MYOB tackles gender inequality with Male Champions of Change STEM

Leading tech company MYOB says a focus on dismantling barriers and providing workplace flexibility is at the core of creating a more inclusive employee experience.

It is celebrating one year of membership of the Male Champions of Change (MCC) STEM group, where MYOB joined a cohort of Australian business and government male leaders in STEM to focus on practical action to significantly increase women’s representation in STEM leadership roles.

MYOB chief executive officer Tim Reed says Australian businesses will not reach their innovation potential unless the full capabilities of women and men are harnessed within the workplace.

“As a technology business, we recognise a diverse workforce is a key competitive advantage. The same goes for our economy, which is why we need inclusive leadership to ensure women are supported to thrive at all levels of business.

“MYOB is just at the beginning of our journey. We’ve committed ourselves to challenging traditional gender roles in our business and taking real action in the pursuit of gender equality in the workplace,” said Mr Reed.

“A diverse workplace is a key competitive advantage”

Tim Reed, CEO MYOB

Gender equality is an urgent issue

Male Champions of Change Convener Ann Sherry said the MCC group provides a space for male leaders to identify ways to shift mindsets in their operations and share learning on effective strategies to support diversity.

 “Tackling gender inequality in our economy is an urgent challenge,” said Ms Sherry. “Women make up only 16 per cent of those with STEM qualifications, yet 75 per cent of all future jobs will require STEM skills. MYOB’s efforts, particularly in promoting women in the tech sector, have shown positive results towards creating a more vibrant workforce” says Sherry.

In its first year, MYOB has engaged with a range of team members across its business, identifying barriers preventing women from progressing in STEM.

Normalising flexible work

MYOB Chief Employment Experience Officer Helen Lea says the business is dedicated to accelerating the representation of women in leadership positions.

“We realised that although we encourage flexible working practices, some women, and men, still felt they needed to ‘hide’ their agreed working arrangements, fearing it would inhibit their development opportunities and ability to progress in the company.

“We also identified that support through the middle years of a woman’s career is critical to successfully building senior female leadership in our organisation.”

Gender targets create significant change

Ms Lea says, one year in, she is delighted with the progress made.

“So far we’ve increased the proportion of our workforce accessing paid parental leave by 8 per cent, and met our target of 40 per cent hires of women in entry level engineering roles.”

MYOB is supporting in other areas too, including initiatives like ‘DevelopHer’, which includes a 360–hour paid internship program to re-skill women who are seeking to become software developers.

Ms Lea said that talent in the technology sector was in high demand, and it was important to ensure that initiatives were in place to increase the representation of women.

“In some recruitment campaigns, fewer than one in eight applicants for developer roles are female – and this is reflected across the industry.”

Helen Lea, Chief Employee Experience Officer MYOB

“Our membership of the Male Champions of Change STEM group isn’t just about making our workplace a more inclusive environment. It’s also about understanding some of the inherent challenges in our education, training and organisational structures which limit opportunities and hold us back from achieving our potential,” said Ms Lea.

The Male Champions of Change Initiative covers business and government workplaces that collectively employ 726,401 people, representing 5.97 percent of the Australian workforce.

More information about the Male Champions of Change can be found at:  www.malechampionsofchange.com

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For further comment or other information please contact:
Amy Kirkwood, Australian PR Manager, MYOB
M: 61427 822 088 / E: amy.kirkwood@myob.com

About MYOB
MYOB Group Ltd (ASX: MYO) is a leading cloud based business management solutions provider. It makes business life easier for approximately 1.2 million businesses across Australia and New Zealand by simplifying accounting, payroll, tax, practice management, CRM, job costing, inventory and more. MYOB provides ongoing support via many client service channels including a network of over 40,000 accountants, bookkeepers and other consultants. It is committed to ongoing innovation, particularly in cloud computing solutions, and in 2015 was awarded the BRW award for the most innovative large company for 500+ employees and placed 2nd in BRW’s Most Innovative Companies Award list across all categories nationally. For more information, visit http://investors.myob.com.au/Investors or follow @MYOB on Twitter.