Among the many global changes brought about by the pandemic, the Great Resignation, or Great Reshuffle, found a record number of workers making choices about their futures and seeking new opportunities that enrich their whole lives. As a result, employers must step up their game to attract and retain talent.

BMC is committed to being an employer of choice, and we’re proud to again be recognized by Forbes on its list of 500 Best Midsize Employers in the U.S. for 2022. The recognition is a rich reward for our ongoing efforts to build a culture and workplace that attracts and retains an incredible workforce. We do so through our corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, which include diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), volunteering, and sustainability work, as well as other investments in our people.

DEI initiatives have gained growing importance around the world, and BMC has dedicated our efforts in this space in several ways. We’ve established ten internal employee resource groups (ERGs) that foster an equitable and inclusive workplace and invited speakers to share their insights as part of an ongoing Diversity Speaker Series. We’re proud that BMC scored 95 out of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2022 Corporate Equality Index based on our corporate policies, practices, and benefits for LGBTQ+ employees. Our employees are also using CulturePop, a self-paced, micro-learning app that encourages cross-cultural curiosity to help expand their cultural awareness. And we cover a variety of DEI topics in our DEI blog series.

Giving back is also part of BMC’s culture, and our internal BMC Cares organization encourages our employees to volunteer and contribute to their communities in meaningful ways that advance digital literacy, digital interventions, and technological equity. This year, we were honored to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day by harnessing the full power of our global workforce for good with our International Day of Service. BMC employees around the world collectively contributed over 50,000 hours of virtual and in-person community service, supporting over 430 charities across 38 countries in a single day.

Sustainability is another area where we are dedicating our resources, guided by the principles of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our environmental efforts include an ongoing partnership with Reforest’Action and One Tree Planted to help plant over 44,000 trees across 38 countries. We also collaborate with the Seabin Project, Ocean Conservancy, and #TeamSeas to remove trash and debris from the world’s waterways. Our recent sustainability initiatives are highlighted in the latest BMC Corporate Social Responsibility Report.

We take care of our people, too, with comprehensive benefits for their physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing and that of their families around the world. In the U.S., the American Heart Association recently awarded BMC Silver Level recognition for our “implementation of quality workplace health programs and culture of health best practices.” In addition to our benefits, we also offer the BMC Cares Fund, which provides short-term financial assistance to help employees impacted by a natural disaster, family emergency, or an unexpected event.

Building a better workforce also means helping our employees continue their personal and professional development. We’ve invested in LinkedIn Learning, which provides free, virtual, on-demand coursework to our employees to help them grow their skillset, and tuition reimbursement is part of our benefits package for employees who want to pursue undergraduate and graduate studies.

Prioritizing people and doing the right thing are two of our core values. With over 40 years of innovation behind us, BMC is constantly evolving. While we celebrate our progress in making BMC a great place to work for our current employees, we are committed to making it even better in the years to come for the next generation. We’d love to have you join us on that journey.

Alongside our customers, BMC is on a journey toward becoming an Autonomous Digital Enterprise (ADE) that includes everyone. To quote our CEO Ayman Sayed, “Every Autonomous Digital Enterprise has a social responsibility. And that responsibility is to reshape the business landscape to be more inclusive and play an active role in global issues and opportunities—from addressing climate change to implementing diverse and equitable practices and preparing all communities for their digital future.”

Reflecting on 2021, we have made significant progress building out a formal corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy that will allow us to make an even greater impact in our communities in 2022. Centered on three key pillars—our BMC Cares program; diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); and environmental stewardship. I’m incredibly proud of everything our team has accomplished during a very dynamic and unpredictable time in history.

A Defining Moment

I’m incredibly honored to share that BMC ranked fifth among 992 software and services companies as measured by the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Risk Rating, issued by Sustainalytics. We were in the top one percent of all 14,980 companies measured on their exposure to industry specific, material ESG risks and how well a company manages those risks across all sectors. With our commitment to investing in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives, this honor validates the investments and initiatives we’ve taken across BMC to prioritize this aspect of our business. We are passionate about delivering great technology and making the world a better place in the process.

