Keisha Stephens

Keisha Stephens (she/her; second from left) puts a DE&I lens over not only her programs but how she views the world and interacts with others.

After three years of expanding DE&I practices in software company Splunk’s contingent workforce program, she took over as director, talent acquisition operations in 2022, responsible for six programs, about 30 employees, and all pre-employment activities such as background checks for full-time employees, recruitment coordination, employee referrals, immigration and — of course — the contingent workforce.

“I feel like it’s really opened up my career options and my excitement about doing new things,” Stephens says of the new role. “It’s just ended up being a perfect fit, and career-wise, I feel like I still have a long trajectory to go.”

To that end, Stephens has continued developing and expanding “diversity cohorts” that focus on suppliers delivering specific types of diverse candidate pools for Splunk’s contingent workforce, which is internally branded as People+. The Mom Project and Women Back to Work are two companies that have successfully placed diverse candidates via diversity cohorts at Splunk, and additional ones targeting neurodiverse talent and military families are on the blueprint for this year.

[Sharing best practices] helps the overall ecosystem because as buyers, it’s so hard to start from scratch … and if people want more info, they can call on us and just ask.

Stephens also has a passion for mentoring women, helping them break down barriers and find successful career paths. In addition, she networks with her MSP, other buyers and suppliers to share ideas and collaborate to help others push DE&I initiatives forward.

She often speaks about DE&I as a panelist, is a member of the CW Diversity Council, sponsored by Consciously Unbiased, and also helped launch a diversity “pod” for cross-industry buyers, using her experience to write articles on topics such as how to start a DE&I program, how to report metrics, how to ask for funding and more.

“I think it helps the overall ecosystem because as buyers, it’s so hard to start from scratch,” she explains. “The whole premise of the idea was that we just share best practices. We’re able to help people, and if people want more info, they can call on us and just ask.” Stephens is proud that her expertise helps others to hit the ground running in their own DE&I initiatives.