Janet

Tell me about being the Vice President of Corporate Responsibility & Engagement. What does a typical day look like for you?

My team and I lead initiatives across the Americas region relating to diversity, equity, inclusion, well-being, and skills-based volunteering, which is called Digital Inclusion at Capgemini and is focused on how we are closing the gap related to digital literacy and training for tech skills. Also, environmental sustainability, which in the US is reducing our own carbon footprint and partnering with the team that helps our clients reduce their carbon footprint. 

I also lead the team that assesses how we engage our own workforce through local communities, team building, development, and our Employee Resource Groups in support of a positive career experience for our people. How we articulate our purpose and our brand as an employer of choice for existing and future team members is a theme that intersects all of these strategic initiatives.   

What do you love about doing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) work? 

I love being able to represent the voice of our people in different ways. In my day-to-day, I am engaged in hearing from and having great, lively, and direct conversations with different demographics and intersections of people about topics happening in the market or across the world and the impact of those actions or decisions in the workplace. I feel really tapped into what people care about at work. With regular reviews of our employee engagement assessment, Pulse, we leverage employee comments and partner with leaders to define actions that support evolving our status as a best place to work. I love aligning our local execution to our global strategy. I appreciate opportunities to solve problems related to continuous improvement of our people experience and workforce transformation.   

How do you see Capgemini’s purpose being played out? 

Our purpose as a global business and technology transformation partner is unleashing human energy for an inclusive and sustainable future. This articulates that Corporate Social Responsibility is the anchor of our purpose – making Capgemini a great company for a CSR practitioner. This is demonstrated by the millions of dollars donated, millions of beneficiaries we’ve supported through tech training, thousands of job opportunities provided to emerging talent, progress towards net zero, and improvements in the diversity of our workforce representation overall. The way we walk out our purpose is attractive to new hires, encouraging for people who are already team members, and inspiring new ways of working with our clients. This is all part of what has kept me at Capgemini for two decades.  

Tell me about one of your favorite memories at Capgemini.

The first thing that comes to my mind is the commitment that people have to consistently do their best work. One of the first projects I joined was for a platform that we developed for a client, and we were working in the office after midnight. Everyone had a commitment to do a good job. There was a manager who did not have to be there for us to get the tasks completed, but he would say if the team is here, I’m here. He modeled great leadership early on in my career. We were in Dallas, and he would take our Whataburger orders because that was one of the closest things that was still open at this crazy time of night and bring it back for us to eat as we were wrapping up these late-night code builds. There are people I met on that project that I’m still friends with to this day. The commitment that people had to do a good job and the ability to get to know people better as humans while working really, really hard together to do something great for the client is a positive memory of my time at Capgemini. Looking forward in the CSR/diversity space, seeing Capgemini become more recognized, whether that was the first time we got certified from the Economic Dividends for Gender Equality (EDGE), Best Places to Work for Dads, or the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality index, are good memories. Finally, it is an incredible feeling growing from a team of one, to now look around and see how well we all work together as a CSR team.   

How are you working towards Getting the Future You Want? 

I am getting the future I want by enabling other people to get the future they want. At some point in time, I have to go on to do something else or retire. What I’ve really tried to be very mindful of is how do I enable people to grow the careers they want and get the opportunities they want and put myself in a position where, if I won the lottery tomorrow, the team could continue to make progress. I think sometimes people get into a protection mode where they feel like if they don’t hold on to specific knowledge or if they aren’t seen as the best or smartest person on the team then they will lose their position. I am the opposite; I want everybody to know how to do what I do so that eventually I can go do something else. Sharing knowledge, sharing skills, making sure people understand how to network in our matrixed organization, and building up the next round of leaders is important to me. I have conversations with people on my team and those I mentor; I ask, “What do you really want to do? Let me help you think through how I can help get you there.” I know the more I coach others the more it sets me up with opportunities to do other things. Outside of the walls of Capgemini, I started my own non-profit and that puts me on a path for something I want to have more time for in the future.