Like it

7/4/2022

Unleash Female Tech Talent: Co-creating a manifesto for more Diversity & Inclusion in IT

Joining forces, bundling energies and creating momentum. That was the spirit more than 30 professionals from Beiersdorf and external companies created at the “Unleash Female Tech Talent” event at the beginning of June. Like-minded enthusiasts from different departments such as IT, Diversity & Inclusion, Innovation, HR or Communications came together to realize a joint purpose: The co-creation of a manifesto on how to attract more women to the IT world and thus foster gender diversity and inclusion in tech.

We asked the co-creators what the event and manifesto meant to them?

As a young student I see the event as very eye-opening and very different perspectives of other people having the same interests and aims to bring diversity into the tech world. It’s very encouraging to see that people make an effort to better the surrounding that I am going to work in in the future.
Angelica Allieu, student Women’s Studies, HTW Berlin
Bringing together great people, thought leaders and creative minds and spend time
together on the cause of such an important topic truly fulfills me. Experiencing the high
dedication to create a desirable future for future tech talent and how to empower more
women to start a career in the Tech and IT areas was simply amazing.
Julian Kupfer, Communications Lead Beiersdorf Shared Services
I was invited as a storyteller to understand what is a narrative of women in tech and how the story of the barriers that women face in tech can lead to a new future and new vision of what it means to be a female in tech and what opportunities can exist.
Terrence Mickey, Narrative Strategist, Storyteller & Writer
We have talked for years (internal behind company walls, at events etc.), we nodded a thousand times, yet, the needle is moving too slowly, that’s why the need for this manifesto and an eco-system to accelerate the change we want to see was crucial. With this event we have proved together with our Beiersdorf partners and friends that joining forces, knowledge and energy can create something exceptional. Something that is bigger than the sum of all our single efforts together.
Andrea Teichmann, Head of Digital Innovation, Beiersdorf Shared Services

Beiersdorf being the host, the event kicked off with Annette Hamann, CIO of Beiersdorf and Managing Director BSS IT, welcoming all internal and external guests in the location of the evening: the SAP Data Space in Berlin. The first highlight was an inspiring panel discussion led by Annette Hamann, Marie-Eve Schroeder (Director of Sales DACH, Meta), Lea Vajnorsky (Associate, Russel Reynolds), and Faris Momani (Partner, Roland Berger), who shared their personal stories, perspectives, and experiences with the challenges they have faced related to D&I. Jeffery Lovejoy (Talent Acquisition Lead, Early Careers, Zalando SE) afterwards shared an encouraging success story of Zalando’s upskilling program that invests in untapped tech potential within the company by training women with diverse professional backgrounds.

The day continued with the core of the event: Within small groups the participants committed themselves to finding answers to the following questions:

What are the drivers for attracting more female talent to a career in IT?
What are the barriers?
Which actions need to be taken to change the status quo?
What is our desirable future?

Following a co-creation approach and running through several iterations, knowledge, experiences, perspectives, and creativity were bundled to understand what is needed to attract, retain, and facilitate growth of females in Tech & IT.

Together with our partners and friends, it was a very inspiring event where we worked in mixed teams in groups to look at what are the barriers to why female talent is not represented in the tech industry, what factors we should address and what actions we can take make this desired future a reality. We ended the session after just a few meaningful hours with a manifesto that will enable us to unleash female talent in the tech industry. We will now use this co-created manifesto to lead our newly established community and eco-system. We are already thinking about the next steps to keep driving the fantastic energy and momentum we created forward.
Annette Hamman, CIO Beiersdorf

What´s next?

To keep the momentum and bring the Manifesto to life a dedicated team within Beiersdorf together with the LEAD Network and our community of Co-Creators of the Manifesto will collaborate and commit to concrete actions. Stay tuned.

Read the manifesto here:

Unleash Female Tech Talent: Manifesto

Ready for the challenge?

Then apply now! One last tip: if the right opening isn’t available right now, simply activate our JOB ALERT. It will keep you informed and let you know as soon as there is a new opening in your desired area.
Find our current openings here

Related links

Caroline Bird

About the editor: Caroline Bird

With her passion for the digital world, Caroline is responsible for digital communications in the Corporate Communications team. This role not only includes managing Beiersdorf’s Corporate digital channels together with her team but also, she is responsible for amplifying Beiersdorf’s digital storyline, which is driven by superior skin care solutions and the people at Beiersdorf that fuel them.