Capgemini's Lauren Kimball pivoted career direction

Capgemini believes that diversity combined with active inclusion enables innovation and produces value that benefits everyone, and strives to create a vibrant and inclusive culture where people representing society in all its diversity are empowered to build meaningful careers.

Meet Capgemini Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Wellbeing Lead for The Americas, Lauren Kimball, who started working with Capgemini on the delivery side and, through a rotational program, found her way into the Corporate Social Responsibility team.

Ensuring Capgemini has an inclusive workplace culture

Lauren's role with Capgemini sees her work as the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Wellbeing Leader for Capgemini's Americas region. In her role, Lauren is responsible for making sure that Capgemini has an inclusive culture, where all of its employees feel like they can bring their authentic selves to work.

"We know that diversity and inclusion is really important because diversity drives innovation, and when we have diversity of thought, and diversity of experience, and diversity of backgrounds, we're bringing the most variety of perspectives to the solutions that we're developing for our clients," explains Lauren.

Transitioning into new roles throughout her career

Lauren has worked with Capgemini for over eight years, and has experienced a fantastic career with the company. During her time with Capgemini, Lauren has had the opportunity to move through multiple roles.

"I started at Capgemini on the delivery side. I was an Organizational Change Management Consultant working with our clients all over the country, and when I was ready to make a change, I was able to transition to an internal role as part of our people supply chain team," says Lauren.

"From there, I actually took advantage of a rotational program. I was able to try out a role on the Corporate Social Responsibility team leading our digital inclusion programs, and then I loved it so much that I stayed on the Corporate Social Responsibility team and then was able to transition to the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion role."

Supported by Capgemini colleagues

Lauren explains that she has had support from Capgemini throughout her career journey, and as a big organization that does so many different things around the world, one of the things that Lauren loves is that there are so many opportunities to move around the company and interact with a network of new people.

"You really can have different careers throughout your time at Capgemini without actually leaving the organization," says Lauren. "One of my favorite things about Capgemini is the network and the people. Everyone says the reason they stay at Capgemini is for the people, and for me, how that has translated into my career journey is that there are so many different people that have supported me throughout my career journey."

"I think as we all know throughout different stages in life we have different needs and desires and career aspirations, so when you might be wanting to work on client work at a certain point in your life and other points in your life, you might prefer trying something new or learning new skills. So through my relationships at Capgemini I've been able to express my desires and different things I wanted to try and people have helped guide me to learn about the different opportunities and ways that I can move and change and continue to grow my skills and expand my career," she adds.

Gaining skills via internal and external training programs

Lauren shares that she gained a lot of skills in organizational change management, in people operations, and skills in influencing through the challenges and opportunities that Capgemini's clients are facing and getting the chance to help them and understand their business.

"I had always been passionate about diversity and inclusion, and when there was an opportunity that came up internally, I thought you know I don't have a background necessarily in this exact role, but I do have the skills and the background to be successful in a role like this," says Lauren.

"From there I was able to upskill, take advantage of internal and external training programs and really get the skills I needed to continue to move my career in the direction that I was passionate about," she adds.

Continuing to build skills through her career

Capgemini has helped Lauren get the future she wants by helping her have a fantastic career over the last eight years. She's had opportunities to travel all over the world, and has met incredible colleagues from places she never would have imagined.

"I have transitioned my career to multiple different things, working with multiple different teams and clients. I've continued to build my skills and change all throughout my career. It's never been boring, and I've really loved every single minute of it," concludes Lauren.