Community is at the heart of our culture at Ansys. We strive to stay connected to our communities throughout the world, including the Greater Pittsburgh area where our headquarters is located. One of our long-standing partnerships in the region is with Vibrant Pittsburgh, an organization focused on workplace development — assisting employers to recruit, retain, and elevate a diversity of talent for a successful Pittsburgh region for people of all backgrounds.
Each year, Ansys participates in the Vibrant Index, which helps employers like us monitor our progress toward creating more diverse, inclusive workplaces. Using benchmarks as a baseline, we look at our current practices compared with research-based best practices to identify our strengths and areas of opportunity.
We are incredibly proud to share that Ansys has been named a Vibrant Champion for the second year in a row. This designation is awarded to employers scoring at least 95% in all nine Vibrant Index pillars. In the 2024 Vibrant Index Summary Report, Ansys was highlighted for our approach to talent recruitment, engagement, and retention.
Beyond the numbers, what does this really mean? Well, true to our commitment to inclusion, we know that diverse thinking leads to better outcomes. As published in a Harvard Business Review article by David Rock, co-founder of NeuroLeadership Institute, and Heidi Grant, a social psychologist specializing in the science of motivation, a body of research has revealed that “working with people who are different from you may challenge your brain to overcome its stale ways of thinking and sharpen its performance.” We are committed to creating and nurturing a culture that fuels this by welcoming everyone to a workplace where they feel valued and can thrive.
One important aspect of this is our multipronged, global approach to talent attraction, including the development of strategic outreach plans and partnerships. Our talent acquisition strategy focuses on partnerships with community-based organizations — such as the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE); Out in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Inc. (oSTEM); the Society of Women Engineers (SWE); and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) — as well as with universities, especially those with solid representation of traditionally underrepresented groups. Additionally, we use diverse recruiting platforms and offer behavioral-based interview training to minimize bias in selection.
The Heart of Our Company: Employee Resource Groups
Another key part of our culture of inclusion is our commitment to nurturing and growing our employee resource group (ERG) program. Ansys was an early adopter of the concept of employee affinity groups and in 2017 launched an employee network focused on supporting professional development and networking for women in technology. From there, a formal ERG program was established in 2020 to enable employees with common backgrounds, experiences, and, importantly, perspectives to build communities and inform our business strategies.
Today, we have seven thriving employee-led and executive-sponsored ERG communities: Black Employee Network, (dis)Ability Network, Early Career Professionals, Latino Connection, Pride Alliance, Veterans at Ansys, and Women in Technology. These groups engage on a global scale to build communities, provide valuable insight on talent attraction and retention strategies, and generate growth and development opportunities for our employees around the world. Our ERGs also inform our business strategy by completing business impact projects about product design and market outreach. ERGs embody our Ansys values of adaptability, courage, generosity, and authenticity.
Renee DeMay, chief of staff to our CEO and executive sponsor of Pride Alliance, says, “ERGs are an integral part of our culture at Ansys and play a vital role in helping to sustain and grow an environment where our employees find community, grow together, and advance our mission. Our ERG leaders, in partnership with our executive sponsors, have helped employees of all backgrounds and experiences thrive and find opportunities to contribute across our global company.”
In addition to supporting one another, members of our ERGs help advance our business mission in myriad ways. For example, one impact project spearheaded by our (dis)Ability Network entailed a color vision deficiency usability study, which led to inclusive design recommendations for Ansys products. In another example, our Pride Alliance researched gender-inclusive restroom best practices, leading to positive changes at Ansys facilities worldwide.
Ansys employee resource group (ERG) leaders gather at the annual Ansys Sales Kick Off event.
Listen and Learn
Another large part of our approach to inclusion is ensuring that we listen to our employees. It is important for us to ensure that our employees are engaged in our culture and have equal opportunities to connect, grow their careers, and thrive at Ansys. Our listening strategy is designed to understand employees’ experiences at Ansys and continuously identify opportunities to strengthen our culture.
Through continually listening to our employees through channels like our employee engagement survey and leadership roundtable conversations, we’ve developed and launched tools, resources, and experiences to meet the needs of our people. We provide manager and employee resources to drive engagement, including our mentorship program, new employee onboarding experience, and development resources like the Ansys People Leader Playbook, to ensure equitable people management practices through all moments that matter.
We look forward to continuing to learn and grow through partnerships like Vibrant Pittsburgh and welcome you to explore more about life at Ansys on our Ansys Careers webpage.
