The lesson of women in the workplace is that diversity produces better outcomes. However, companies have been at a loss for a solid game plan in how to increase diversity; it’s not as easy as just hiring more women, or other minorities, for tech positions. Uncovering the data behind what diversity truly means for a company has been a long process.

To talk about what companies can do to improve their diversity, Jeff Frick, cohost of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, spoke to Gunjan Aggarwal, VP of HR and head of talent acquisition, diversity recruiting and mergers and acquisitions at Ericsson, during the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing 2015 conference.

A larger presence

The conversation started with a look at Ericsson’s presence at the conference. Aggarwal explained that Ericsson had attended the convention the year before and decided to expand its footprint for this year’s gathering. Not only were they a Platinum sponsor, but the company also looked to recruit considerable talent at the conference’s job fair.

The reason why the company was doing this, Aggarwal said, was to attract more women to hire on. Ericsson was showing a strong push toward increasing diversity with gender targets across its departments, sharing diversity numbers and bias training, but the company discovered the most important issue was enough women simply weren’t applying for jobs with the company. So, it hoped recruiting at the conference could help change that.

New data and changing conversations

A lack of women applicants was not the only thing Ericsson’s research uncovered. The company also noted that women hiring managers tended to produce more women candidates. Also, Aggarwal said, it was important to help women in the organization grow and develop professionally.

The discussion then turned back toward the GHC conference itself. Aggarwal said conventions like this one were changing the conversation about women in the workplace. To help on its side, Ericsson sponsored a large number of students to attend the show, hoping many of them would take up the torch for the next generation of women in technology.

Watch the full video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of Grace Hopper Celebration of Woman In Computing. And join in on the conversation by CrowdChatting with theCUBE hosts.

Photo by SiliconANGLE