Celebrating Our People: Global Diversity Awareness Month

With thousands of employees dispersed throughout the United States, Samsung Electronics America represents a diverse workforce coming together to showcase innovation. While recognizing employees occurs on a daily basis in our workplace culture, Global Diversity Awareness Month provides the opportunity to celebrate the multitude of heritage, backgrounds and life experiences of our people throughout October.

At Samsung, we are striving to cultivate an inclusive workspace that promotes diverse cultures and perspectives. “As part of our D&I journey, our employees are creating communities sharing their diverse stories helping us foster a culture of inclusion,” said Tami DeWeese, Head of Diversity & Inclusion for Samsung Electronics America. “Each employee holds unique life experiences which shape their perspective and lens contributing to robust dialogue in our workplace. During Global Diversity Awareness Month, we want to highlight our people. We are Samsung Strong and creating a better future because of the diversity of our people.”

In our continued effort to encourage employees to be themselves while building a better tomorrow, we asked employees at Samsung Electronics America to participate in a three-part series highlighting what diversity and inclusion mean to them both in the workforce and beyond. Here’s what they had to say:

“To me, diversity in the workplace and in life means that people from all walks of life interact in enriching yet sometimes challenging ways. Each unique individual has a combination of life experiences, personality and beliefs which shape their own perspective, approach to life and world view. Through valuing and exploring our differences we form stronger, more supportive teams.” – Randell Christopher

“D&I is the celebration and complete embracing of what makes us different and unique.  It’s also utilizing our employees’ different backgrounds and perspectives to innovate, build effective teams and achieve common goals.  Samsung has made some great strides recently in the D&I space by fostering new ERGs, and taking a stance on social diversity issues such as Stop Asian Hate, Black Lives Matter and others.  Let’s continue our efforts to make a meaningful impact in this space for our employees and our communities.” –Cynthia Bradt

“A diverse and inclusive environment to me is where not only many races, nationalities, gender and sexual orientations are present and working together, but the perspectives from each and every member is equally sought and valued.  In this environment every member feels that they are fully involved, empowered, trusted and supported.  I strongly believe that in the current global workplace, with continuous rapid technological and social change, a diverse and inclusive environment creates tremendous value.  This is the best way for organizations to achieve continued growth and success.” – Srinivasan Sundararajan

“For me, diversity in the workplace is an exemplary action of the organization to reflect a diverse talent pool. It’s the true essence and foundational culture of an organization taking the initiative to reflect the realities of what they, and their employees see around them each and every day. My personal experience has been diversity is always defaulted to ethnicity when in reality, there’s so many different forms that diversity can take.  Exclusion of groups outside of ethnicity has been a long-standing issue in corporate culture and it’s imperative that we change this dynamic – there’s so much more to us and them.  This is why representation matters. Inclusion in the workplace is enabling and empowering this diverse group to grow and build within the organization.  Setting up the pathway and providing the tools for these individuals to succeed.  In order to do this successfully, an organization must mobilize and create opportunities to develop and enhance their professional skills not just for the short term but for the long term.” –Yessenia Morales

With this opportunity to highlight Samsung’s people, we are both humbled and honored to have been recognized for the progress toward a diverse and inclusive workforce. In 2020, Samsung Electronics America was recognized by Forbes USA as “The Best Employers for Diversity,” and in 2021 as “Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality” by The Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index. As we acknowledge all we have accomplished, we are eager to continue setting new goals that pave the path toward a better future for all, beginning with our people.