Colt CEO Keri Gilder discusses importance of diversity data

Colt Technology Services marked International Women's Day (IWD) by highlighting a panel discussion attended by CEO Keri Gilder at recent FTSE Women Leaders Review event.

"We don’t just mark International Women’s Day. We move. The findings speak for themselves: our progress on gender representation isn’t just intention, it’s impact," said Colt.

"We ranked. 4th among the 50 largest private companies for Women on Boards and 6th among the 50 largest private companies for progress on Women in Leadership. These rankings reflect the people at Colt who keep challenging norms and building a culture where women lead," added Colt.

Adopting a strategic mindset

During the insightful panel discussion, Keri shared how Colt turns intent around diversity and inclusion into meaningful change.

"You can't look at this as a HR initiative. You have to look at it as a strategic imperative. The minute you change that mindset at the very top, then you start to represent it throughout the organization," explained Keri.

Setting metrics and targets

For Keri, changing workplace culture starts with setting metrics.

"If you start measuring and reporting on diversity, equity, and inclusion, then the culture changes within the organization as far as believing that it is a performance metric towards your business outcomes. At Colt, we set targets across the entire organization and every single manager holds that target. Because of that, we do make progress. We measure it, we report on it, and we create the initiatives - the policies, the decision-making, the promotion, and the attraction of different employees," commented Keri.

Discussing tech hiring

Keri also shared some advice for those wanting to hire in tech.

"The majority of the roles that women come into are customer service roles. Unfortunately, with AI and some of the tooling that's coming out, those are the roles that are most at risk. My recommendation is to put programs in place, like Colt's Aspire to Tech. You need to think about talent development to make sure women are represented in the role that are going to matter in the future," advised Keri.

Diversity of thought is key

Keri outlined important considerations for leaders wanting to continue innovating.

"The problem is that there's less than 30% of the data in the world about diverse people or created by diverse people, whether that's women or people of color or otherwise. As we go into the future, we have to have our eyes wide open to think about how we're using data, and what data is being used to make the right decisions for the business to enable this younger generation to come into the pipeline," said Keri.

"We need more women, we need more diverse talent that's actually creating the data. If we're eliminating them from the very start of that then that if fundamentally problematic. So we have to rethink the starting position for talent regardless of where it's coming from and what area of the business you actually need it in. Innovation only comes when you have diverse thinking. We've seen it time and time again, where we are the leading the competition and being copied by some of the bigger companies because we have the diversity of thought," added Keri.

Role models are key

Towards the end of the discussion, Keri highlighted essential leadership aspects that drive an inclusive workplace.

"It's all about role modelling. Your organization will take the lead from the very top. Role model listening and make sure that it's not only what you listen to but who you listen to, and then how you make decisions against that information that you're getting. Those signals are sent strongly across the organization when you make sure that the voices that are important to the organization are heard and acted upon. Listening is something that all of us have to learn," explained Keri.

Watch the full conversation here.