Today is International Women’s Day (IWD). As the Executive sponsor of VIOOH’s DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) committee, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to share some thoughts about this year’s theme, and why it’s just one of the DEI aspects that we focus on at VIOOH.

IWD is a celebration of women’s achievements and an effort to promote greater gender equity worldwide. In the UK, all-female-led companies represented 20% of all businesses in the UK in 2022, so whilst there has been an improvement from the previous level of 16% in 2018, clearly, there is still more equity to be achieved.

At VIOOH, we’re proud to have many talented women who work across the business and we foster a culture that celebrates everyone. 

• For example, there is Carrie Ward, our Operations Research Lead, who has used her masters in Applied Mathematics to design VIOOH's latest product features. Watch this space as these go live! 
  
  
• Denise Lashlley, Sarah Rennie, and Jasleen Kaur, on our blog for last year’s IWD day, discussed challenging assumptions and working in traditionally male-dominated departments: #BreaktheBias.
  
  
• We’ve also featured women from the Commercial side of the business within our “Day in the Life of…” series, including blogs from Partnerships Director - Shamini Moganadhass, Technical Solutions Manager - Laura Davies, and Product Training Specialist - Laura Richardson.

This year’s global theme of “#EmbraceEquity” is focused on building a more inclusive, collaborative culture where every employee feels valued and capable of achieving their potential. And whilst IWD happens once a year, I feel it’s vital to build strong foundations that sustain us throughout the year. 

Below are just some of the ways we as a company help #EmbraceEquity:

• Most recently, supporting and encouraging Business Development Manager Trish Tarson to step out of her comfort zone and speak at the Digiday Conference in New Orleans.
  
  
• At VIOOH, we want all voices to be heard, particularly in our hybrid working model. Therefore, our DEI team created an ‘effective and inclusive meetings’ guidelines, to help ensure everyone feels heard and to help hold everyone accountable. 
  
  
• As a company, VIOOH also wants to ensure that we are retaining talent and providing the right environment for all parents, regardless of gender. So, last year, the DEI committee worked with the People team to put in place a range of family-friendly policies. This included the option for shared parental leave and reworking our maternity and paternity policies to align with primary/birth parent and secondary caregiver roles, acknowledging that not every family makeup looks the same.
  
  

Finally, I’d like to end this blog by sharing an International Women’s Day video our DEI committee put together for this year’s theme - sharing what #EmbracingEquality means from a handful of employees across the company.