Best Practice by SIX
BUSINESS GROWTH THROUGH DIVERSITY
Pia Meinzer
Head of Talent Acquisition at SIX
Diversity strengthens our innovative capacity and directly contributes to our business success, resulting in transforming the financial markets and the company’s growth targets due to new business opportunities. In 2021 SIX introduced the SPI Gender Equality Index, which measures the performance of Swiss companies, which are selected by the number of women in their top management. We are focusing on multiple, innovative activities to attract a more diverse workforce. Crucially we are fostering unity at all management levels to build an inclusive culture where all people can thrive.
This best practice was first published in the Gender Intelligence Report 2021.
read the report
Information is at the heart of decision making. For nearly 100 years we have been delivering reliable financial information forming the basis for analyses and risk assessments. In the area of diversity, we don’t have quite as much experience with comparable data streams and with modelling developments, but we wanted to align our core business activities with our D&I Strategy. With the SPI (Swiss Performance Index) Gender Equality Index, we contribute toward greater transparency and comparability regarding diversity on the boards and management committees of Swiss companies. The SPI Gender Equality Index is the first index of its kind for the Swiss market: To be included, companies must be amongst the largest 100 SPI companies and have between 20% and 80% women on the board of directors and between 15% and 85% women on the management board.
We have to be honest: SIX would not make the cut to the index, but we are focusing more and more activities to increase our diverse workforce. Since this year we set at Executive Level the strategic target of growing the percentage of women in combined middle and top management to a minimum of 25% by 2023.
We are still in the early stages, and, like all change, this is not a temporary endeavor, but a long-term commitment. Therefore, our activities continue because we are convinced that diversity is a key lever for our future success. Our growth strategy and innovative ability depend on our exploring new ways of thinking forward in a complex world.
At SIX we approach diversity on different levels internally to attract a more diverse workforce. The basis is an inclusive culture we live at SIX, especially with our values: collaboration, trust and ownership. Our culture sets the framework for workshops and training sessions to draw attention to biases, the impact of inclusive language, and changes to our own HR processes – for example our new recruitment process to attract more women to SIX, which featured as an Advance Best Practice in 2020.
Unconscious biases could have an impact in the employee lifecycle or in recruiting new employees. Often, we are unaware that biases exist, and therefore fail to address them. Last year, working with our hiring managers, we raised awareness of the importance of unbiased communication and what it means for the talent acquisition process. This year we took it to the next level and set up an e-learning module for all hiring managers. This includes how to write unbiased job ads by using different wordings and content, and tips on how to attract more women and be aware of biases and how to counteract them.
This year, we took the opportunity afforded by International Women’s Day to devote an entire week to the topic of diversity. Organized by our internal Gender Diversity network, a week of panels, workshops and training sessions was carried out, with the aim of informing and involving our employees. Discussions and exchanges of personal experiences took place through direct interaction with industry leaders, experts, and other employees. Diversity Week, involving more than 440 participants from all SIX locations, contributed significantly toward helping shape diversity at SIX.
Within the company, one result of the Diversity Week was that in addition to the Gender Diversity network, an LGBT+ network was established: A vital step and tangible outcome benefiting our employees.
It’s just as important to create networks outside the company as it is to establish exchange internally. We are a member of Advance- Gender Equality in Business and cooperate with Global Digital Women (GDW), in conjunction with the FemBiz Award.
We love promoting acceptance for diversity and expanding the opportunities for diverse talents to join SIX. Through our Graduate Program this year, we aim to achieve a female participation rate of at least 50%.
Additional examples are the Powercoders program and the IT internship for those changing careers.
The non-profit organization Powercoders arranges IT internships for migrants at renowned companies. Through Powercoders we were able to ensure several IT internships, one for example for a mother of three children. We also introduced IT internships for experienced women who have proven work experience in other fields and want to make a lateral move into IT. This program offers value for all involved. For the participants it is a chance to change careers and learn, build a valuable network, and develop skills that are becoming more and more necessary and relevant in all industries and for SIX it is a chance to attract female talents in IT.
Diversity strengthens our innovative capacity and directly contributes to our business success, resulting in transforming the financial markets and the company’s growth targets due to new business opportunities. We strive to reach our goal of 25% women at combined middle and top management levels. If we reach this, our talent pipeline is ever stronger to reach true gender balance in senior leadership roles.
Learn more about our commitment to D&I by clicking the button below
Read more
If you would like to connect on any of the measures we are taking to increase gender equality and attract a more diverse workforce, please reach out to Pia Meinzer at pia.meinzer@six-group.com.
#breakthebias #leadfromthetop #measuringprogress #womenintech
How can you push gender equality in the right direction at a faster pace? At Bain, a sponsorship program is key for ensuring the top management pipeline and retaining female leaders.
48% of all PM Switzerland’s management level employees were women in 2020, smashing the target of 40% by end 2022.
Dow's Sponsorship Program is de-biased by self-nomination and busts the myth that 'there are no eligible women'
Change doesn’t happen overnight but by integrating top & grassroots initiatives @Citi successfully builds an inclusive culture.
