Our first year as a MotherBoard Signatory feat. Sustainit
As a special spotlight on our MotherBoard Signatories, we caught up with Charlie Stephens, Head of People & Operations at data consultancy company Sustainit to discuss their first year as part of the MotherBoard Charter and what they’re looking forward to as they renew for another year.
What was your biggest achievement this year as a charter signatory?
This year we launched three new tech roles and received more female applications than male. It’s so exciting to see women candidates in tech and sustainability, and we’re glad that our application process is accessible and encouraging for a range of applicants. We’ve also decided to set individual training budgets of £500 for all our staff. I know it’s important for this to be flexible for everyone's different needs, so it can be used for any chosen course that supports each person’s roles in the industry, and some of those are women in tech roles.
It’s so exciting to see women candidates in tech and sustainability, and we’re glad that our application process is accessible and encouraging for a range of applicants.
During the assessment of your current company policies & culture did you unearth anything that was affecting women in the tech team?
During our assessment, we discovered a few areas where our policies and culture may inadvertently affect women in tech. One issue we found was a lack of diversity in the recruitment process. We realised that even though our wider team has an even gender split with women predominantly making up most of the senior management, our tech team is mostly male which may be off-putting to female candidates. I also noticed that we lacked formalised maternity, adoption and return-to-work policies that truly reflected our values. These are currently being updated to support women in tech with a better package for maternity leave. This involved making sure we have a safe place for anyone breastfeeding to use, which we found was missing previously.
Did you have any lightbulb moments of how you plan to retain or gain female employees within your tech team?
When I was looking at how to shape our people strategy for the year, I had a few lightbulb moments around how we shape the business to keep and attract female employees in our tech team. One of the big ones was the importance of work-life balance and flexible policies. We knew that by offering options like flexible working hours and support for personal needs, we could create an environment where women, especially working mums, feel valued and can thrive and importantly, still able to progress their careers equally.
What is your goal for your second year as a Charter Signatory?
Our goal for our 2nd year as a Charter Signatory is to build on what we’ve already achieved and further embed diversity and inclusion into the fabric of Sustainit, especially in our data and tech teams. We want to focus on intersectionality and ensure that underrepresented groups, such as women of colour, LGBTQIA+ individuals and those with disabilities receive support and opportunities.
We aim to be advocates for change in the wider tech industry, sharing our experiences and collaborating with other organisations to make a difference. Together, we can create a more inclusive tech world where women and working mums from any background can thrive
We plan to regularly assess our diversity efforts and ask our team for feedback to keep improving our policies and practices, especially as part of our ongoing B-Corp journey. But I don't want to stop at just Sustainit!
We aim to be advocates for change in the wider tech industry, sharing our experiences and collaborating with other organisations to make a difference. Together, we can create a more inclusive tech world where women and working mums from any background can thrive.
MotherBoard is a Business Charter, Community & Event Series, driving tangible change for mums working in the tech industry.
Interested in getting involved? Become a signatory today