At Integrated Solutions, we are taking the steps to support more women in our industry. Currently over 25% of our staff are female, with 2 of those females representing management and director roles. We are continuously supporting more diversity in our workplace and will continue to shift the cultural representation of IT.
Prabhashni is our recently appointed Project Coordinator and has been with Integrated Solutions for 12 months. Prabhashni has been in many different roles throughout her career and has a lot of knowledge from her studies and experience in the technology field. With all this experience behind her, we decided to conduct an interview to get her opinion on women in the technology sector, diversity in the workplace, and the benefits she has noticed.
Q: What made you want to get into the field of technology?
A: I have always chosen to challenge myself and choosing this field was a challenge because I had no experience in this field, but I decided it was what I wanted to do. It has been a rewarding journey and I am satisfied with my achievements.
Q: Have you noticed any difference in workplace productivity and communication when there are females in the company compared to male dominated?
A: Definitely, I have worked in large businesses and there are certain functions that females seem to be thorough at. This is not to be used as a comparison, but I think having females in a company neutralises the culture and makes it a better place to work at.
Q: What are the positive impacts that females create?
A: Processes are better driven and followed, communication and negotiation with clients is better, business culture is positively impacted, and there is overall more acceptance of females.
Q: Do you think having more gender diversity is important for companies?
A: When I recruit, I recruit based on merit rather than gender. However I do agree that diversity makes for an all-round better work culture.
Q: How do you think we can encourage more females to join the industry?
A: I think the growth of technology is already driving more females to choose this field. The technology changes are impacting everyone to become tech savvy at some level which will help boost the career path to more females.
In this interview, Prabhashni goes on to tell us that in both her previous roles and current role at Integrated Solutions, she thinks having females on the team helps boost productivity, diversity, and overall company culture. Some of the main benefits in her opinion include, better processes, straight forward communication, high impact negotiation skills and more accepting work culture.
Research conducted by McKinsey, Julia Bear, and Anita Woolley can back up Prabhashni’s opinions on gender diversity in the workplace as Bear and Woolley have concluded that companies with more female staff are better at communication, sharing knowledge and skillsets between each other. Collaborating face to face on projects also becomes much easier when your organisation can open such an important line of communication. According to McKinsey, companies that have more gender diversity are 21% more likely to experience above-average profitability, and companies with more culturally and ethnically diverse executive teams were 33% more likely to see better than average profits.
At Integrated Solutions, we have noticed the positive impact that our female staff have had on our office culture and business influence. In addition to our management appointments, we are very proud to have multiple strong independent women in pivotal roles such as marketing, administration, and professional services. Having more diversity in our company has contributed more technical depth to our solutions offering and has been a catalyst for positive change to our overall engagement with the community. The gender diversity has also provided better communication between staff and client projects ensuring that all information is depicted correctly, and valuable partnerships are formed.