Joining a Global Movement

As pleased as we are with our rating, we recognize that this is an area that requires well-defined goals, combined with continuous improvement and diligence. We’ve set a high bar for 2022 that includes addressing climate change, arguably one of the most significant issues of our time.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently reported that every half-degree of the global temperature makes a tremendous difference, which is why BMC has joined the Business Ambition for 1.5° C campaign established by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), a partnership between the Climate Disclosure Project (CDP), the UN Global Compact, World Resources Institute (WRI), and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

As part of our commitment, BMC is dedicated to achieving science-based, emission reduction targets across our business to reach net-zero value chain emissions no later than 2030, which aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).

As part of endorsing the SBTi campaign, BMC has disclosed its emissions and net-zero carbon goals and current climate footprint. In addition, we’re committing to the CDP and SBTi targets that go beyond our company’s electricity consumption and emissions to include reporting the carbon footprint of the products we sell and buy.

BMC also supports the environment through other initiatives, including our ongoing partnership with Reforest’Action and One Tree Planted. In 2021, we helped plant over 20,000 trees across 38 countries, and we collaborated with the Seabin Project, Ocean Conservancy, and #TeamsSeas to remove trash and debris from the world’s waterways.

Never Done

Looking ahead to 2022, we see more opportunities to improve the world for our employees, customers, and partners. We continue to set aggressive milestones for ourselves in all three pillars of our CSR strategy, and we look forward to making even greater progress. As a recent op-ed in The Hill put it, businesses that “take advantage of this unique opportunity will find themselves at the vanguard of a movement that propels their company and the world at large into a new era of prosperity.” We embrace this opportunity to create a planet and Autonomous Digital Enterprise that includes everyone.

We know that people have choices, and one of the biggest ones is where you build your career. At BMC, we’re proud to put our people first, and it’s one of our of core values. We’re honored that our employees have spoken, and Forbes listened, recognizing us in the top third of its list of the 500 Best Midsize Employers in the U.S. for 2021.

Recent events have tested companies around the world. BMC was no exception, and our employees rose to the challenge. We pivoted our almost-6,000-strong workforce to working remote full-time, and together, we’ve made it work, for ourselves and our customers. This new, mostly virtual world created by extraordinary circumstances has required a creative approach to work, tailored to our people’s individual needs so they can respond to their additional responsibilities while continuing to be collaborative and innovative.

Our benefits include resources to help employees with those responsibilities, and help them take care of themselves, too. Family care and mental health assistance is available, and we encourage our employees to take care of their overall health. We’re also putting our people first in our eventual return to the office, with data from trusted resources and officials—not hard dates—driving that decision.

Our business is built by people, and we recognize the intrinsic value of each person at BMC. By embracing our different perspectives, we deliver excellent experiences to our global customers and each other. And we treat everyone with respect, working together as a team to help accomplish not just our company’s goals, but our personal goals, too. We strive to create an environment where everyone’s contributions can have meaning, by listening to, collaborating with, and empowering our people.

Over the last year, we’ve also surveyed our employees about how they feel working for BMC—what we’re doing right, and what we can do better. Those learnings help us improve the employee experience so there’s not a disconnect between what we think we’re doing and what we’re actually doing.

Giving back is something our employees have told us they want to prioritize, and our internal BMC Cares initiative has helped make this possible with curated virtual and in-person volunteering activities for employees to be of service. We also believe in taking care of our own. The BMC Cares Fund helps our employees with short-term financial assistance due to a natural disaster, family emergency, or an unexpected event.

BMC’s success is grounded in the integrity of our people. We say what we mean and we do what we say we’ll do. It’s non-negotiable, and we hold ourselves to those high standards to serve our employees and our customers. Our employees are the cornerstone of our success, and without them, we cease to function. We’re appreciative to our employees for the vote of confidence and excited that our commitment to our people has been validated by our inclusion in this year’s Forbes Best Midsize Employers in the U.S. list for 2021. And we’re equally excited to continuously improve on that commitment.