A People-First Approach Leads to Record Business Success

CADENCE DESIGN SYSTEMS IS KNOWN FOR ITS innovative, inclusive culture built on a customercentric, one-team mindset across its 48 global locations. But what happens to workplace culture when employees face a worldwide pandemic that threatens their health and puts the company’s new business strategy at risk? Responsive companies like Cadence seize the opportunity to demonstrate that their people come first.

Cadence gave employees the flexibility to take care of their and their families’ changing needs. This included flexible work hours, additional time off, and sharing in the company’s unprecedented success. Early on, managers were trained on topics like wellness check-ins and empathetic leadership so they could support their employees’ varying circumstances. Management invested in employees’ well-being in many ways, including giving a $1,250 stipend to each employee for their home offices and wellness needs, investing in meditation and yoga apps, and providing special mental health support and backup child and elder care.

“I am so proud that our leadership team ‘walked the talk’ when it mattered,” says Tina Jones, Cadence’s senior vice president of global human resources. “We put the needs of our people above business expediency, and we discovered that this peoplefirst strategy paid dividends—our employees blew us away with their commitment, creativity, agility, and relentless drive to ensure our customers and business succeeded.”

In an industry known for its deep technical complexity, Cadence puts emphasis on diversity and inclusion to maximize innovation. The company supports inclusion groups, mentorship, and leadership advancement programs for women and minority groups. In addition, most managers participate in unconscious-bias training and allyship workshops. “That inclusive mindset is a differentiator not only in the marketplace, but also in executing our new Intelligent System Design strategy,” says president Anirudh Devgan.

The company’s employee-first culture was critical to building trust and confidence with employees in a year filled with so much uncertainty. Instead of worrying about their jobs and their pay, employees focused on executing on Cadence’s new strategy. The result? The company experienced record-setting revenue growth, and its stock price more than doubled.

“Our people are at the core of what makes Cadence unique,” says Devgan. “They are solving some of the world’s toughest technology challenges to accelerate the design of complex electronics and intelligent systems. So it is imperative that our teams bring different perspectives and work together effectively.”