Did you know that diverse companies are 45% more likely to improve their market share and are 70% more likely to capture a new market? Diversity in the workplace matters. Not only do diverse voices result in tangible business results but employees feel like they are represented among their peers.
Leading our Tech Women @Intuit initiative has been one of the most fulfilling roles of my career. I’ve been able to help build a program that offers women in technology roles, programs, and initiatives that support their success throughout every phase of their career.
Last year we set the goal to increase the number of women technologists in our organization and I’m proud that we achieved our goal of having women make up 30% of our technology organization.
Meeting our goal to increase women throughout the company, and in our technology organization, took meaningful planning and a commitment from all levels of the company to continue investing in tangible programs that allow women to grow and thrive at Intuit.
Building an inclusive environment supporting women
It’s important to be intentional about building initiatives and company policies built with women in mind. Our CEO, Sasan Goodarzi, is known for his passion for building an inclusive culture and he regularly reminds all of us that diversity is a fact and inclusion is a choice.
Equitable talent practices and policies, including a sustained focus on pay equity. We perform an ongoing pay equity analysis, conducted twice a year by an independent outside company. This analysis allows us to review each job code where there are enough employees to make a statistically significant comparison, and those employees have the same or similar job duties and compensation mix. As of this past August, zero of those job codes had statistically significant differences between employees of different gender or ethnicity.
Building a thriving community supporting technical women brought to life with engaging events like fireside chats and interactive workshops, mentorship and coaching, volunteer opportunities and more for women (and allies) to connect, learn, and build meaningful relationships throughout every level of the company.
Data transparency for all employees, powered by our internal dashboard, shares our company’s latest diversity, equity and inclusion data, including workforce demographics and progress on employee belonging and engagement. This data enables teams and managers to consciously think about building diversity of teams and make choices to improve the representation of different perspectives, experiences and characteristics.
Global programs empowering women technologists
Women face different challenges throughout the world. Our goal is to introduce and cultivate initiatives that address different challenges and support women to give them the opportunity and gain the experience they need to start their career in technology.
Intuit Again is our returnship program for technologists in India and the U.S. who took an extended leave from the workforce for caregiving purposes and return with a supportive on-ramp. To date, Intuit Again has reached more than 80 individuals with a global conversion rate to full-time roles of 68%, with an average retention rate of 82%.
Our Apprenticeship Pathway Program is a six-month software development apprenticeship program in partnership with AnitaB.org and Treehouse to increase the representation of women and historically excluded individuals in tech. As of this past June, 100% of apprentices passed the three-month coursework phase of the program and are now training alongside Intuit technologists with the goal of converting to full-time software development roles.
Fostering future talent
It’s not enough to cultivate and grow our existing talent. We need to do more to ensure female representation continues to grow within the tech industry and beyond.
Our summer immersion program with Girls Who Code helps increase the number of girls interested in technology, starting at an early age. This program actively helps close the gender gap while actively introducing girls to a career in technology.
Intuit Rise supports girls in India. For every woman who joins Intuit India, we sponsor educational support for at least one young girl. We have supported 310 girls since the program’s inception in 2017.
We must continue the fight for a more equal world for all women
Whether you’re an ally giving women a voice to speak up at work, a hiring manager pushing to interview more women for open roles, or mentoring women in the workplace, there’s a role for all of us to play as we build a better future for the generations of women to come. Learn more about our programs in our 2021 Corporate Responsibility Report.