Cisco Employees by the Numbers

Cisco is a multigenerational, multicultural community that extends around the world. There are many ways of looking at Cisco’s employees. Below are some statistical insights.

Cisco’s workforce has a wide variety of skill sets, but it can be divided broadly into engineering, sales, and other business functions.

Workforce by Job Function

Pie chart illustrating workforce by job function. 30 percent Engineering, 27 percent Sales and 43 percent Business Support Functions.

Cisco has one of the lowest rates of voluntary employee attrition in the IT industry. The table below shows our attrition rate for the last five years.

Voluntary Employee Attrition as a Percentage of Total Employees
FY05	FY06	FY07	FY08	FY09
4.59%	5.45%	4.52%	5.01%	3.22%

During the economic downturn and subsequent slowdown in hiring, we have added new employees selectively to support the investments we are making in market adjacencies. Cisco programs such as Hiring and Interview Training help us apply inclusion and diversity principles when selecting external job candidates. When filling positions from within the company, our Talent Connection program helps us align our internal talent with Cisco’s top priorities.

Inclusion and diversity are an integral part of Cisco’s corporate culture and constitute one of our primary strengths. The following tables characterize the employees we have hired over the past four years in terms of gender and ethnicity.

New Hires by Gender (Non-U.S.)
	FY06	FY07	FY08	FY09
Total Number of Hires	3,120	4,982	4,517	2,536
Number of Female Hires	694	1,029	1,018	484
Percent of Female Hires	22%	21%	23%	19%

New Hires by Gender and Ethnicity (U.S. Only)
	FY06	FY07	FY08	FY09
Total Number of Hires	3,562	5,821	5,441	4,208
Number of Female Hires	1,014	1,712	1,643	1,034
Percent of Female Hires	28%	29%	30%	25%
Number of Non-Caucasian Hires	1,642	3,108	2,838	2,191
Percent of Non-Caucasian Hires	46%	53%	52%	52%
Total Number of Female Hires and Male and Female Non-Caucasian Hires	2,111	3,858	3,533	1,249
Total Percent of Female Hires and Male and Female Non-Caucasian Hires	59%	66%	65%	57%

Women and Ethnic Minorities as a Percentage of the Workforce
		FY05	FY06	FY07	FY08	FY09
Women	Women as percentage of total global employees	21.80%	22.10%	23%	23.50%	23.35%
Women	Women in VP positions or above as percentage of global VP and above employees	13.20%	14.00%	12.70%	15.50%	15.47%
Ethnic minorities (U.S. only)	Ethnic minorities as percentage of total U.S. employees	42.30%	42.80%	43.70%	44.70%	45.58%
Ethnic minorities (U.S. only)	Ethnic minorities in VP positions or above as percentage of total U.S. VP and above employees	17.60%	17.50%	15.60%	22.20%	20.8%