Q&A with Infoblox’s WIN Executive Team “Our primary focus is to expand the presence of women in leadership, enterprise direct sales, and engineering roles.” JESPER ANDERSEN - INFOBLOX CEO
Q: What is the purpose of Infoblox’s “Women’s Internal Network” and what need will it serve? JA: Our purpose is to build an internal support system to attract, retain and promote women in the workplace. Our primary focus is to expand the presence of women in leadership, enterprise direct sales, and engineering roles.
SONYA ANDREAE - GLOBAL CUSTOMER SERVICE & SUPPORT EXECUTIVE
Q: As a company, what made you stop and say … “we need to create a WIN program?” JA: We value diversity at all levels and in all job categories throughout the organization. We’re fortunate to have a diverse workforce, in general. However, we lack broad representation of Women in senior leadership and technical roles. We decided to create an internal network for women to learn together and from each other. Additionally, we want to support external efforts that inspire young women to pursue engineering and technology careers. This will help fill the pipeline with qualified candidates in the future. Collectively, we think we can make a difference. The result will be a more engaged and productive workforce, and ultimately a more successful organization. Q: What goals do you hope to achieve and what is your time frame? JA: We haven’t established a timeframe or specific quotas to achieve. Instead we’re taking direct action to achieve our goals in everything we do. From recruitment, to employee development, outreach activities and mentoring efforts. Additionally, we’re participating in a variety of community initiatives that align with our goal. Q: How will you monitor the progress of WIN? JA: We’ll measure our effectiveness in engagement levels of women employees through our mid-year and annual employee engagement survey. Additionally, we’ll measure our percent of women representation in leadership and technology positions.
JESPER ANDERSEN - INFOBLOX CEO
Q: What do you think is the most significant barrier to female leadership? SA: A primary concern is the lack of women entering the Engineering/technical profession resulting in fewer women available to assume leadership position in the high-tech industry. There are a variety of social and economic reasons that have resulted in an imbalance of women in leadership and technology. Many women don’t have mentors at home to help shape their career aspirations. Others were preoccupied with fulfilling traditional roles of being a mother and/or caretaker, placing their career goals on the back burner. Additionally, there are still deep-seated biases that have existed for many generations. During the last few decades I’ve seen a positive shift in this mindset. As a result, women are achieving parity in the workplace. Although we’re seeing positive change in the workplace, it will require sustainable change in institutional mindset to correct these biases over time. Male presence still dominates the boardroom and C-Suite positions.
Q: Why is tech the fastest-growing industry in the U.S. which is predicted to provide more job opportunities than all other professional sectors, still failing to attract and retain women in your opinion? SA: I wouldn’t say the high-tech industry is failing at attracting and retaining women in the workplace. Quite the opposite. I think we’re making significant progress. More than ever, employers are sponsoring mentorships for women in technology and proactively pursuing opportunities to expand their representation of women, particularly in technical positions. Additionally, there are now many Corporate-backed outreach programs designed to attract and inspire women to enter high-tech careers. STEM and Code.org come to mind as two well-funded programs sponsored by employers in the high-tech industry. However, as noted earlier, it takes time to change mindset and practice resulting from generations of gender bias. Infoblox is one of many employers who are embracing this change in mindset by promoting women leadership in the workplace and sponsoring programs aligned with our beliefs.