How Bewsys is promoting a gender inclusive workplace

As an organisation that is focused on progressing the sustainable development goals, empowering women and promoting gender equality in our working environment is of high importance to us. 

In establishing an equal playing field in our organisation, we take intentional initiatives to incorporate gender inclusivity into the fabric of the company. 

At Bewsys, 42% of our employees are females. In achieving this, we created a company culture that embraces lifelong learning, self-exploration, and reflection to provide a working environment where everyone feels respected and valued. 

We understand that the tech industry does not attract and retain as many women, so we collaborated with Developers in Vogue (a community of African women passionate about encouraging young women in tech) to encourage and train young female developers in our internship programs.

Also, our Human Resource team employs strategies that prioritises eradicating unconscious gender biases in our recruitment processes and departmental communications. 

In announcing vacant positions or requesting for applicants, we restrain from indicating that a gender is preferred for a role. According to studies, this form of gender segregation in the labor market has limited women even if they have the required skills or qualifications. 

Concerning gender inclusive policies in the organisation, we are intentional about having diverse teams from the executive team to all administrative and technical departments in the organisation. It is also important to us that we have women at the fore of decision making. As such, our executive team has a male to female ratio of 2:1. Also, promotions and incentives are always based on progressive data that informs our decisions based on merit and performance rather than gender. 

As an organisation operating fully remote, all employees are empowered with autonomy over their jobs. Notwithstanding the benefits women enjoy from remote work. 

We also train our employees through diversity and inclusion courses in our on boarding process to have all employees in complete agreement with our organisation’s principles. Additionally, we provide maternity and paternity leave for genuine inclusion. 

Moreover, we benefit from our diverse talent pool in terms of greater innovation and creativity. This progress Bewsys has achieved encourages the achievement of SDG 5- gender equality.

Nonetheless, data from our HR department shows that the perception of tech roles being a man’s job still persists. 

“Women are more skewed to taking up roles that give them more flexibility. Certain jobs attract a certain gender. Either way, we have to be intentional about gender inclusion; that is the only way to eradicate unconscious biases and gender inequality.” - Anita Hammond (Human Resource Assistant)‍

As more modern organisations, embrace the voices of all employees regardless of gender, the ambitious goal of gender equality can be achieved.