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Equality and Diversity

What does it have to do with technology? A lot, if you ask us at Together Tech. In fact, there are clear indications that the more equal and diversified work groups are, the better the final products.

Here you can read about Together Tech's ambitious goal to form a more equal and diversed workplace in order to develop technology for a better world.

Sweden has come further than most other countries when it comes to gender equality and diversity, but this does not mean that you can rest. On the contrary, there is still a lot to do and the reasons are more than the purely political.

Annika von Hofsten have work at Together Tech as Manager Software Development. 2020 she also took the position as Head of Diversity & Equality, in many ways a dream role for Annika:  

"I've been passionate about these issues all my adult life, so it fits me really well."

Ann

A work from scratch

Annika's work began with an internal survey on management level to determine the current situation and what challenges lay ahead of them. Soon, the working group realized that it is primarily about creating a common knowledge base about why gender equality and diversity is important. If not everyone has the same starting point, it is difficult to create constructive discussions. The decision was made to invest in education and creative workshops. New policies and inclusive processes were also introduced.

- A policy that is in the foreground is about the gender distribution in teams and units. According to the Swedish Agency for Gender Equality, it is considered an even gender distribution if the proportion of women and men in a group is within 40/60 percent. Today, the general gender distribution at Together Tech is about 35/65 percent. Our deadline to fall within the scope is set for the end of 2023. The important thing is to get the message across and that everyone is working towards the same goal.

How is the work received?

Together Tech takes these issues seriously. We keep it in mind when recruiting, during the onboarding and we do our best to keep it on the agenda in everything we do. We, like everyone else, have certain areas in which we can improve and work continuously to ensure that all our employees have a common knowledge base and steer in the same direction. 

- The more diversified a working group is, the greater the chance that the final product will be targeted to a larger group of users. Mixed working groups are needed in terms of experience, gender, age, ethnicity, and so on. If a team is too homogeneous, the end product risks being developed for an audience similar to the workgroup. Of course, this is not something that happens deliberately, but the end result risks being limited.

Group

An industry with equality challenges

Today we see a majority of men in the engineering industry. The proportion of women among all newly graduated engineers is 35 percent in Sweden, and the proportion is even smaller in certain specific areas of technology, such as electronics and software development, two of Together Tech's main areas.

So there's a lot to do. We see a certain general interest from women from other countries to come to Sweden and work, because we have a reputation for being more equal than other countries. Unfortunately, this does not cover the entire need either on the market at large or internally at Together Tech.

Therefore, it is important that the work continues. We at Together Tech do our best to keep these issues in mind in all situations, for example when recruiting. It can be anything from how we formulate and express ourselves in our job advertisements to where the ads are placed. We also work on the issue on a higher level where can have influence by, for example, getting involved in initiatives such as IGEday (Introduce a Girl to Engineering day) and participating in fairs and events that aim to increase the proportion of women in the industry.

We also do our best to live up to our core values and work hard to create the most inclusive business possible.

- It's easy to stare only at the goals, but the important thing in this context is to keep going! To do what you can, BECAUSE you can. We at Together Tech have come a long way and are doing our best to create as inclusive a business as possible. We work for a better world, and our work is a very good example of that!

Sunny people

Do you want to know more about how we work with equality and diversity? Contact us!

Annika von Hofsten
Annika von Hofsten
Manager Software Development, Head of Equality & Diversity
Kristina Tollbo
Kristina Tollbo
HR & People
Thomas Steindahl
Thomas Steindahl
Chief Innovation Officer