Get the Future you want is the tagline that underlines Capgemini’s global values. It is hard to imagine how that can be realised in numerous countries across the globe and how this is driving diversity & inclusion to new levels here in Australia, so we asked the team.

It is underpinned by the Global Gender equity Index a measure which provides a baseline for Capgemini to overachieve against. It enables each country to measure up to the standards required within the country and provides a roadmap of what needs to be worked on and changed. For instance, when first introduced in Australia the Capgemini standard of equal pay was evident but not embedded in all the relevant policies and procedures.

The vision of getting the future you want means that each employee is responsible for driving their own career. At any stage, they can submit a business case for promotion. One of the gender issues that was highlighted was that women do not go for promotions unless they tick all the boxes, this meant that many were holding back. To overcome this the company-initiated training & support to encourage women to “lean-in to discomfort and take risks”. Today, this has seen a vast improvement in the number of women progressing.

Janani D’ Silva, who has been with Capgemini for thirteen years and the tech industry for 22 years has seen the evolution within the company. She is Head of Culture, Engagement, and Early Careers. She fell into her current role through the work and results she was achieving, but she says had it been advertised with a full description online, she wouldn’t have applied, thinking she wouldn’t be able to do it because she has a young family. With encouragement and role models such as her manager, the HR Director for AUNZ – Maria Dimopoulos, and the AUNZ MD, Kaylene O’Brien, she took the job and thrives in this space, despite her initial concerns. Today she is an amazing role model for flexibility and getting the future you want. Working hybrid with no stipulation on mandatory days in the office, she’s able to work the needs of her work and family’s needs, delivering to the demands of her multifaceted role. She says women can indeed have it all, it comes down to letting your feet do the talking and finding an employer that is truly committed to breaking systemic constructs of what a workplace needs to be like and relegating the ‘9-5 in the office’ workday to the past.

Another benefit of getting the future you want is the company’s attitude to flexibility and family allowing many team members to work from home or work compressed hours to maintain the balance they want.  Caitlin Spence who leads the Women at Capgemini groups works a 4-day week; it is compressed to allow her the time to look after her family.

Capgemini is like other tech-based businesses facing an ongoing shortage of training women. In an effort to improve this, the company has developed an initiative, Relaunch, to help women, women with a trans experience and nonbinary people who wish to transition into Technology Consulting or are returning from a Career Break. If they have any skills even up to 10 years in the past, they will be eligible. It is an intense 3 months of upskilling in new technology & business processes; followed by a week of shadowing. To date, 17 women have completed the program and have been employed back into similar roles. One candidate almost did not apply because “I felt obsolete after just one year out of the tech industry, so I think my biggest challenge was the fear that even if I re-skilled I would still be considered unemployable.”

They offer an award-winning graduate program that is known for recruiting a gender-balanced intake. When asked, Janani D’Silva explains that they do not use a quota system mandating a certain number of female hires, instead, they have ‘targets with bite’, provide unconscious bias training, ensure a gender-balanced interview panel, and education for interviewers to not look for culture fit, but for culture add, challenge their beliefs on what ‘good’ looks like and know that diversity of thinking and backgrounds is critical to the successful tech solutions they as teams co-create with clients.

To help individuals have the working environment they need the team at Capgemini is thinking of everything. They want all their team members to feel safe, valued and respected. What does this really mean? Most offices offer a combination of non-gender bathrooms, breastfeeding rooms and faith rooms. To accommodate the new hybrid work they have collaboration spaces and quiet workspaces, private offices and open areas.

For those individuals going through a gender change, they are given additional leave to allow them time off,  their team members are trained to be respectful and they are gifted $2000 to spend on a new wardrobe.

It would seem like they have all bases covered. However, the team see it as a work in progress with baby steps to try out new initiatives to ensure the whole team feel safe and respected. They still need to drive gender equity to balance the number of female mid-level leaders but with the Gender Equity Index data, their vision and processes, there is no doubt that they are well on their way to success.

