At the start of 2020, DataBird’s Business Journal released an anonymous survey for employees to complete about obstacles they face within the workplace, diversity interventions put in place by employers, and the initiatives women find to be most effective. The results of the survey were analyzed by a team of experts, and we are pleased to announce that FRG came out on top!

We are extremely proud of this result and delighted to see that the hard work we have put into gender equality initiatives as part of our Diversity Matters program resonates with our employees.

Last year we joined APSCo’s Women in Recruitment initiative, offering our employees a support network of like-minded recruitment professionals who aim to empower women to achieve their full potential within the recruitment industry. Earlier this year, we ran our first internal Smart Women Week in honor of International Women’s Day, with the aim of showcasing female success at Frank Recruitment Group and demonstrating that gender bias has no place within our office walls.

Throughout the week, our female employees hosted a number of presentations, panel discussions and thought groups to highlight individuals’ experiences as successful women at FRG, discuss the challenges faced by women in the IT and sales industries, and talk about what International Women’s Day means to our workforce.

But it’s not just our own employees who benefit from the work we do to support gender equality. Earlier this year, we introduced our Newcastle-based employees to a local, women-only, professional mentoring charity for underprivileged girls. We also have a long-standing e-mentoring program in place with our partner charities, St. Martin’s School in Kenya and Baale Mane girl’s residential home in India, to teach young girls from disadvantaged backgrounds essential life skills to support their future and provide insight into potential career opportunities in IT.

We have also made it a priority to make a mark on the niche IT industry in which our brands operate. We are premium sponsors of the global Women in IT Awards – the largest event of its kind. Over the last few years, we have launched two specialist recruitment desks aimed at supporting female IT professionals: our Women in IT resourcing desk is dedicated to finding top-level IT talent across the UK, and our Diversity in Dynamics returnship program is now in its third year. We are also working hard to reduce the skills gap in IT by partnering with CoderDojo to run free coding workshops for children aged seven upwards, working with ADA, the National College for Digital Skills to deliver employment skills to students, and partnering with universities such as UTC Reading and Birkbeck University. We are also exceptionally proud signatories of the Tech Talent Charter in the UK.

After all our hard work on gender equality, it has been incredibly rewarding to see that this has been recognized in our industry, especially when in 2018 we were named D&I Recruitment Supplier of the Year by Capgemini. We are also delighted to see our own incredible female employees being honored for their success. Danielle Ramsbottom, Head of Strategic Alliances and Enterprise Sales EMEA, was nominated for a Women in Sales award at the end of 2019, and earlier this year our President, Zoë Morris, won DataBird Business Journal’s Top Large Business Female Executive Award.

We are proud of all the initiatives we run, contribute to and support, and know that each of these projects go a long way towards the continuous, worldwide battle for equal rights. We have proven that there is no place for gender bias within our company, but have also been honored to support other females from outside our business as we strive for global equality. While we are disappointed to say that the world is still a long way from achieving true gender equality, we are happy to be a part of the conversation as long as necessary. It’s fair to say that it is, and will remain to be, at the top of our Diversity Matters agenda for the foreseeable future. We are delighted that our employees join us in acknowledging the advancements we have made for ourselves, the wider IT industry, and beyond, so far.

Find out more about DataBird’s Business Journal Best Companies For Women Award or contact our Employee Engagement Team for more information on this and other projects in our Diversity Matters program.