In the spirit of National Inclusion week, and with gender as one of the key focus areas in our Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) strategy, two Pentland Brands senior leaders attended last week’s Women in Tech Festival to share how our business is promoting inclusivity.
Held at The Brewery in London, the festival saw our Director of Digital and Innovation, Gemma Carver, and Head of Business Solutions, Connie Li, attend as expert speakers to lead roundtable discussions on the topics of gender bias and diversity in the tech industry.
The inaugural festival, which welcomed 400+ male and female delegates, provided insight into building and maintaining successful careers alongside case studies of cutting-edge technology being used today. The discussions were attended by people at various stages of their careers, hailing from a wide array of sectors such as broadcast, fashion and law.
The discussion on ‘gender bias’, led by Gemma Carver, explored pertinent topics such as the barriers faced by women during their careers and how to make business processes such as recruitment and job advertising gender neutral. Participants shared personal experiences of their journeys and the challenges they’ve faced, with Gemma commenting: “I had two generations of women at my table – a business owner had brought her daughter and as a group we openly discussed the progress we’ve seen in the industry whilst also recognising that there is still room for improvement. It’s great that at Pentland Brands we’ve placed an importance on unconscious bias in our D&I strategy – working it into our recruitment process and ensuring it’s front of mind in the hiring process.”
Connie Li hosted a discussion on ‘tech team diversity’, asking questions around how men and women can collaborate to improve diversity in the technology industry, and where current failings can be overcome. Highlighting that Pentland Brands recruits using a wide range of methods such as apprenticeships, internships and award schemes, Connie’s key takeaway from the session was that “inclusion is the input and diversity is the output – it is everyone’s responsibility to bring D&I into our day-to-day lives”. Connie’s reflects further:
“It was a great day. I met female leaders from a broad range of tech industries that were passionate about bringing diversity into what we do. I am proud that here at Pentland Brands, we’re already on a great journey to bring D&I to life.”