If more people celebrated Women’s Equality Day, the holiday would likely feel a bit different today. That’s largely due to the rise of COVID-19, which has brought to light inequalities that have become increasingly difficult to sugarcoat, especially in regard to work.
Even before the pandemic, women were regularly paid less than men, held far less leadership and board positions, and missed countless opportunities for growth. Since COVID-19, women have left the workforce in staggering numbers, a phenomenon that only exacerbates many of these issues.
But women have some advice for companies looking to reverse this bleak reality. We know because we talked to five local tech leaders who work for organizations committed to nurturing employees’ talents and supporting their professional development, regardless of gender. They’ve been given the respect, tools and trust to chase their dreams — and their teams are all the better for it.
Learn what these women say has been most effective in increasing equality and equity for individuals at their companies — as well as their thoughts on what the tech industry can do to ensure everyone can have the career trajectory they deserve.
What are your overall career goals, and to what degree have you been able to fulfill them at your current company?
I’m extremely fortunate to be at a place in my life and career where I am able to prioritize the things that are important to me. I want to work in an environment where we value our team members as individuals and strive to be a place where people can bring their full selves to work.
I also want to be where I can leverage my background to help the company succeed, but also to be pushed and continue to learn and grow. Last, but not least, I want to be at a company that is focused on winning through innovation and customer-focused products and services. Tango Card has been a great fit for me in all of these areas.
What professional development resources does your employer make available?
We understand that professional development is incredibly valued by our employees, and it is critical for high-performing teams to meet the ever-increasing expectations of our customers. Most professional development comes from on-the-job experience. At Tango Card, our team has the opportunity to work on projects that directly impact the success of our customers, partners and employees. We are in a dynamic industry that pushes us to invent new solutions in our products, processes and security. It is an exciting place to be!
For more structured learning opportunities, we offer our team access to Udemy, an online learning platform with over 150,000 courses from Python to digital marketing to mindfulness. Tango Card also sponsors employees’ attendance at conferences to build deeper knowledge and expertise. We are currently piloting a program that provides one-on-one leadership coaching and 360-degree feedback. This has had a real and positive impact on a number of folks on our team. Recently, we have added Inclusology as a tool to assist our DEI committee as we build out our DEI metrics, goals and accountability systems.
Leaders need to recognize the business imperative of having an inclusive and equitable culture.”
How can tech companies promote an inclusive and equitable culture for women?
I don’t believe there is a silver bullet to solving this issue. If there were, we as a society would have made much more progress. First, leaders need to recognize the business imperative of having an inclusive and equitable culture, and have the humility to learn where their culture falls short. Leaders need to listen to their employees and strive to understand their experiences, accepting that using our own experiences as a filter is not helpful. Something that I need to remind myself, more times than I would like to admit, is that the current system works for me — and has given me career success. That doesn’t mean that it works for all folks in the same way.
There are some widely accepted tactics to improve equity and inclusivity. I’m passionate about gender pay equity because I love data, and it is relatively straightforward to measure, but also because income and wealth impact so many other areas of equity in society. Tactics such as having defined job families and pay ranges; conducting regular audits of salaries, promotions and pay increases for signs of bias; and mentoring and sponsoring women for leadership roles are all effective ways to reduce pay inequities.
What are your overall career goals, and to what degree have you been able to fulfill them at your current company?
My career goals are plentiful: to work for companies that provide value to their communities, to expand my knowledge and skill in my areas of expertise and in the industries in which I work, and to expand my sphere of influence, leadership and accountability. At HMA, I’ve been able to do all of those things.
HMA has an immediate and significant impact on our members and their providers, and I’m proud of the work we do, as it positively impacts the healthcare community and each member’s healthcare journey. Additionally, I’ve had the opportunity to expand my knowledge of health insurance and each area of our business through participation in some extraordinary projects and special initiatives.
Having joined HMA as a manager of our continuous process improvement (CPI) team, and having been promoted to the senior manager of the CPI team and the project management office (PMO), my sphere of responsibility and accountability continues to grow. This enables me to spend my time leading an exceptional team and strategizing with other leaders.
HMA embraced my taking time off after the birth of my second child and provides flexibility in order for me to successfully deliver on my commitments as a leader.”
What professional development resources does your employer make available?
I recently obtained the CAPM certification (Certified Associate in Project Management) through PMI (Project Management Institute). That was not only strongly encouraged but also strongly supported by my people leader. Now, my people leader and I have decided that the PMP certification (Project Management Professional) is the next one to achieve.
My people leader and my team members have been very supportive of this goal, and from the moment I started studying for these certifications, the knowledge I gained was immediately relevant and had strong connections to my work. I am very thankful that HMA has invested in me, and that it’s supported me in investing in myself.
How can tech companies promote an inclusive and equitable culture for women?
Companies like HMA promote inclusive and equitable cultures for women. HMA regularly emphasizes the great opportunity we have to ensure diversity and inclusion, and to bring our “whole selves” to work. HMA embraced my taking time off after the birth of my second child and provides flexibility in order for me to successfully deliver on my commitments as a leader in my company and on my commitments to my family.
