5 Ways to improve Gender Equality in your Organisation

By Stella Sutcliffe

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March 17, 2022
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7 min read

On International Women’s Day, Supermums invited women and businesses to come together to speak about what needed to be done to achieve gender parity in the working world.

All the speakers covered how we are in changing times, and that a diverse culture is essential to futureproofing your business.

Our three excellent guests spoke about their personal and professional experiences of equality, and inequality, and what the standard bearers of D&I best practice are doing differently.

Thank you to our speakers and to everyone who registered to be a part of our International Women’s Day event 2022.

We concluded that there are 5 ways to improve gender quality in your business:

  1. Policies – offer enhancements, signpost them through your networks and comms, and measure the uptake to create brilliant case studies and continue your business case for progression.
  2. Engagement – Survey wide and survey niche to keep your finger on the pulse of the extent to which your work is creating an inclusive culture.
  3. Consistency – Feelings of fairness arise from consistency, so creating level playing fields across departments, locations and job levels with fair processes is key. (Leave as little as possible to line manager discretion regarding leave and flexibility!)
  4. Involvement – Employees, especially women, feel fulfilled when efforts are recognised, when views are taken on board, and when contributions are evidenced to be meaningful. Getting buy-in to targets, and giving opportunities to collaborate on plans and structures make a huge positive difference.
  5. Retention – don’t just focus on closing and filling caps externally. Promote from within, showcase within, and train within. Employees who see investment in their skills and development offer the best dedication and loyalty.

What next…

Supermums is committed to contributing to positive social change, and is excited to be launching a new Supermums Taskforce and Thought Leadership Group who are committed to taking action and working as a group to put their Strategy in place.

Download our 40 Step Action Plan for Attracting, Retaining and Progressing women

Need help to put into action? If you download the Action Plan we will invite you to get involved in our Thought Leadership Events to learn more and gain momentum to put your Action Plan into place.

Complete the #LevellingUpWomen survey before 5.30pm on Friday 18th March – don’t miss your chance to be heard! All completed responses will be entered into a prize draw to win a £50 Amazon voucher.

How can Supermums help you?

Attract Female Candidates

Supermums has grown it’s community of women since 2016 through offering free and paid for training events to new and established Salesforce professionals and delivering our recruitment service . These are pro-active individuals who want to accelerate their career and have invested time and money in their own professional development.

Supermums Recruitment Agency offers permanent and contract staff to Enterprise to Boutique – End Customers, Consultancies and ISVs. We can help you access..

  • Net new mature talent that have great transferrable skills.
  • Experienced hires from Admin, Consultants, Developers to Architects

Upskilling and Progressing Talent

Supermums delivers a suite of accessible Training Courses and Coaching Programmes which help to upskill emerging and existing talent. We work with companies to upskill their workforce to help them retain and progress their staff through public and in-house courses.

If you missed the event check out the highlights below:

Watch the recording of our International Women’s Day event, click here (Access Passcode: 5%a%Y!1k)

Anisha Kaur, Senior Deliver Principal at Slalom (Sponsor of Supermum’s Coaching course) spoke first, telling participants how Slalom had taken a dedicated approach to retaining their people in recognition that attracting brilliant female talent into an organisation is only part of the story.

The success she’s seen has been due to a full respect of flexible working days and patterns, within managers ensuring genuine part time work for part time roles, and that employees are never contacted on their non-working days.

“Many organisations seem to compress a five day week into four days when you work part time, but it just isn’t like that at Slalom. I was so impressed with the way they handle flexible working when I joined.”
Anisha Kaur, Senior Delivery Principal, Slalom
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Anisha also commended organisation’s ethos that ‘progression’ shouldn’t always need to go hand-in-hand with people management experience, agreeing that being a team leader, conducting appraisals, managing performance, motivating and training others isn’t always what appeals to people’s nature and personality type.

Efforts are also rewarded as well as results, in recognition that hard work may not produce quantifiable results, but nevertheless often leads to impressive results elsewhere, motivates colleagues, encourages learning and development, and means you have great ambassadors.

Rebecca Komodikis, Senior Customer Success Manager Marketing Cloud, Salesforce UK&I and Co-Chair of the Salesforce Women’s Network, spoke of how their new vision is to uplift and empower women within the workplace.

She explained how a successful network requires a constant feedback and response loop, and that having great policies is a good start, but that the key difference is when organisations bring the policies, and the enhancements over and above the statutory minimum, to life.

“Salesforce offers a very good maternity package, and the return journey is important too, with women returners paid for 5 days when only returning for four days so that they can phase back into work with less pressure.”
Rebecca Komodikis, Co-Chair of the Salesforce Women’s Network
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Promotions and progression pathways are also transparent, which Rebecca stated has been key to building confidence amongst women that there is positive encouragement for everyone to grow and thrive.

Success has come from responding to change and challenges well, and the positive reviews on Glassdoor from employees of Salesforce came because of successful employee engagement in diversity and inclusion initiatives, showcasing great role models and meaningful recognition of National Focus Days and Weeks.

Philanthropic values were covered too, as Rebecca spoke of the collective desire to work for an organisation which not only worked to achieve commercial missions, but contributed to wider charitable and positive social change, something which Supermums as a social enterprise understands through and through!

Participants commented on Rebecca’s comment that “breaking the bias (this year’s International Women’s Day theme) sits with the organisation, not with the individual”, saying that the responsibility also sits with the individual, and of course we all have a part to play in creating a positive culture.

However the responsibility to close gender pay gaps, provide training on bias, and fair processes for requesting flexible working, ultimately does sit with the employer, and Rebecca’s contribution to our event outlined a great example in Salesforce.

Lastly, Alana Karen, Director of Search Platforms at Google and Author of The Adventures of Women in Tech spoke to answer some key questions:

  • “During your interviews, what did women say they really needed from their workplaces in order to thrive?”
  • “What successful examples did you see in your interviews regarding women and their workplaces?”
  • “How have you seen the landscape of women in tech, and the working world change since your interviews took place?”

The go-to answer when asked what motivates people is often ‘money’. Especially in commercial roles of course.

However Alana’s research showed that on the contrary, women wanted the opportunity to make a difference, and to grow and progress in their roles.

Whilst a fair (and equal!) salary is absolutely a key motivator, other factors were also clearly essential to make the employment experience truly fulfilling.

Good colleagues, meaningful work and recognition was high on the wish list, as was flexibility to be able to manage work and home life.

“The working culture has to match personal values. The biggest disappointments amongst the women I interviewed were those in stagnant roles with no opportunity for learning and development”. 
Alana Karen, Director of Search Platforms at Google and Author of The Adventures of Women in Tech
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Stella Sutcliffe

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