Valtech is embracing diversity across the length and breadth of its organisation to better enable it to provide solutions that touch all of society.
Una Verhoeven, now Vice President of Global Technology – Sitecore, offers Interface her perspective on the diversity debate and how that’s further supported in the technological evolution with the rise of composable architecture.
Diversity
“We need to go much further and deeper when talking about gender diversity issues in our industry. Over the last couple of years, companies have been much better at recognising the disparity and have welcomed the dialogue around gender equality.
“Throughout 2018 and 2019 it highlighted the status and challenges of women in tech – however, fast-forward to today, and especially amid the pandemic, I feel the discussion has lost momentum globally.”
These are the words of Una Verhoeven who has taken on the mantle of Vice President of Global Technology – Sitecore, at global business transformation agency Valtech. She is equally impassioned by her love of tech as she is helping other women and underrepresented people advance their careers in the industry.
Verhoeven advocates that if real, tangible progress is to be made, action needs to be taken all year round rather than being concentrated into annual events such as International Women’s Day on March 8.
Women in Tech
“Action, not just conversation, needs to happen on a much broader basis,” Verhoeven states. “We often hear about statistics from individual companies or regional analysis from the likes of North America and Western Europe, but what about the rest of the world?
“We need to be much more mindful of the fact that this discussion also relates to women in regions where cultures, politics, and societies operate differently and face different issues.”
The point is that every individual has a unique story to tell. These journeys are based on highly individualised circumstances, circumstances which companies and societal institutions need to understand if the sort of traction initially gained is to be entrenched.
Last year, we spoke with Valtech’s Global Director of Diversity & Inclusion Sheree Atcheson and Allison Abraham, one of the company’s managing directors, about how the company is playing its part in helping reverse some of the worrying gender inequality trends – a gap which the World Economic Forum believes won’t be eliminated for another 130 years.
Valtech has made significant strides since that conversation took place. In 2021 (between January and November), almost 40% of hires made by the company were women, well up on the industry average.
