International Women’s Day 2017: Women in the Changing World of Work

Every year on March 8th countries around the world celebrate International Women’s Day. Celebrations on this day can be traced back to the early 1900’s. “Women in the Changing World of Work: Planet 50-50 by 2030”, is this year’s theme, with the ultimate goal of fostering a world where sustainable development is achieved through gender equality and empowerment of women and girls. Leaders from across the globe agree that each country has so much to gain, in terms of economic development, if we empower our women and girls to unlock their full potential, as the UN calls it, “women’s economic empowerment”.

The UN has lead the way, and it’s up to employers around the world to continue the momentum. We’re not only indebted to women and the incredible work that they do, organizations have plenty to gain from a diverse workforce made up of engaged women and men from all walks of life!

This year’s celebrations at Ceridian are very dear to my heart because we’re using the occasion to celebrate women and diversity with our existing programs and launching a couple new initiatives.

Here are some ways to mark the day at your workplace!

Host a special event –We’re thrilled to be partnering with Ladies Learning Code to offer a ‘Learn to Code’ event. Our employees from across the globe will be learning about HTML and CSS and will create their own ‘love bomb’ – an inspirational note that they can share with a woman who’s made a difference in their life or career. Events don’t have to be too complex – whether you host a luncheon with a special guest speaker or offer to take your employees to a screening of a movie like ‘Hidden Figures’ – it’s the focus on women and their interests which matters. And, because people always ask, yes –our male employees are always invited to participate! Be sure to follow #CeridianCodes tomorrow to catch some highlights from the day!

Launch a women’s network – for several years we have proudly sponsored the ‘Ceridian Women’s Network’. The aim of this network is to support the professional development and growth of Ceridian’s female employees and to connect and inspire women across our global organization and in the communities we live in. Networks which bring women together to share experiences, create resources and plan programming can be easy to start – it really just takes a couple of people with time and passion for the topic. One of the things that has made our network so successful is the support and sponsorship of our most senior leaders. This kind of executive backing ensures that our initiative receives the financial and strategic support required to sustain it over time. Our customers back us too! Here’s Lainie Cooney, CHRO, DPI Specialty Foods presenting at our annual customer forum in Vegas!

Create a mentorship or sponsorship program – According to the #GoSponsorHer movement, women are drastically underrepresented in management roles across Canada, and while the numbers are slightly more optimistic in the US, overall the number of women CEO’s in North America is under 5%. Sponsorship programs like #GoSponsorHer are designed to move the needle on the numbers of women in leadership positions by matching women with Sponsors who will actively “engage in their career advancement and commit to their success.” Ceridian is very proud to be launching this initiative on International Women’s Day with a dozen of our Executive leaders Sponsoring a woman within our organization. Not only will these partnerships highlight the need for supporting women in growing their careers, but we believe that it will positively impact our organization’s growth as well.

We’re always happy to share our experiences, if you’d like to talk about how to run with initiatives like these, please contact me at lisa.bull@ceridian.com

*Go Sponsor Her infographic: http://gosponsorher.com/