Customers and Diversity

An Important Market Segment

Women are an important market segment for Dell, especially since women influence most decisions about purchasing technology! At Dell, we have developed a number of channels to enhance communications with women and to help build a strong relationship between Dell and our female customers.

Online Media

A foundational element of our communications with women is Della, a Web portal that was created for customers who value a combination of technology, style and personalization. You’ll find information about products from Dell, featured artists that design custom laptop covers, tips on how to enhance your life with technology and information on environmental programs of interest to women.

Dell also utilizes various social media tools to provide more interaction, keep in touch with Dell or receive special offers on products: 

• Cyber Sisterhood – a blog that allows women to exchange information on technology or anything else that may be on your mind!
• The Dell Lounge – provides a range of content, some for guys but a lot for women; see the Style page or tags for fashion or practically posh (high style on a low budget).
• Dell on Twitter – provides tweets with special offers from Dell.
• Dell on Facebook – Dell’s social networking page on Facebook.
• Dell on MySpace – Dell’s social networking page on MySpace.

Advertising and Events

Another way Dell communicates with women is through traditional advertising, both print media and online. Dell has an extended history of advertising in key publications that reach women including PINK, Working Mother, Professional Woman’s Magazine and Women’s Enterprise (both USA and Texas editions). In addition to advertising with these publications, Dell participates in related events such as Working Mother’s WorkLife Congress and Best Companies for Multicultural Women national conference.

Partnering with Women

Dell works with numerous women’s organizations and businesses for all kinds of things – advancing important causes, purchasing components or products and attracting good job candidates.

Partnering with Woman-Focused Organizations

Contributing positively in the communities where our employees live and work is essential to Dell's Marketplace Diversity Initiative. Many of our partnerships and community initiatives reach out to multicultural groups and benefit diverse communities in order to promote access to technology, talent, business and education in our communities. Dell believes that creating mutually-beneficial partnerships with national civic organizations, professional development organizations and multicultural business and community groups helps us exceed our customers' needs and remain competitive in the marketplace.

Some of the women’s groups we partner with include:

• CATALYST – a leading nonprofit membership organization working globally with businesses and the professions to build inclusive workplaces and expand opportunities for women and business (founded in 1962).
• Odyssey Network – now in its 10^th year as one of the premier business conferences for affluent and multicultural women.
• The National African-American Women’s Leadership Institute – implementing its vision to realize the power and potential of African-American women.
• The Foundation for Women’s Resources Power Pipeline – created to provide emerging women leaders with the opportunity to interact with and learn from experienced women leaders. It supports the Foundation’s goal of advancing and improving the personal, economic and professional status of women by inspiring new generations of women to make an impact in their communities.

Buying from Woman-Owned Suppliers

As one of the world’s leading technology companies, Dell purchases parts and components from suppliers around the world. One of the key drivers in our purchasing decisions is to work with diverse suppliers, including woman-owned businesses, whenever possible. This has been a successful strategy, resulting in Dell being selected by the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) as one of America's Top Corporations for Women's Business Enterprises for 2008.

Additionally, Dell was named to the Billion Dollar Roundtable in 2008. The Billion Dollar Roundtable recognizes corporations that spend at least $1 billion with minority and woman-owned suppliers. In fiscal year 2008, Dell’s spending with woman, small and minority-owned suppliers reached over $2.4 billion — a significant increase over the past five years.

Click here for more information on Dell’s supplier diversity efforts.

Recruiting Women to Work at Dell

Hiring women to work at Dell is a key objective of our diversity program. At Dell, diversity is more than an essential element of our corporate values. It’s a force that helps shape the type of company we are and aspire to be. We recognize diversity as the key to succeeding in the marketplace, fostering a winning culture where Dell employees are highly talented, committed, reflective of our global customers and recognized as our greatest strength.

The Dell Human Resources team utilizes various resources to identify and recruit talented women to work at Dell. For example, Dell works with the Society of Women Engineers to identify female candidates for technical positions. Dell will be a sponsor of the Annual Conference for Women Engineers, to be held October 15-17, 2009 in Long Beach, CA.

