Yesterday March 8th, we celebrated International Women’s Day and therefore women of the C4T tribe decided to support this action by striking the #EachforEqual pose, putting arms out front and make a strong call-to-action for the others to support #EfE. With our action we want to make a positive difference for women wherever they are. We actively want to challenge stereotypes, fight bias and broaden perceptions to improve situations and hope to amplify this message via social media because equality can’t wait.
But also, equality is not a women’s issue, it’s a business issue. You could call it a mindset, it’s about being aware and acting without judgement. In a way it is opposite to working on autopilot. Gender discrimination comes in different shapes and sizes. It can be subtle or open sexual harassment, paying people of different genders differently for doing the exact same work, hiring one gender for certain types of work because it is deemed to be either woman’s or man’s work or treating promotion for man and woman differently.
Promoting gender equality is not difficult but it takes more than just treating women with respect and basic decency. It requires commitment to fully taking the necessary actions, establish guidelines and enforce them to support and encourage equality in the workplace. Let’s say best is to provide a framework that is consistent to the culture. We do strongly believe that when gender equality is practiced in the workplace it has a positive impact on productivity, team cohesion and company culture. Or to rephrase it differently, a culture with emphasis on overall-being first can for sure positively impact the business performance.
How do we encourage gender equality in the C4T workplace?
- Equality in recruitment, training, hiring and promotion
- Work/life integration with family leave available to both men and women
- No gender paygap
- Equal access to resources and opportunities to succeed
- Provide development & growth to both genders
- Have a zero tolerance against sexual harassment or harassment documented in Employment Regulations
- Not the usual corporate offices: our offices are decorated to ensure that every employee would be exposed to natural light. No one has a private office and workplaces can be used on a first come first service basis. In practice we notice however that teams usually prefer to occupy the same room for the obvious reasons.
When looking at the C4T tribe today we are a team of 41 people, with a good balance of 56% male and 44% female and looking at our delivery team – which is a stereotype job for man – we are happy with our 66% male, 34% female ratio. Average age being 35, with our youngsters being 21 and our senior 69 years young at heart. Adding 9 different nationalities we would say that C4T is on track both for equality and diversity.
On the management level women are currently underrepresented. In a couple of weeks, we will have another female joining the management team, boosting the ratio to 82% male, 18% female. The good news however is that women are very well represented in young leadership positions at C4T with a ratio of 37,5% male, 62,5% females. Recruiting young females with potential and offering them room to develop and grow was a good strategy that might be an upcoming game-changer.
We believe that both men and women benefit when gender equality is practiced in the workplace. Also #IWD and #EfE do not end today, it runs all year long and the C4T women have clear intentions to leave a little sparkle for other people wherever they go. And we are also proud of all these women featured in the picture. This shoot and this article were put together last minute, yet thoughtfully. Each and every one of them are giving their best and we are lucky to have them in our team.
Want to be part of this amazing team?