If you would like to learn more about the other finalists then click this link.

All too often, when you hear about inspirational leadership, you mostly hear from those naturally comfortable with shining a spotlight on their achievements.

Not so with Salesforce’s Angelica Veness, a Manager of Solution Engineering and recently a finalist in the Business in Heels Gender Equity Awards. Angelica is well-known for striving to ensure her team is clearly heard and widely recognised for their united and individual achievements.

Not content to support only the individual, she takes a holistic approach to management by identifying knowledge gaps or ideas that would benefit the entire team.

Angelica believes building your brand is essential to career development and progression. But not long ago, she discovered that several women in her team were uncomfortable with seeing themselves as a ‘brand’, believing it to mean they needed to shout from the rooftops about the great work they were doing. Instead, Angelica reframed it as being about being more intentional and knowing how best to influence and lead.

This discovery motivated Angelica to design and organise a bespoke training workshop called “Brand Building. What’s your brand, why is it important, and how do you build it?” Through this course and Angelica’s leadership, individuals could clearly understand the benefits of seeing themselves as a brand to improve their reputation and learn tangible ways they could start to build it.

Angelica has been in the technology industry for the last two decades, and in that time, she has been one of the few, if not only, women in the room. Today she loves her job at Salesforce. It’s the first time she’s worked for a female CEO, with Pip Marlow as the CEO of ANZ and ASEAN at Salesforce, and for a company that actively strives to give women a place and voice at the table. Angelica says, “It’s incredibly motivating and inspiring to see women at all levels within Salesforce, as it gives me the courage and belief that someday I could be there too.”

Salesforce believes everyone should feel comfortable bringing their authentic selves to work. To support this, Salesforce employees have built several internal equality groups centred around shared life experiences or backgrounds and their allies. Their mission is to make equality a reality inside Salesforce and in the communities where we live and work.

One of these groups is the Salesforce Women’s Network (SWN), of which Angelica is a dedicated member. SWN’s mission is to build gender equality and foster inclusion in the workplace and beyond through empowering, supporting, and investing in Salesforce’s global community for women and their allies. Through SWN, Angelica mentors emerging leaders: “I find it incredibly rewarding to give back to the community, particularly through internal career mentoring and some of our not-for-profit partners such as Thread Together, Dress for Success and Good 360.”

In addition to her involvement with SWN, Angelica leads the Women in Solution Engineering (WISE) group, a specialised community of women in solutions and their allies to inspire diverse perspectives that attract and amplify talent, incubate ideas, and create opportunities. With WISE, she’s coordinated several Salesforce employee volunteering days (Salesforce offers employees an above-average VTO benefit of seven business days each year.)  Recently, Angelica’s team supported Thread Together, a not-for-profit that saves last season, new clothing from large retailers which would otherwise go to landfill and provides it to people in need.

A big focus of Salesforce is education for underserved communities. Salesforce is a longtime partner of Schools Plus, an organisation that supports teachers in delivering programs to help children facing disadvantaged success at school. It’s also a partner of CareerTrackers, an organisation that creates pathways for Indigenous young Australian adults to attend and graduate from university and gain industry experience. In addition to financial support for these organisations, Salesforce leaders like Angelica volunteer to run programs, such as Design Thinking, in a fun and entertaining way (think Zombie Apocalypse scenario games!).

Angelica has drawn a great deal of inspiration from Pip Marlow’s leadership. One of Pip’s core leadership goals is to create a space of psychological safety so people feel they can speak up and ask her absolutely anything without fear. Angelica is passionate about bringing this energy to her team, and for her, it all starts with open communication. The team sits down regularly to discuss what they want to start, stop and continue, which then becomes a social contract outlining the best way to thrive as a team.

As our conversation draws to a close, one message Angelica wants to ensure others hear is the value of your tribe. For Angelica, this means finding mentors you can trust and talk openly to. Gone are the days of women needing to compete for only one spot at the table. We need to be working harder to lift each other up.

If you would like to learn more about the other finalists then click this link.