Female entrepreneurs pledge for parity

Jo Schneider Intl Womans Day

In the lead up to International Women’s Day female entrepreneurs are asking their male counterparts and SMEs to embrace flexible working

We are pledging for the creation of flexible and inclusive cultures as part of International Women’s Day #PledgeforParity this year. We will be championing change among fellow business owners as we demand that flexible working be fully embraced by fellow male and female entrepreneurs and small to medium sized businesses.

I am a passionate advocator of creating inclusive and flexible cultures. With a growing workforce of 12 staff – 10 of whom are women – we have created an environment that is extremely flexible for women, meaning our staff are able to ‘lean in’ to their careers rather than having to opt-out when they start having a family.

At DVE when a new staff member joins, they, along with management, mutually decide on the individual’s core hours and then they can work flexibly around these. The team work off timesheets and we have the best tech set-up so that it’s both easy for employees and management to track hours and manage their time as effectively as possible. The team all use a network of apps on their phones and desktops, including Asana and Teamwork to track projects, milestones and deadlines as part of our busy consultancy.

It is a well-known fact that increased diversity in the workplace increases profits, in fact a recent study of 22,000 publicly listed companies revealed that 30% of female executives make as much as six percentage points more in profits. Our flexible work place policy is just one way we, as a business, can attract the best talent to our workforce, be they male or female.

As someone with a busy schedule full of travel, new business meetings, conflicting demands and lots of extra-curricular activities flexibility is a priority for me. I have created a structure for the business which ensures this value impacts everyone in our business and that work and life is balanced as best as possible.

It’s also give and take, as I know when our team is under the pump they’re happy to get stuck in as part of a trusting and strong team culture. As a business improvement consultancy team culture is something that DVE advocates to our clients on a daily basis, so we’re ‘walking the talk’ too, showing the amazing results you can get when you invest in each and every individual.

Jo Schneider, CEO, DVE Business Solutions