To mark International Women’s Day 2019, Sodexo, a global services provider, held a special event at its London office to launch two new initiatives by Sodexo’s employee network group SoTogether.
SoTogether is Sodexo’s gender employee network, its aim is to foster a culture where enhancing women’s professional and personal growth contributes to the global success of the company and its communities.
The two new initiatives are:
SoTogether FM Hub
The SoTogether FM Hub, is a sub-group of the SoTogether employee network and is a global initiative with a very clear mission: to increase gender diversity in facilities management roles at Sodexo. The FM Hub will provide a community for employees to come together to learn about ways to advance in their careers and discover the resources open to them. A dedicated Yammer site will support the Hub. This is open to all Sodexo employees globally and offers a place for colleagues to go to for inspiration and advice from other Sodexo employees.
SheWorks
SheWorks is month-long global job-shadowing programme which pairs women who are interested in furthering their careers with Sodexo ambassadors who are passionate about driving gender balance in roles where there is an under-representation of women. The campaign is designed to raise awareness of facilities management and hospitality as an attractive career choice for women, foster networking and contributing to Sodexo’s 2025 objective of having 100% gender balanced teams.
Sarah Perry, HR Director, Sodexo UK & Ireland said: “We are passionate about promoting gender balance and seek to develop talented women to progress within the company. The SoTogether FM Hub and SheWorks programme are great ways to engage our colleagues and provide insights into career opportunities and roles that women may not have thought about before.”
In the lead up to International Women’s Day, Fiona Stewart, Sodexo’s Contract Director at Northumbria University and Megan Horsburgh, Head of Diversity and Inclusion Sodexo UK & Ireland, spoke at the IWFM’s Women in FM 2019 Conference which looked at Delivering FM Success through Inclusion. Their presentation explored Sodexo’s approach to driving gender balance and highlighted Sodexo’s global gender balance business case research which demonstrates improved business outcomes where gender-balanced management teams are present.
Megan Horsburgh said: “International Women’s Day provides a valuable opportunity to recommunicate our commitment to gender balance, the work we are doing to achieve this and how our colleagues can get involved”.
