The biggest telecom companies in the UK signed a pledge back in June to boost female representation in their organisations. The companies included BT Group, Openreach, Sky, TalkTalk, Three, Virgin Media O2, and Vodafone.
Today, Ofcom said that these companies were joined by CityFibre, GCHQ, the National Cyber Security Centre, and Zen Internet who have all signed the pledge too. As a result of the pledge, the signees will increase senior representation of women in tech-based roles over the next three years and bring more women into their organisations more generally.
While bringing women into a company may be easier, getting them to stay, if there is a sexist culture, could be a bit more tricky. To ensure that the workplaces are suitable for women to get on with their work, the organisations will share their good practices and release performance information to see how well they achieved their aims based on their own diversity and inclusion strategies.
Ayshea Robertson, People and Culture Director at Zen Internet commented on the company signing the pledge. She said:
This is an absolute critical issue and I am looking forward to working with other industry leads to shift the dial on gender equity in telecoms. This, and indeed all Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) matters, are so important to us, and we will do our best to continue to improve things in Zen and the sector at large.
The Ofcom pledge is a great start to driving cross industry collaboration, but we now need to see proactive action on the back of this as that will be key to making a difference.’
According to Ofcom, the telecoms sector in the UK has historically been male-dominated, especially in the senior tech-based roles. With the pledge, the regulator and the organisations want to make the gender profile of the companies a bit more balanced so that women can bring their own unique insights to the businesses.
Source: Ofcom