Vodafone launches latest gender initiative

Communications giant Vodafone has launched its latest gender initiative this week, revealing a three-pronged approach aimed at boosting female representation across the tech industry.

Katie Williams, head of Vodafone’s HR centre of expertise, said the move is part of the company’s mission to be the best employer of women by 2025.

“First, we want to create opportunities for girls to experience technology in the real world, by connecting them with mentors and training on our #CodeLikeAGirl program,” said Williams.

“Late last year we took more than a dozen girls from high schools across Auckland, and in just four days taught them the coding to be able to build a website,” she added.

Lynn Xu – Vodafone’s women in technology New Zealand lead – was among those who worked with the girls in the training program.

“I really believe this experience can help in making future career choices,” she said. “They all came out with fantastic work, and had visions and plans on how to improve on it – something us adults often don’t do well! I will never forget the sparks in their eyes.”

“Our hope is that #CodeLikeAGirl will hone that excitement, and open the doors to really considering a career in technology, which offers a range of well-paying roles,” said Williams.

Vodafone also runs a two-year Discover Graduate program, which currently has 78 graduates fresh out of university working at the firm, with the opportunity to rotate across teams in order to pick up important transferrable skills.

“Fifty-one per cent of our graduates in the program are women and that’s a deliberate choice on our part,” said Williams. “It allows us to lay substantial groundwork in fostering, encouraging and growing female leadership in our workplace.”

Anthony Welton, Vodafone’s HR director, also said the company would be going beyond attracting women into technology and would also be focussing on retention and promotion.

“We understand that as well as a rewarding career our teams need and deserve work-life balance. Our parental leave policy, which is also available for people who have taken a longer career break through our ReConnect program, means you are paid for 40 hours a week while you work 30 for your first six months,” he said.

“Employers today need to get real about what it takes to ensure women can be at their best at work,” he added, noting that Vodafone is also amplifying the spotlight on the levels of women in leadership roles.

“We are on the journey, like so many other New Zealand companies, to achieve gender equality across our leadership levels,” he said.

“We have introduced software to remove bias from our job advertisements, implemented gender balanced shortlists across all of our roles, and ‘blinded’ CVs, where the details, including gender of candidates is removed to mitigate the risk of unconscious bias in decision making .This is all in aid of Vodafone being a place where people can be at their best, be themselves and belong.”