As all of our Women Leading Tech finalists have demonstrated so far, there are countless women in the industry helping to change the narrative when it comes to gender equality in the media and technology space.
But it’s also important to recognise what is being done at a company level to create change. That’s why we’ve created the advocacy category for this year’s awards – open to companies who have supported the cause of getting more women into tech.
Read on to find out about the companies helping women in tech:
anz
In an effort to help gender equality in the technology space, ANZ launched the Return to Work Program within its Technology Division to accelerate the pipeline of female talent in Tech in 2019. This program was born out of its “Ada Network” – named for Ada Lovelace, the mathematician widely acknowledged as the first computer programmer. The Ada Network forms the banner for initiatives within ANZ Technology to promote the participation of women in the technology workforce and covers 3 key streams of work – “Attract” “Retain” and “Grow.”
Return to Work is designed to provide flexibility and support to people, who have taken two years or more off work and want to reignite their careers in ANZ’s Technology division. ANZ actively encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds and provide an opportunity to refresh skills through training.
Canva
One of the core values at Canva is to ‘Be A Force For Good’. This has led to the company putting a specific focus on making the world a better place through positive actions, inclusion and diversity. As the company continues to grow, it seeks to give opportunities to everyone — not just a privileged few. According to Canva, this is not only because of the ongoing talent shortage, but as an industry that thrives on disruptive and innovative thinking, diversity is essential. In 2019, Canva delivered a workforce with 41 per cent female representation. This was compared to the Australian industry standard of 28 per cent.
This can in part be attributed to the company’s recruitment strategies. Canva has rolled out Interview and Unconscious Bias Training in recent to get all our new employees in the recruitment process trained up. It has also ensured that job ads are deliberately designed to incorporate gender-neutral terminology and requirements. Additionally, Canva ensures interviews are scheduled to fit in with a candidates’ availability.
Carsales.com ltd
Carsales.com recently conducted an employee survey to investigate diversity and inclusion within its workforce. It found 93 per cent of its team felt the work environment was open, inclusive, and accepting of individual differences. Similarly, 94% of people said they believed their manager genuinely supported equality between men and women.
This has been driven by its in-house recruitment team, which has implemented a number of processes to increase the number of women, particularly in departments where they are
traditionally under-represented. Initiatives include using software to review all job advertisements for gender-biased language, maintaining quotas for recruitment shortlists, running unconscious bias training across the organisation, having equal gender splits on all interview panels and creating a culture of flexible working for all roles.
Domain
Since becoming a publicly-listed company in December 2017, Domain has embarked on a journey that has held recruitment practices at the core in order to embrace positive growth and diversity of thought across the business to support its hypergrowth.
Its recruitment and selection guidelines, as used by its recruitment team and hiring managers, are a set of standards outlining how Domain recruits to ensure fairness, diversity and support greater gender equality. These guidelines are particularly important when attracting women to a male-dominated business function, specifically in Technology, Data, Product, and Legal.
sourced group
Having only been founded in 2010, Sourced Group has managed to expand in Australia, Canada and Singapore over the past decade. Importantly, it has been able to drive diversity across its 120 global staff using recruitment. At Sourced, diversity starts at the top, with five of the 12-strong leadership team being female, and it strives for that balance throughout the organisation.
In addition, Sourced Group’s internship program has a strong focus on creating opportunities for women. The program began in 2017 and targets university students who are offered the opportunity to work with Sourced part-time during their last year at university. Upon successful completion of the program and their degree, interns are offered a full-time role.
VMware ANZ
Diversity & Inclusion has been consolidated as a business priority across recruitment, promotions and retention at VMware in recent years. At the company, top-level leadership is held accountable for driving and embedding this culture.
Having launched an “Equal Pay for Equal Work” initiative, VMware can now say that women in the company earn 99 per cent of their male counterparts’ salary globally. The company is continually looking to identify and rectify the remaining one per cent. As a result, VMware Australia was cited as a WGEA Employer of Choice for Gender Equality for five consecutive years – an acknowledgement of the company’s long-standing and consistent efforts to create an inclusive workplace for women. Globally, VMware was named in Forbes’ Best Employers For Diversity 2020.
