Talent Acquisition

Uplifting Women

Hewlett Packard Enterprise has increased its female representation through a combination of hiring, development, benefits, and culture initiatives.

By Marta Chmielowicz

Hiring teams across the world are putting serious effort into optimising their diversity hiring strategies. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is one company with a proven track record of success -particularly in Asia. Thanks to its numerous diversity and inclusion (D&I) initiatives, the organisation has created a culture where women know they will be supported.

Reducing bias during the hiring process has been a major priority, with HPE continuously evolving new strategies for inclusion by setting diversity goals and training hiring managers and recruiters in active inclusion methodologies. The company’s talent acquisition and HR teams partnered to build a structured process for diversity hiring, establishing weekly meetings for data-driven diversity conversations and setting expectations for hiring teams. Requirements were set that each hiring manager must review at least one diverse candidate prior to making a hire and at least one diverse interviewer must be involved in the process.

Attracting diverse candidates has also become a key focus, with HPE launching social media marketing campaigns in partnership with large female-focused professional organisations to increase the diversity of its talent pipeline. Employee resource groups (ERGs) are also leveraged to provide blog and video content used in diversity recruitment marketing campaigns and diversity outreach programmes.

This has significantly increased the levels of diverse hiring from 25% in January 2020 to 45% today. India is hiring female candidates at 13% above market representation; Japan is averaging 17% above market representation; and China is 37% above market representation, with a female population that is nearly 65% of the entire workforce. Time to fill across the organisation has also decreased from 83 days to 49 days, and hiring managers report satisfaction rates of 93%.

In addition to its hiring efforts, HPE has introduced culture and development programmes to support women’s career growth in the organisation:

  • Internal women’s networks and ERGs often bring in speakers to share productivity strategies, discuss work-life balance, and build a strong community for the female workforce in the region.
  • HPE’s India branch has rolled out targeted leadership development programmes focused on senior-level employees to help develop female leaders for the future, setting ambitious targets for both hiring and promotion.
  • Japan has launched a two-day mentorship programme for female university students, pairing them with women leaders inside the organisation. This mentorship programme works in tandem with a targeted university hiring programme for new graduates.
  • HPE launched webinars focused on how women are balancing childcare, eldercare, and self-care whilst working from home throughout the pandemic. Women from across the region came together to share stories, support one another, and provide guidance on having open and honest conversations with their managers with the goal of finding creative solutions to ensure their well-being.
  • In Japan, the company has organised internal social networking events for women, recognising that women often have a hard time building community within the office.These have been well attended and showing great results in women empowering and supporting their female colleagues.

These strategies have enabled increased hiring, retention, and promotion of women within the organisation, allowing women to remain productive even as they balance personal and family commitments.

Tags: Talent Acquisition

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