . This is why we need other companies — indeed our country — to clone programs like P-TECH, Tech Re-Entry, and Elevate. We have an opportunity to close the technology skills gap by creating a more inclusive workforce.

We’re at a point in time, with the rise of AI and other technologies, when diversity is even more critical. AI is shaping our society, from the games our kids play to what we are reading. If we want ethical and unbiased technologies, then we need to make sure that everyone has equal opportunity to participate in their creation. That means diversity and inclusion must be embedded in everything we do. The choices we make now will last for generations. This has been core to IBM’s DNA for decades.

Much is still left to be done, and yet every single step in the right direction gets us that much closer to transforming “process” into “progress,” and “progress” into a new normal. Join us. We mean it when we say, everyone is welcome.