Accenture Slovakia has recently received the Gold level certificate of the European Digital Women Diversity (DiversIT) Charter. The Gold level certificate recognises the recipient as being a leader in achieving gender equality in IT professions.
Arnheiður Guðmundsdóttir, Managing Director of the Icelandic Computer Society and the leader of the assessment panel, said: “We were very impressed with how much Accenture Slovakia is doing. Their active involvement, both financial and expert, in educational, up- and reskilling initiatives, and their powerful women in tech ambassadorship activities encourage girls and women to pursue studies and careers in IT. And their extremely sound and thorough internal diversity and inclusion policies and practices are exemplary and help increase retention of female employees in tech roles. We hope that many other companies will follow in Accenture Slovakia’s footsteps.”
Accenture is a multinational professional services company that specialises in information technology (IT) services and consulting. Accenture has locations all over the world, but its Slovakia branch is the first to receive the DiversIT certificate. Accenture Slovakia creates, funds and participates in a wide variety of projects and initiatives to increase the number of women in technology. Some of the most notable initiatives are “Summer in IT”, an internally funded 9-week programme for women to acquire new IT skills, the “Women IT Academy” and other programmes in partnership with the NGO ‘AjTyvIT’, providing scholarships and mentorship programmes for female students of computer science at the Slovak Technical University, and many others. Accenture Slovakia also actively acts as an ambassador for women in tech in local and European conferences and in the media, and shares its knowledge and best practices with the entire Accenture ecosystem. Accenture Slovakia has many internal programmes and initiatives to support and encourage women in its technical roles, such as a diversity charter, upskilling programmes, pay equality, women’s support and mentoring groups and a training programme for women returning to work after childcare breaks, as well as a very detailed and thorough diversity and inclusion strategy, including support from male colleagues.
Tomas Volek, Country Managing Director for Accenture Slovakia and Hungary, said: “Accenture in Slovakia has been devoted to inclusion and diversity in its workplace for a long time and I am especially proud to say that we have been the pioneers of several initiatives and topics in the Slovak public debate. Gender equality has been at the heart of our I&D efforts for a long time; for instance our latest achievement in this area has allowed us to quickly create, in cooperation with our NGO partners, a tech upskilling program for Ukrainian refugees. With inclusion always being the driving force, we have implemented many projects such as equality of family benefits, going far beyond the local law for the rainbow families, or created a framework for inclusion of employees on the autism spectrum. To ease our colleagues’ return to work after parental leave, we’ve introduced a project built around work flexibility tools and psychological support. I strongly believe that commitment to inclusion and diversity unleashes innovation and creates a culture where everyone feels they have equal opportunities.”
About DiversIT Charter: The DiversIT Charter, developed by the Women in ICT expert group of the Council of European Professional Informatics Societies (CEPIS), is a certification based on a three-stage roadmap to help organisations achieve leadership in these areas. Bronze, Silver and Gold certifications of the Charter are awarded to organisations which can show that they have activities and focus on this area. The levels build upon each other until, at Gold level, recipients are seen as thought leaders in encouraging more women into the field.
