‘We’re all comfortable taking risks together’

Not a lot of women land leadership positions in the technology industry, but recently Melanie Fatouros-Richardson was named vice president for communications and government relations at online food delivery service SkipTheDishes.

The promotion followed just over a year of serving as the company’s head of communications and government relations.

“I'm extremely proud,” she told HRD Canada about her promotion.

“I joined SkipTheDishes just under five years ago now. And I've been very fortunate to be promoted three times within that time. And I started as one of the original members of the comms team here. So [I’m] very proud of that and the evolution of my journey here at Skip.”

Women are not only underrepresented in leadership roles, but they also aren't being promoted internally at a rate on pace with their male counterparts, according to a previous report.

Starting a career in communications

Based in Winnipeg, Fatouros-Richardson started her career in the line of communications when she joined a not-for-profit firm, where she learned the “all-hands-on-deck mentality”.

“[With the employer being] not for profit, you may be doing your job one day, the next, you may be physically moving boxes to set up for an event, or answering the phone for that day, or helping out the marketing team, or you're helping out the sponsorship team. So that really became part of my DNA early on, just doing anything that was required to help the company.”

She expanded her horizons and learned about the world of tech when she joined start-ups.

“I've really been drawn by that energy that startups have. And so before Skip, I was actually at an app development company for three years. And there, we focused on extending platform capabilities to help other brands grow. So this is really where I first gained a lot of insight into how developers worked and how product and tech teams functioned within a larger organization.”

There, Fatouros-Richardson was one of only nine women in the staff for three years. But that didn’t stop her from going further into her tech career.

“When it came to Skip, I loved that same innovative approach that they had towards food delivery, and that same energy and that same potential for growth. Because food delivery was changing so rapidly then. Plus, Skip was doing a lot of really cool things. And even five years ago, food delivery wasn't what it is today. It was still a bit of a novelty.”

Internal communications, employee engagement

Now, as vice president for communications and government relations, Fatouros-Richardson has a lot of responsibilities. 

“I manage everything from managing external and internal communications to driving employee engagement, government relations, our corporate social responsibility and helping drive our inclusion, diversity and belonging initiatives across the organization. 

“I really started taking on projects, anything I could do to support the organization, whether it fit within my role or not. So this really allowed me to increase my scope of work and responsibility, and to build out the amazing teams under me to support the organization's growth.”

Female leaders are leaving their employers at a higher rate than their male counterparts, according to a previous report.

Empowering women in tech

In her role, Fatouros-Richardson has also been empowering women to be leaders in the tech industry.

“We've been able to be a lot more flexible and open to new approaches and strategies… As a team – having built out functions under me now – we're able to really stay adaptable and embrace instability, and we are able to never shy away from challenges. That's something that I would say is a lot different. 

“And I've been able to navigate those moments of change with the team that I've built out under me. And I have really strong women leaders on my team, which I'm incredibly proud of.”

In an industry dominated by men in leadership roles, how does Fatouros-Richardson make an impact?

“It's really important to me to create an environment where we're all comfortable taking risks together, because that really does unlock your team's full potential, your own individual potential. And I think that's relevant across all roles at tech organizations,” she said.

Rather than the “glass ceiling,” which has been believed to be the main obstacle to female professional progress for decades, HR should be focused on fixing the “broken rung” much farther down the ladder, according to a recent report.