Testimonials
Results
In three years Telstra grew their women in management roles from 29% to 41%and their female management representation from 6% to 31%.
Another top 10 ASX company piloted our program with 45 women, 25% of whom successfully applied for a promotion while a further 9% applied for a promotion, took on a senior role in a relief capacity or moved sideways to build their careers within months of its completion.
At yet another Top 10 ASX company, they piloted our Mastering Gender Leadership program in one region and the success of that program has seen all 20 men volunteer to lead this program with their teams because they see this as such a critical business issue.
The success of these programs has seen our clients do multiple roll-outs year on year to build the capability of their staff, grow their talent pipelines and enhance their engagement efforts. Our successful clients understand that gender diversity is about cultural change and that cultural change requires critical mass.
What Executives & Diversity leaders say
“Our goals were to increase the number of promotions of women into more senior roles, and the program has really exceeded our expectations.”
Amber Ellen-Forbat
Head of Diversity,Commonwealth Bank – Retail Bank
ASX Top 10
In three years Telstra grew their women in management roles from 29% to 41% and women in executive positions from 6% to 31%. Both Catalyst and Telstra acknowledge that a key factor in Telstra’s award-winning success was the advice and programs of Australia’s leading gender diversity organisation, emberin. Over 3000 of Telstra’s female staff have undertaken emberin’s my mentor challenging women to step up program and 1000 of their men have done emberin’s my mentor, mastering gender leadership.
Troy Roderick
Head of Diversity & Inclusion,Telstra Corporation Limited
ASX Top 10
Women have taken considerable steps to advance their careers since completing the my mentor program. I encourage other organisations to consider implementing my mentor as a highly valued professional and personal leadership self-development tool to support their female employees in achieving and maintaining a satisfying and rewarding career.
Commander Jennifer Heymans
Navy Women's Strategic Adviser for Head Navy People and Reputation
“Women who do the my mentor program bring more of themselves to work -- and I don't mean in terms of time commitment, I mean in terms of level of engagement, level of confidence and commitment.”
Grahame Petersen
Group Executive, Wealth Management,Commonwealth Bank
ASX Top 10
CILTA and the ALC has been running the my mentor program to females in the Transport & Logistics industry as part of our Women Moving Forward. The program identifies what women want in their professional and personal lives and helps get them there. It has been an outstanding success.
Cilta
The my mentor program is fantastic value for money and has been instrumental in growing a number of our women across the business.
Natalie Moore
State Sales Manager, Development Division, Stockland
ASX Top 50
Would you be so kind as to pass on to Ms. Frank my thanks for her programme and the work that she is doing for women within our company and we, the men who have so much to learn and unlearn. May I also support and thank you for your work in this important (nay, critical) programme within our Corporation.
Name withheld
Benefits to women
- Ability for women to be given the opportunity to develop and advance core personal and professional skills, peer mentoring and networking
- Advancement of women through the following key areas:
- Stepping up to take on projects, higher duties, secondments
- Promotions into higher roles
- Personal satisfaction and achievement of personal and professional goals
- Self driving of careers and current roles with higher levels of satisfaction with current employer
- Alignment between a gender diverse employer brand and employee strategies
- Demonstration of initiatives to attract and retain women within the organisation.
Women who have done my mentor have transformed their lives in all facets - from gaining promotions; to winning new customers and business; to moving interstate for work; to losing weight; to starting a networking group; to stopping domestic violence – it has been powerful! In fact women who have done this program have proven to set themselves apart from other women in their organisation through increased performance and higher pay rises.
What women say
“I feel that I was able to gain a lot through the program both personally and professionally i.e. I felt more empowered in who I was as a women and was able to create a better understanding of my personal brand, what I excelled at, how I could approach issues from a different angle.”
“I think this is a highly valuable program and should be shared with as many women as is possible. It will lead to better internal networks, support of colleagues and a more positive productive work environment overall.”
“It made me take a good hard look at myself and what I want to achieve in my life. There is a sense of empowerment when you realise that your career is in fact your own responsibility. I particularly liked the section about asking for things and negotiation skills.”
“The biggest highlight for me was that this program offered an opportunity to make some real changes in my life. Taking time out and being armed with these simple self-assessment tools, I felt I could give myself permission to finally stop and assess where I was at, and then set a better plan for where I'd like to go! As a result my personal and professional goals have never been clearer. Also the flexible nature and variety of formats offered by the program was excellent, it meant there were no excuses for not finding time to do it!”
“I felt a lot of change in my attitude & the way I started looking at things once I started the program. I felt motivated & in turn my team was motivated everyday to perform better. Helped in planning my work & career. I liked all the modules & in particular, networking & personal brand. This program will help other women working in the same environment to step up for new roles. “
“I think one of the key benefits is that the program addresses so many different personal issues that all impact our work life e.g. our confidence, how we communicate, being able to ask for what we really want. The other key take out is the networking opportunities - the contact was on a more personal level than is possible in the 'normal' working environment. I think Stockland supporting the program also demonstrates that they support women and encourage us to move into senior roles within the business.“
“The program encouraged me to apply more discipline to the way that I approach my work and personal life “
“Motivation is the biggest thing I have learnt. It has also taught me to be aware of everything I say and do, and to look for opportunities in every moment. Appearance counts, networking is to your advantage, also look to the positive and push past fear. “
“There's one of the DVDs that talks about taking risks, taking calculated risks and talks about doing the best that you can and be the best you can be and don't put yourself off by pre-conceived ideas, "Oh, I can do that because I don't think I'm strong enough or I don't think I have the right capabilities.’ It's just really emphasising, well you know what, give it a go.”
Benefits to men
my mentor - Mastering gender leaderhips helps men appreciate what gender diversity can do for their organisation and how, by implementing gender diverse practices, they can become a well rounded 21st Century leader.
It helps men realise the role they can play in helping women grow their careers and specifically gives them skills on how to mentor women and how to grow a female talent pool. It also helps them to understand that working flexibly is a key business imperative
Importantly the program provides men with the skills and confidence to:
- become champions of gender diversity
- work with women as co-workers;
- develop female team members;
- work for a female leader (this includes understanding female challenges and modus operandi).
“It made me aware of my biases when I thought I was a very aware manager.”
“Key out-takes for me were: The presence of male "business" culture in work place. Key behaviour required is being active in helping Women in the work place understand that culture and how to manage it. I learnt more about the concept of mentoring to assist in overcoming barriers for women, and gained a better understanding of the blockers to women’s advancement.”
“This is going to take us from good to great.”
“As a member of the diversity group I have been able to use the principles as well as ensuring our team considers some of the key issues facing keeping working mothers in the workplace at a time when they are often cosidered a soft target for cost reduction.”
“I now understand this as a business imperative.”
“One stand-out for me was to keep an eye out for unconscious acts of potential discrimination which could emerge due to peer pressures and external influences and address them immediately.”
“I learnt greater tolerance for difference and listening to different perspectives.”
“Taking time to understand the impacts of poor diversity management was very worthwhile.”
“For me the communication modules I found had the most significant content and listened to them 4 times over the past couple of weeks. This is not just a course about women in our organistion, but identifies a key success element to any team, which is Diversity of Men/ Women, Age, Race, and experience.”
“Afterwards I reviewed the status of several woman in my team and encouraged their involvement in activities (by agreement).”
“Following this program I have implemented my own KPIs which include:
- Actively engaging in identifying women with potential for management roles
- Leading the gender diversity function in my area
- Identifying where potential glass ceilings exist with the current organisations and developing plans to resolve”
“I am now ensuring people indentified in succession plans for my direct reports in addition to being skilled are the same % as males and females in the extended group.”