HMA believes in autonomy and results-based work and truly lives its “people first” value by creating a culture where all staff members work with humility, humor and respect.
What are your overall career goals, and to what degree have you been able to fulfill them at your current company?
My career goals have always been learning continuously, challenging myself, and in the process, making a difference in the community.
At Flexport, I was fortunate enough to be part of a team that designed and developed a brand-new product from the ground up. There were a lot of considerations that went into the design, which I would not normally get exposed to. The team has some brilliant engineers and I am grateful to be able to learn from them.
What professional development resources does your employer make available?
Flexport provides multiple resources for professional development: For company-specific guidelines and business-related development, employees create training through a platform called 360Learning. For self-paced research and development, each employee has access to O’Reilly and LinkedIn Learning. For one-on-one professional and personal coaching, we use Bravely.
In addition to these corporate-level resources, our engineering department offers targeted technical training with topics ranging from security, infrastructure, database and more.
It’s important to remember that promoting an equitable and inclusive culture in tech is everyone’s responsibility.”
How can tech companies promote an inclusive and equitable culture for women?
There are several areas tech companies can focus on to promote an inclusive and equitable culture for women. It’s important to remember that promoting an equitable and inclusive culture in tech is everyone’s responsibility. First and foremost, there needs to be a strong focus on recruiting women in tech, not only by the recruiting team, but everyone involved in the hiring process. This should include structured interview processes, interviewer training, diverse interview panels and more.
Companies can also ensure they are being fair and equitable in the promotion process so that leadership is representative of other levels of the company. Finally, enabling flexibility to promote a good work-life balance goes a long way in creating a more equitable and inclusive environment for women and parents in general.
What are your overall career goals, and to what degree have you been able to fulfill them at your current company?
My career goals are more achievement-based versus hierarchical. For me, it’s important to accomplish something on behalf of the organization in a way that's useful, sustainable, and of course, wonderful. All of this builds a strong case for earning additional responsibility and growth within my company.
I am delighted to say that so far, I have been able to achieve my career goals at RealSelf because I’ve been given the runway to map out projects and trusted to execute at the highest levels.
What professional development resources does your employer make available?
My company makes many development resources available to everyone in the organization and leaves room for us to take full advantage of them.
There are also opportunities for additional and more personal development growth. I can take classes and do things like participate in mentorships. I can also avail myself to the C-Suite and my colleagues, which I find is maybe more unique to my company than it should be.
Tech companies can take a closer look at how they behave and treat all their employees, asking the critical question: Are we being equitable to all?”
How can tech companies promote an inclusive and equitable culture for women?
Tech companies can take a closer look at how they behave and treat all their employees, asking the critical question: Are we being equitable to all? If the answer isn’t “yes,” I think it’s a good idea to look at behaviors and culture first. It’s so easy to get comfortable with the current status of diversity and inclusion, and companies and employees don’t always recognize when they aren’t delivering.
Working with an objective and an outside team that specializes in this area can be a great way to create a sustained practice of sensitivity and mindfulness that can lead to lasting inclusive practices.
What are your overall career goals, and to what degree have you been able to fulfill them at your current company?
I love building things. For me, building a team, a new offering or a new company is what gives me the ultimate career satisfaction and where I am truly at my best.
I joined Ideoclick to build our first product team in order to bring best-in-class e-commerce products to the market. We are also scaling and transforming, all things I love to lead through! During a company’s life cycle, it will experience tough transitions while rapidly scaling, and that is when I’m in my element: I’m great at guiding and developing people through those challenges and changes.
What professional development resources does your employer make available?
We believe in giving people the flexibility and opportunity to develop skills that will make them successful both at Ideoclick and beyond. A combination of training and development budgets and internal resources are available to all employees, and we are fortunate enough to have a culture of knowledge-sharing and mentorship.
Each person’s goals are different, and we are always open to hearing new ways that we can support them on their professional journeys.
Hire women, more than ever, right now!”
How can tech companies promote an inclusive and equitable culture for women?
Establish a formal mentorship program. Include a diverse group in cross-departmental initiatives and projects. Leaders should deliberately lay out a strategy that ensures no one person drowns out another. Credit your casual repeating of ideas to the people behind them and eliminate bias in decision-making when presenting certain work and ideas.
The fact that men are still more likely to speak up and have more access to senior leadership creates a vacuum, leaving plenty of women invisible in the background. Make it a habit to credit people for their thoughts — or, even better, bring those people into the conversation whenever you can and encourage them to speak up.
Hire women, more than ever, right now! The pandemic added enormous pressure to everyone, but no group more than women. There is no lack of exceptional female talent out there. Now is the time to take an aggressive approach to talent acquisition focused on increasing diversity. We’ve implemented a successful remote model over the last 18 months: We know that flexibility is a priority for employees, and this is also key to supporting women returning to the workforce.
