International Women's Day 2021

Version 1 seeks the best person for every role – this means the person whose skills best match the job and who can best further our Mission and live our Core Values. We have a wonderful variety of people and cultures across our organisation and we look to celebrate that whenever we can. We aim to go above and beyond to ensure that the women in our workforce are treated fairly when it comes to pay, recognition, training and promotion opportunities; where they can take the time off they need to attend to childcare or other family commitments; and where they are encouraged, empowered and supported to do their best work.

In light of this, International Women’s Day is always a key celebration in our calendar. Today we celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women – while also acknowledging a call to action to help forge a gender-equal world. The 2021 theme, #ChooseToChallenge, is focused on remaining alert and encourages everyone – women and men – to call out gender bias and inequality. Today is focused on accepting challenges in order to develop change, challenge stereotypes, fight bias, broaden perceptions, improve processes and celebrate women’s achievements.

At Version 1, we focus on making our workplace a more diverse and inclusive environment for all every day. Since launching our Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Programme, one of Version 1’s key focuses has been to increase the number of women working here. As anyone working to advance gender-balance and diversity in their organisation would know, it’s notoriously slow to implement major changes in achieving balance. However, we are delighted that we have seen a marked increase since we began our journey and we are committed to creating an equal workplace for all. Positive statistics from our efforts include:

• 95% of our staff agree that people at Version 1 are treated fairly regardless of their gender, age, race or ethnic origin, sexual orientation or disability.
• 88% of Version 1 staff agree with the statement “I am treated as a full member here regardless of my position”.
• 67% of senior management promotions went to women over the last year.
• Over 35% of our internal rotations were female employees in the last 12 months, opening up new opportunities for women across the business.
• Our Shadow Board aimed to be a bridge to inclusivity with 46% of its members being female in 2020.

You can follow our 2021 virtual celebrations below.