What does Nokia do to support the specific needs of minority employees?

My overall personal experience as a minority employee at Nokia has been very positive. How can one not be excited about having opportunities to work for a global corporation and to team with the remarkably talented and fair-minded people who comprise Nokia? Employment at Nokia has offered me the opportunity to make measurable contributions to technical and general projects that benefit our world. In fact, my observation is that minority employees at Nokia are held accountable to perform, no different on average, than are my non-minority colleagues. I have the same job and advancement opportunities and feel that I have opportunities equal to those of any other employee to improve my knowledge, skills, and behaviors through informal learning (such as workplace learning from colleagues and self-directed learning), formal training opportunities within, and outside of Nokia, and from self-directed research. Whatever racism or discrimination I may have experienced or observed during my years at Nokia, has been attributable to individuals’ attitudes and misplaced beliefs, and were not reflective of the corporate policies and employee culture of Nokia.

As a minority employee, my observation is that Nokia makes it clear that the company values diversity where fairness, integrity, equality, respect, and honesty for and from all employees are of the utmost importance at Nokia. It is uplifting to me that Nokia, as a global company with multi-cultural teams working together, champions numerous programs and organizations that support the specific needs of its minority employees and help Nokia’s efforts to build and maintain more equal and inclusive work environments. For example, Nokia offers mentorship programs and makes available a program called Ombuds which provides a neutral, confidential, and safe space to speak up about compliance questions, concerns, and requests for guidance. Additionally, Nokia partners with its minority employee organizations such as StrongHer US Women’s Leadership Network, HISPA (Hispanic Association of Nokia Employees), ABLE (Advancing Black Leadership and Excellence), IDEAL (Individuals Dedicated to Enabling Accessibility in Life), 4A (Asian/Pacific American Association for Advancement), and others such as EQUAL! (supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer employees and their friends and family), LUNA (United Native Americans of Nokia), and VALOR (supporting U.S. military veterans and those currently serving). These programs and organizations are available to Nokia employees globally.

Nokia currently supports at least eight employee resource groups, called Employee Business Partners (EBPs), that support its minority employees, and which are open to all Nokia employees. The EBPs are independent organizations that play a key role in helping to advance the professional and personal growth of Nokia employees by providing forums for networking, career development programs, and voluntary community service initiatives. The EBPs also participate in various diversity councils providing critical input to the corporation’s diversity strategy. The EBPs provided by Nokia include (1) 4A (Asian/Pacific American Association for Advancement), (2) ABLE (Advancing Black Leadership and Excellence), (3) EQUAL! (supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer employees and their friends and family), (4) HISPA (Hispanic Association of Nokia Employees), (5) IDEAL (Individuals Dedicated to Enabling Accessibility in Life), (6) LUNA (United Native Americans of Nokia), (7) StrongHer US Women’s Leadership Network, and (8) VALOR (supporting U.S. military veterans and those currently serving).

As a minority employee, I have been treated fairly and equally at Nokia. Nokians do not tolerate such behaviors and are encouraged to voice their concerns, without fear of retaliation, when they observe any such undesirable practices. Minorities are generally more perceptive to the treatment of individuals within their minority community than those outside of that community. While I personally have not witnessed discrimination, racism, or unfair treatment against any minority employee at Nokia, I do feel that there are areas where Nokia as a company could do a better job of demonstrating its commitments to fairness and equality. For example, to demonstrate that it has no glass ceiling for qualified applicants, Nokia could and should do a better job of appointing qualified minorities for some of the higher-level leadership positions within the company, and not just for the entry-level and first-line manager roles. That is, Nokia does well when hiring minority applicants, but does seem to falter somewhat when it comes to promoting them. Minorities and perhaps women to a lesser degree are currently underrepresented at the highest-level positions at Nokia. I believe that there is no African American representation on the Nokia Senior Leadership Team, and most of the key organizational leadership positions within business groups and teams are occupied by males.

hi Bori M. would you like to share your perspective on this very important topic?

I do agree with Charles that we still have opportunities to improve when it comes to more senior leadership positions in Nokia, and the "glass ceiling" topic deserves more discussion internally, I would hasten to say that we are a very inclusive company and are doing our best to offer equal opportunities - regardless of race, gender, religion, age, location and so forth.
We are encouraging an inclusive culture across Nokia, have an Inclusion & Diversity survey to measure where we stand and find the right areas to focus on and improve.
We also pay attention to minorities and any form of unconscious bias in our leadership training and discussions.
As a conclusion, my answer to the question "Are minority employees treated fairly and equally at Nokia?" would be a yes!

We have Employee Resource Groups open for all employees and our employees can expand their network & get support from different communities by joining these resource groups. Moreover this year we launched the Global Allyship Program where we have dedicated learning paths for employees to learn how to support various minority groups. The content of each path has been developed by the respective Employee Resource Group. We have Ombuds leaders in almost all Nokia locations where employees can go for compliance questions or get guidance. We have an ethics line in case they would like to report on an issue. In Nokia, our commitment is to ensure that everyone feels and is valued and accepted.

Our values are weaved into our essentials of being open, fearless and empowered. Why that is important is our efforts to be a leader in DEI, where we can bring our authentic selves to work, share our ideas and solutions and do meaningful work together in a diverse, inclusive global company. Our ERGs like StrongHer Canada champion for those values through events, networking, upskilling and challenging the status quote for career advance for women. We also have many other ERGs that support underrepresented groups and we also have a specific pillar in our People Strategy that focuses on creating community and belonging as well as programming that dives into inclusive behaviours and work culture.

We also have active Employee Resource Groups (ERG) that help foster DEI participation.

Hi Taiwo S., this is such an important topic that you raise. Don't hesitate to ask us more details on this topic!

Hi Taiwo S. In addition, Nokia ensures mandatory training of its employees on DEI to promote a culture of respect and to provide safe and inclusive workspace for everyone

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