Celebrating Women in STEM
We are celebrating Women in STEM with the stories of some of the extraordinary women who work at ADP.
As the headlines come out of Silicon Valley highlighting the adversity faced by many women working in tech, something different is happening at ADP. For the past six years, ADP has made DiversityInc's Top 50 Companies for Diversity. ADP is also one of the Working Mother 100 Best Companies for Multicultural Women, and one of the Anita Borg Institute's Top Companies for Women Technologists.
Here are some of the numbers based on ADP's US workforce in 2016:
- 85% of employees use some form of flexible work arrangement
- 58% of employees are women
- 56% of new hires are women
- 52% of promotions go to women
- 47% of managers and executives are women
- 21% of employees are multicultural women
- 18% of promotions went to multicultural women
- 7% of senior managers are multicultural women
Over several weeks in August and early September, I had the privilege of talking to some of the women who work at ADP and learning about their backgrounds, what attracted them to technology, how they came to ADP, what they love about their jobs, and the advice they would give to others. Some patterns emerged.
Almost all the women I spoke with have experienced discrimination, harassment, or at least being the "only one" during their education and careers. All of them feel ADP is a great place for women to work.
When I asked what it was like to be the only person of color, or woman, or Muslim, or any one of the unique characteristics of these amazing women, they all told me the same thing: "It's just the way it was." They found mentors, allies, and a way to see past the difficulties toward what they wanted to learn and achieve. Obstacles were a given and just another thing to navigate. It was only later, they began to understand that their challenges may have been harder.
When I asked what they loved about their work at ADP, their answers were also similar. There is always something new to discover, learn, and figure out. They love solving problems and making a difference for others. Whether it's developing an app so employees can compare changes in their paychecks, improving user experience with design, discovering new insights in ADP's 3 petabytes of data, finding solutions to complex business issues, or changing the organization itself to improve diversity, these women care deeply about their work and its effect on the organization, employees, and clients.
It has been an extraordinary experience learning and writing the stories of such brilliant, caring, funny, and assiduous women. We can't wait to share them with you.
ADP's Women in STEM series kicks off this week with a profile of Rita Mitjans, ADP Chief Diversity and Corporate Responsibility Officer. Several more inspiring articles will follow in the next several months.
