Loyal employees are not born. Their organization creates them. In searching for some examples, I met Ann-Marie Yap, a senior manager at Cisco. She provided me with some extraordinary reasons why she loves her work and why she stays where she is.

Ann-Marie said, “My partner and I have two young children. We’ve learned to be conscious of how to balance work and family, and LGBT parenting can have it’s own particular challenges

“It’s important to me that I work in an organization where there is a culture that values all of its employees and that demonstrates LGBT inclusion throughout the organization. I’ve found that to be true at Cisco. I’ve gotten all the same benefits and respect for my work and my family as every other employee that works there.”

I’ve consulted with other organizations that have high scores on policies and procedures regarding LGBT equality, but they have still not created a culture where LGBT people feel safe disclosing their orientation so they don’t even take advantage of the offered benefits.

It was refreshing to hear what Ann Marie had to say about working at Cisco.

“With a 6 year old and an 11 month old baby, I’ve had to make some choices about my time and priorities. At the same time I couldn’t stop working.”  

“We sometimes feel like we are at the center of the universe, but it’s just the organization’s universe.”

She said that in making decisions about time, she asks if she really needs to be involved or attend a particular meeting.

I’ve personally worked with too many organizations where people think that inclusion means everyone needs to attend every meeting so they create a culture of micromanaging and call it employee involvement.

Yap went on to say, “My work involves mapping processes and determining what adds value and what adds time.”

Along that line, there are times when I can work from home or out the office.” T

The key takeaway Ann-Marie has is that Cisco projects a culture of collaboration – “a part of that is the utilization of our own technology to be able to work when and wherever we may be.”

 Cisco has the equipment that makes it easy to be productive and not have to be on site when it isn’t necessary. If one of my children is sick or has an appointment I’m able to be with them.”

She gave me some examples of technology that allows CISCO to be flexible and support its employees being successful:

1-   A system that allows cell phone rollover so that the number that shows up on caller id is the office number

2-   Soft phone technology on laptops. A picture of the office phone and dial pad appears on the screen in order to make calls from anywhere, as though it is the actual desk phone. With WebEx, an employee can virtually attend meetings, and participate in video and teleconferences.

“Working at CISCO allows me to be a good parent, and partner and still add value and contribute to the success of the organization. I’m fortunate that I didn’t have to make a choice of family or career."