Graduate quotas and parental leave: Keeping women in an IT business - Women's Agenda

Graduate quotas and parental leave: Keeping women in an IT business

In an industry that suffers from a serious skills shortage, it’s essential that IT businesses attract and keep talented employees. Women occupy less than 20% of positions in the majority of ICT occupations, so it’s clear that businesses looking to grow should seriously start to think about the quality female candidates available to them.

This is something that we at ThoughtWorks realised back in 2011 when we decided to hold ourselves accountable to including more women in the business. Since then the percentage of women employed in the Australian professional services arm of our business has increased dramatically from 19 to 34% – a figure we’re really proud of.

I truly believe that whether your business is just starting out or looking to grow, there are some important strategies you can employ to include quality female professionals in your workplace.

Quotas for graduates
One of the strategies we implemented in 2011 to attract more female graduates was a 50/50 hiring policy, meaning we had to hire one woman for every man we took on. Since this change we have taken on 17 female graduates to 15 males.

A lot of people, myself included, were initially hesitant to put such an obvious ‘quota’ system in place. I would never want someone to have to face assumptions that they were hired because of their gender rather than their abilities. However, seeing the results has made me completely change my mind – the positive impact of having more women in the business has been really impressive to witness.

The change meant not only did we get more female applicants but I believe that our recruiting team and interviewers also started to overcome some unconscious biases that were preventing them from getting more women on board.

Supporting parents
Another key characteristic of the ICT industry is that it is focused on the young, with a high drop-out rate among more mature workers. This has a knock-on effect for women, as they go on to have families and prioritise a good work/life balance.

Making sure you accommodate these desires is essential if you want to retain quality employees. A supportive parental leave policy is a good start. ThoughtWorks offers 18 weeks parental leave at full pay for the primary carer, and two weeks for the secondary carer. If women join us when they are already pregnant, we will provide them with the full parental package – recognising that having a child doesn’t mean the end of your career.

The importance of recognising the employment value of pregnant women is sadly becoming an issue in Australia. Later this year the Australian Human Rights Commission will investigate the extent of discrimination against employees taking parental leave when pregnant or caring for a child.

Being able to offer your employees – whether they are male of female – the option of working from home can be another option to increase passion and productivity in the workplace. This is particularly useful in the ICT industry, as it is by nature dynamic, creative and flexible.

There’s no question that growing a business while attracting and retaining the right staff is a challenge. With so many factors to consider and increasing levels of employee expectation, it’s important to be smart in how you decide to support your female employees – creating the right environment is key.

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