We gave featured business leaders of issue 52 the final word in answering “How do you encourage diversity in the workplace?”
Fabrizio Allegra, General Director, Tirreno Power
“Unfortunately, at least in Italy, the power generation sector is not a good benchmark in terms of diversity. This is the effect of what happens in our country where less than 15 percent of graduated women have a degree in STEM subjects. Nevertheless, at Tirreno Power currently more than one out of five of our managers are women. At the same time, to tackle this issue, thanks to the recent turnover, we have increased the number of women by about five times compared to personnel leaving the company.
“Our collective agreement provides for a series of rather advanced protections for female workers. Nonetheless, we are going to go beyond these indications through some specific project dedicated to give greater value and visibility to our female employees. We have also recently launched a new organisational unit dedicated to corporate welfare with the aim of identifying remarkable initiatives to improve the well-being of the people who, every day with their work, build the future of Tirreno Power.”
Ioana Boghenco, General Manager, Interbrands Orbico
“Our organisational strategy is also based on diversity. At Interbrands Orbico we offer equal chances for growth and development to all our colleagues who are motivated and wish to reach their maximum potential. Promotions from within take priority ahead of external hiring, and our organisation is young and diversified. The average age is 35 years with a 46 percent women and 54 percent men split. The same equilibrium is found at management level, with 42 percent of women in leading roles. We offer continuous support, and we respect all our employee’s family priorities, we try to find the right solutions to enable them to grow in their careers while having sufficient time for their families. If our people are happy the business results will come naturally.”
Ruedi Ryf, CEO, Swiss Blue Salmon
“At Swiss Blue Salmon, we embrace and celebrate our differences – differences in experiences, backgrounds, and ways of thinking. We strongly believe that diversity fosters innovation and creativity, and leads to better business. Currently, we are looking for a woman with a background in the Swiss food industry to join our board of directors.”
Michael Davies, Chief Marketing Officer, KNF Flodos AG
“I think it’s a real pity that there are far less women involved in the engineering business than there should be. We have a lot of women working in production or in HR at present, but in the engineering department and in sales, it seems harder somehow to be accepted as a woman, so that’s something that I think should be pushed more in the future and really needs to change quickly.”
