Corporate
Meredith Ackerman: How Being a Mom Has Taught Me About DE&I
3/7/2023
Diversity. Equity. Inclusion. Three significant words often strung together with the power to shape a stronger company culture and workplace environment for all.
At Samsung, it’s part of our company’s heritage to push boundaries and defy barriers to achieve meaningful progress and power bold innovation. But innovation doesn’t just happen — it is designed by humans for humans. And a critical ingredient is our inclusive culture and diverse workforce. Our company is made up of nearly 270,000 people around the world of different ethnicities, races, genders, sexual orientations, identities, religious beliefs, and abilities. But together, we’re ONE global team united by Samsung’s purpose and values.
Action is another noteworthy word. Samsung is continuing to make progress on our journey towards driving meaningful change. And we want to spotlight the DE&I champions within our organization that have been and continue to be instrumental in enabling us to make an impact and helping to create a rich sense of belonging where everyone can thrive.
Timed to Women’s History Month, an annual celebration that recognizes the contributions and achievements of women all throughout the nation’s history, we sat down with Meredith Ackerman – a proud Samsung employee and leader of our Women+ in Samsung Electronics (WISE+) employee resource group (ERG). Here’s what she had to say about DE&I…
1. What has been your greatest learning or most exciting experience in your career journey as it relates to DE&I?
As employment counsel, or the lead “HR Lawyer,” DE&I is one of the most exciting parts of my day job that frequently intersects with my life job as a mom to two young children – my 6-year-old 1st grade daughter and 4-year-old pre-K son. Between the birth of my two children, I had the opportunity to contribute to Samsung Electronics America’s evaluation of Parental Leave Benefits in 2017. I approached this task with multiple viewpoints. First, my day job: what are the legal requirements and considerations? Second, as a WISE+ leader: what are the women of our organization identifying as their top priorities to support, retain, and develop female talent? Third, as a new mom to a then-1-year-old also expecting my second child, what life experiences could I bring to the conversation as the only young(er) mother in our executive meetings? The outcome of our project was to increase paid parental leave from 5 days to 12 weeks. That alone was an exciting win for me personally, our colleagues, community, and the company as a whole! But just as valuable were the lessons I learned. My main takeaway: Do not assume a rule, policy, or circumstance that you do not like exists due to any conscious negative intent. Those who you view as “making” rules or policies may have only inherited them and not been forced to think critically about them. Simply because change requires advocacy does not mean that these discussions must be adversarial. Build the strong case for what you view as better and I think you can often be surprised at how well your arguments may be received. I would much rather assume that I can convince and influence change than be angry about a situation or feel hopeless about changing it.