This Friday is International Women’s Day – which means for many people, there will be a greater focus this week on elevating female voices. Here at Orbition Group, we’re proud to show in our actions that this is a 365-day concern, not just a 7-day focus. However, we think it’s great to spend this week doing even more to shout about the amazing women in our community and also to encourage great inclusion, diversity, and parity in the data space.
This week we want to talk about practical things you can do as data leaders to encourage more female talent into your teams and to become senior leaders. Currently, it’s widely reported that only around 16% of data and analytics leaders identify as female, and we’d love to see this number grow.
So how can we ensure it does?
Promote Mentorship Programmes
One of the biggest things we do in our community is our Driven by Data Mentorship programme. This sees people from all walks of life, have access to some of the top leaders in our space. You’re of course, welcome to support our programme, but why not think about establishing your very own mentorship programme internally, aimed at connecting professionals with experienced leaders in the company?
Whether you access our programme, or create your own, we know that these types of initiatives provide valuable guidance, support, and networking opportunities, helping women navigate their career paths and access opportunities for advancement. It’s a well-known challenge that other ‘networking’ opportunities can occur at times that are traditionally harder for women (who statistically remain the dominant care provider for children) to attend. By providing structured networking and growth opportunities like a mentorship programme, you allow a greater chance for those barriers to be broken.
Foster a Culture of Inclusion and Belonging
This is one of those ‘sounds easier than it is’ areas. As simple as it may sound, we know this can be incredibly complex. However, it’s so crucial as a data leader you work hard to create a workplace culture that values diversity, equity, and inclusion. Foster open dialogue, respect different perspectives, and actively challenge biases and stereotypes. Encourage collaboration and teamwork, recognising the unique contributions of each team member. Ensure that policies, practices, and decision-making processes promote fairness for all employees. We recommend that you speak candidly with your teams about what this currently looks like, and what might need to change. There are heaps of experts in our space who work with clients to achieve just this. (I always personally recommend, Sathya Bala)
Celebrate Achievements and Role Models
Elevating voices and people is something we love doing here at Orbition Group. Since September 2023 we have highlighted an amazing Woman in Data & Analytics to Watch weekly. You can do this too in your organisation! Highlight success stories, share accomplishments internally, and showcase female role models who serve as inspiration for others. Create platforms for visibility and leadership opportunities, such as speaking engagements, panel discussions, and internal awards. The more visibility we have of these amazing people, the better. The power of seeing someone who looks like you, in leadership – is unmatched.
Promote Diversity in Recruitment and Retention Efforts
We cannot stress how important it is to take proactive steps to attract, recruit, and retain diverse talent in data and analytics roles. It’s one of our favourite parts of what we do as talent solution experts! We fully endorse creating inclusive job descriptions that are built with purpose and value at their core and being clear about the hiring process and what it will include. Try and ensure your interview panel represents your organisation accurately and offers competitive compensation and benefits packages, too!
At Orbition, we truly believe that all organisations in 2024 should go beyond tick-boxing representation, and move into genuinely hiring for diversity of thought, which will naturally bring with it a talent pool that looks and sounds different. As mentioned earlier, it’s so powerful seeing yourself in a leader – but it can be devastating for a company culture if you believe that hiring decisions within the SLT have been made as some form of HR-mandated exercise. Any positive DEI work should be on the merit of genuine and authentic values, not in fear of bad PR.
Encourage Networking and Community Engagement
It doesn’t matter who you are, attending, speaking, and participating in industry events have a huge correlation with career growth and development. It’s crucial as data leaders that we encourage female professionals on our teams to build networks, form connections, and engage with communities both within and outside the organisation. As a data leader I encourage you to lean into ‘do as I do’ – and make sure you’re practising this. I often draw the comparison with a leader who takes their vacation days – if a team sees their leader booking annual leave, they’re more likely to do it. It’s the same with events and community participation. If your team see you doing this, it permits them to do the same.
This will never be a quick-fix scenario, but if we can each do our best on these core areas I do think we’ll be moving in the right direction.
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