The women’s group started as a Women in Technology (WIT) initiative in 2018 with a vision of making Xilinx a great place to work for women and increasing the representation of women in technical roles. Today, we continue to have the same focus and expand the vision to include
women beyond technology.

Our women’s group is comprised of 952 members globally, with 291 members in the Asia Pacific Region, of which 187 members are in Singapore. Among Xilinx Singapore employees, there is a 2:3 female/male ratio, higher than industry’s average of 1:4. At managerial level, female representation stands at 33%. These are baselines for awareness as we progress as an organisation (Figure 1).


Figure 1:  Employee  Profile in Xilinx Singapore

Xilinx CARES deeply about maintaining a diverse and talented workforce that reflects a broad range of backgrounds, perspectives, experiences, gender identities, and ethnicities. We are dedicated to providing a work environment where all individuals are treated with respect, dignity, equality, and inclusion.

As a company, we promote a culture that enables employees to perform at their best, realize their professional potential, and be well, both physically and mentally by:

  • Offering a range of development activities including formal training, lunch-and-learn series, and on the job experiences
  • Encouraging open dialogue between managers and employees on performance, development, and career aspirations that are foundational to our values of Excellence, Teamwork, and Accountability.

The Imperatives to Empower Women

At Xilinx, developing and promoting female leadership is a priority. We focus on initiatives to elevate, promote and develop women at all levels. In championing women empowerment, Xilinx identified four strategic focus areas – Attract, Develop, Engage and Invest (Figure 2):

Figure 2: The 4 Strategic Focus Areas to Empower Women

These set the direction to create effective inclusion and is the backbone of ongoing activities:

Attract: We partner with organizations that support the representation of women and underrepresented groups globally such as Society of Women Engineers (SWE), and Center for Women in Technology (CWIT).  In Singapore, we partner Women@NTU (Nanyang Technology University), National University of Singapore (NUS) and Singapore Semiconductor Industry Association (SSIA).

Develop: We offer targeted and individualized development opportunities and mentoring.  In Singapore, an organic mentorship program supports our female employees’ development with training, resources and conference opportunities to promote leadership skills. Recently, a talk was given to Entry Level Professionals (ELP) to encourage empowerment. A Multi-Site Symposium where women leaders candidly discuss challenges in times of change and how they thrived under these trying circumstances.

Engage: We organize lunch-and-learn sessions where our women employees share takeaways from related TED talks. We have platforms to showcase vast experiences of our women employees, from managing and excelling in work and personal life to fostering community spirit through physical activities e.g. marathon participations.

Invest: Being a part of the local community, we strive to positively influence our communities via active corporate citizenship and employee giving. We actively engage with local higher education institutions through an All-Female Thematic Hackathon and TEDxNTU event sponsorship.

The Insights

It is worth noting that our leadership team is dedicated and deeply connected to the program. Our Chief Technology and Chief People Officer serve as the Women’s Group Executive Sponsors. At the regional level in China, India, Ireland, Singapore and the United States, an advisory committee comprising senior female leaders work closely with champions to lead Xilinx WIT. While progress can be brought about relatively rapidly with the right set of initiatives, strengthening engagement to achieve impact will take years. We acknowledge this and as leaders, are compelled to evolve our journey for local and global relevance. The prospect excites our women community.

 Thriving in 2020

2020 has been unprecedented in so many ways. We found new ways to work with one another, new ways to engage our teams, new ways to deliver our products and operational goals. 2020 also saw a group of passionate individuals who rose to the occasion and led efforts to innovate and encourage our female employees to be the best of who they are so that they can contribute to the dynamic environment, and continue to be the best mother, spouse, daughter, friend and colleague that they already are every day. We acknowledge the phenomenal work that they have done in this pandemic year putting forth event after event (Figure 3), and not ceasing to lead the site with thoughts and actions to celebrate our diversity and innovative culture. We look forward to greater things in our WIT core team!

At the first ever All-Female Thematic Hackathon

TED X NTU Sponsorship

Figure 3: Xilinx WIT Organized Events

SOURCE OF CONTENTS

Xilinx