In this podcast, Shane Hastie, Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to Jossie Haines and Aneri Shah of Tile on the culture at Tile, mentoring, diversity & inclusion and retaining women in technology.
Key Takeaways
- Genuine collaborative and supportive cultures don’t just happen
- Corporate values need to be real to people, so they feel able to live them every day
- Looking at diversity and inclusion is not a stand-alone activity – you need to address all aspects of the employee experience
- Mentoring is important because under-represented groups tend to have the most challenges in the workplace and a proven way to help them achieve success is to provide them with mentors and sponsors
- 56% of women leave the tech industries after 10-20 years due to their treatment in the workplace – this has to change and we know what to do to change it
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Show Notes
- 00:38 Introductions
- 01:05 Building the world’s largest location finding network
- 02:34 Describing the authentic collaborative culture at Tile
- 02:57 The types of programs that Tile runs to encourage and build the culture
- 03:17 Explaining the whole-company exercise to redefine the core values
- 03:59 Listing and explaining the Tile core values:
- Start with trust
- Bring it!
- Build what matters
- Better together
- Power what’s next
- 05:24 The values are real to the people – they deliberately practice them every day
- 05:32 Value awards enable people to recognize their peers and colleagues
- 06:08 Ensuring that it’s not just lip-service
- 06:28 Jossie’s experience leading diversity and inclusion for Tile and how the core values support diversity and inclusion
- 06:55 Looking at diversity and inclusion is not a stand-alone activity – you need to address all aspects of the employee experience
- 07:24 Explaining the reason for and background to the mentoring program at Tile
- 08:16 Mentoring is a passion for Josie
- 08:43 Mentoring is important because under-represented groups tend to have the most challenges in the workplace and a proven way to help them achieve success is to provide them with mentors and sponsors
- 09:14 Tile has ~42% women in their workforce
- 09:33 Describing the monthly group mentoring sessions which are part of the mentoring program
- 10:17 The key things needed to create a great mentoring program
- Ensure your matching process develops good matches
- Set up a good training process for both mentors and mentees
- 11:23 Stats on the first cohort of mentoring pairs
- 11:48 The mentorship contract between mentor and mentee
- 12:31 It’s not just teaching the mentee, it’s giving them a chance to practice what they’ve learned
- 12:42 Explaining what the mentor gets out of the relationship
- 13:18 By being a mentor you are developing skills needed for better leadership
- 13:58 The challenge and discipline needed from the mentee in order to ensure they get the best from the relationship
- 14:28 The mentee needs to be willing to listen to feedback
- 15:05 The importance of safety and trust in the mentor-mentee relationship
- 15:48 The challenges that women in technology face and the high proportion of women who leave the tech industry
- 16:18 Examples of the way women in technical roles are treated
- 17:08 The importance of having women in technology to ensure that products are built for women and by them
- 17:23 Asking Siri about sports as an example of the bias against women in technology products
- 17:43 56% of women leave the tech industry after 10-20 years
- 18:03 Things that are needed to create the right environment for women to be successful
- An inclusive, supportive environment
- A supportive boss or sponsor
- Internal resilience
- 18:34 Resilience is a skill that can be learned
- 18:48 This is not just a women’s issue – men need to step up, sponsor, mentor and create the diverse environments that are needed
- 19:04 Men need to call inequality when they see it happen – even if there aren’t women in the room at the time
- 19:38 Encouraging women not to leave tech, but to find organisations with supportive environments - they do exist today
- 20:48 Resources for men who want to be more proactive – the book and newsletter Better Allies; Project Include website
- 21:40 Josie’s new podcast – Retaining WIT
- 21:52 Book - Brave, not Perfect
Mentioned:
- Tile
- Apple
- Book – Better Allies
- Karen Catlin newsletter
- Project Include
- Retaining WIT podcast
- Book – Brave, not Perfect
- Josie on LinkedIn and Twitter
- Aneri on LinkedIn
- InfoQ DevOps Trends Report