For Employees

Employee Networking Group

Dell employees can join or participate in a number of employee networking groups, including one specifically for women. Called WISE, the group’s mission is to support Dell's efforts to build a winning culture by acting as champions for the recruitment, retention and development of women at Dell.

WISE’s objectives are:

• Retaining talented women at Dell and increasing the pool of talented women leaders
• Improving the recruitment and retention of women by enabling the communication of goals, motivations and concerns of women at Dell
• Supporting Dell's efforts to cast a broad net to recruit and retain the best and brightest talent
• Providing opportunities for education and professional development
• Acting as a trusted resource of information and creative solutions to Dell
• Leveraging women’s knowledge and expertise as we penetrate new markets and segments
• Providing a pool of resources for Dell community outreach and leadership activities

Flexible Work Solutions

Recognizing that employees, especially women, have multiple demands tugging at them, Dell has implemented a variety of Flexible Work Solutions to give employees options on how they balance work and home life. Our Flexible Work Solutions are much more than being able to work from home. They include:

• Flextime – Full-time employees vary the start and end times of their workdays, whether on-site or off-site, covering core hours or core days (when everyone is expected to be working) as determined by departments.
• Part-time – An employee's workload and hours are decreased to less than the standard workweek requirements along with commensurate reduction in benefits and compensation.
• Job sharing – Two employees on reduced schedules and workload share the overlapping responsibilities of a full-time position; benefits and compensation are reduced accordingly.
• Compressed workweek – Employees compress a full-time workload into fewer than 5 days per week or 10 days in two weeks.
• Telework – Employees perform full-time job responsibilities up to several days a week at sites other than their primary location – usually their home or a satellite office
• Remote work – Employees perform full-time job responsibilities exclusively from a location outside the primary work site – usually their home or a satellite office.

Training and Development

Dell offers numerous training and development programs to employees. These are all intended to grow employees’ skills and develop future leaders for the company. Key programs include:

• Global Leadership Development – focus on maximizing employee competencies and skills to continue to drive Dell's success.
• Harvard ManageMentor – a model for managing mentor programs.
• Function-specific training courses – hundreds of courses to develop skills in areas such as sales, technology development or finance.
• Globesmart – online resources to help employees communicate, build relationships, and collaborate with new and existing colleagues, customers and suppliers worldwide.

Issues Important to Women

Participation in the communities that Dell employees call home has been a fundamental aspect of Dell’s success. We encourage employees to get involved in their local communities and help make a difference. Dell also directly supports several issues that have special importance to women:

• Dell YouthConnect – Dell YouthConnect directs corporate giving to organizations in emerging countries that promote education, and incorporate math, science, literacy and/or technology skills development for youth aged up to 17.
• Susan G. Komen for the Cure – For several years Dell has supported Komen for the Cure, an organization that promotes breast cancer research and community-based programs for breast health education and screening.
• March of Dimes March for Babies, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Walk to Cure Diabetes and SafePlace Field Day & Festival – Dell employees raised more than $500,000 for these organizations through participation in their respective walks and events.
• The environment – In 2007, Dell set the goal of becoming the greenest technology company on the planet. We’ve done a lot to achieve that goal, including taking the number one position on the Technology Business Research Corporate Sustainability Index Benchmark Report for 2009. Have a look at Dell Earth for lots more info on what we’re doing to protect and improve the environment.

Recognizing Dell’s Support of Women

Dell has been recognized by numerous publications and multicultural groups for our diversity efforts, including several major awards from women’s-focused organizations. Check here for a full list of Dell’s diversity awards, some highlights related to women include:

• Working Mother also named Dell as one of the Best 100 Companies in 2008, recognizing Dell’s efforts to provide programs that enable employees to balance work and home life.
• Dell received the “Corporate Rising Star” award from the Women’s Business Council Southwest for our commitment to supplier diversity and strategy to develop these companies as part of our supply chain.