As one of America’s leading telecommunications companies, XO Communications helps the nation’s biggest companies connect and conduct business every day.
From small businesses to large corporations, XO works across an extremely broad clientele, and needs to have a diverse legal squad. “There are many reasons we are committed to diversity,” remarks Simone Wu, XO’s senior vice president and general counsel. “First of all, it is the right thing to do. It is also the smart thing to do. It reflects who we are as a company. From a business perspective, it is imperative that we have a variety of viewpoints on the legal issues we face.”
Wu communicates the diversity message not only to members of the law department, but across the company, including XO’s other executives. “As a company, we have a genuine obligation to our 4,000 employees. We want to make sure everyone feels welcome,” she explains. “We have a small legal department where there isn’t much turnover. So when a position does become available, we always make sure we attract applicants from all backgrounds in order to make our department stronger.” The strategy has worked — nearly 50% of XO’s attorneys are women, and a third are attorneys of color.
When a hiring opportunity presents itself, XO casts a wide net for potential employees. It attracts diverse candidates through a combination of XO job postings, employee referral programs, cross posting on diversity job boards, participation in women, minority, and military job fairs, campus recruiting and professional networking with special interest organizations.
XO is a member of the Direct Employers Association, a consortium of leading U.S. employers formed to improve labor market efficiency through the sharing of best practices, research, and the development of technology. This interaction provides XO and other members with access to a wide variety of diversity and alumni networks, and the group’s “JobCentral” tool distributes XO job postings to a vast network of career, college, alumni, diversity, and military job portals. This gives XO’s recruiters access to thousands of resumes posted by diverse job seekers each day. XO also extends its reach through a partnership with the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) to more than 600 leading college and university campuses.
Wu has focused on the challenges of increasing diversity for most of her professional life: “As an Asian American, I have watched diversity naturally evolve over time. True diversity is not about one or two groups; it’s about every group having an opportunity to influence business direction. It is my expectation that XO will be at the front of the diversity movement.” DB
From the November/December 2009 issue of Diversity & The Bar®