Only one-in-six tech specialists in the UK are women and only one-in-ten are IT leaders according to Women in Tech (www.womenintech.co.uk). These stats aren’t particularly optimistic for women hoping to make it, in this predominantly male dominated industry.
Although some ground has been made in the past decade, the UK lags behind its European neighbours in terms of women employed within the technology sector.
Claremont supports some of the most prominent companies in the UK with their Oracle E-Business systems, including Human Capital Management (HCM). One of the core elements of our managed services offering addresses the HR function, including pay and gender inequalities.
This is something we focus on for our clients, so it’s only right that we look at the same areas in our own business, and adopt a proactive attitude to the progression of women in IT.
Meet Janet Stirling-Paget – a female tech in a man’s world. Janet is a managed services Database Administrator at Claremont and joined the business 3 years ago. Janet has 2 boys aged 11 and 8, and juggles motherhood and a busy job working with multiple clients.
To help Janet manage the balance between work and home, Claremont offers flexible working arrangements for those that need it. This flexibility allows Janet to come into the office two days a week and work from home the rest of the time, allowing her to be available for her boys when she needs to be. Being an IT company, support and mentors are only a click of a button away and on joining Claremont, Janet was assigned a mentor so is able to spend one-on-one time with her mentor or receive assistance from any of the team, should she require it.
Janet in her own words compliments Claremont as she believes they’re different from other employers. She commented, “they actually care about the employees and provide support both in the work environment and personally”. She went on to say, “ I feel a real sense of accomplishment and recognition from both clients and Claremont when a job is successfully implemented and even though I work from home most of the time, I don’t feel isolated and I’m accepted by all my male peers.”
To build a viable future for women in IT, Claremont believes that there must be a shift in thinking. This shift is evident with some of the global brands such as Facebook, Apple, Google and Intel pledging to improve the future of women in IT.
At Claremont, we are committed to supporting our employees and people like Janet so that they can achieve the highest standards within a modern and progressive working environment. We believe in continuous improvement, employee recognition and rewards. The health and wellbeing of our employees, our most important asset is paramount.
Our commitment to employee wellbeing and the consistent working environment implemented as part of the company’s personnel policy has been recognised with the award of Gold status by Investors in People since 2011.