Jack Naidoo on attracting and retaining transformative skills at Cisco
A critical element of the future of work at Cisco is the level of accountability we have together with our employees to ensure that our skills evolve as the company evolves. This includes rethinking skills development through our programme Illuminate, which we started during the pandemic. Through Illuminate, we take the company offline quarterly for a few days of development, focusing on individual, team and leadership development.
With speakers and sessions focused on a variety of skill development areas, we have received exceptional feedback on this new approach from our employees and are continuing to experiment as we develop the initiative. We know companies that choose to make this investment in their own people will reap the economic benefits of retaining their best talent and offer new avenues for growth and engagement across their workforce.
We further attract new talent to Cisco through the Networking Academy, our global digital skills-to-jobs programme that provides a unique educational pathway to meaningful work. Earlier this year, we announced our goal to train 10 million people in digital and cybersecurity skills over the next 10 years, across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). This ambition will equip workers across the region with the technical and digital skills required for new jobs at Cisco and businesses from every industry.
