<p>We're approaching gender equality on a number of fronts, both internally and externally.</p>
As a growing company every year we add new initiatives to support employees and place a greater emphasis on diversity and inclusion, including supporting women at work.
We recognise that data is a critical indicator of what works and what needs to improve, as such, this year we have increased our data collection and developed a structured exploratory process. This will enable us to create targeted driven actions to continue to reduce the gap. We have begun with our recruitment process and we are now collecting gender at the point of application.
Under our new CHRO we have invested in a number of new commitments, as well as continuing the good foundational work we have undertaken previously to address the pay gap, such as, flexible work opportunities and DE&I strategies.
This year we created our Learning and Development Council. Learning and development for our employees is understood as vital in our business. Not only because it increases engagement and decreases attrition but because it's the right thing to do for our people. We want to champion and support progression to give women the best opportunity to move forward.
Under the learner banner, our apprenticeship scheme continues to grow, with two new apprentices joining the company this year and other employees continuing professional development through the programme.
A comprehensive approach is needed to improve the tech skills shortage and increase the pool of female candidates for roles within the industry. Only 64% of schools in England offer GCSE Computer Science, girls now make up 22% of the cohort (2020 data). As a society we need to increase the number of women entering the tech labour market and ensure they have the right skills to do the tech jobs.
To help with skills, 8x8 is supporting the work of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. This UK-based charity seeks to enable young people to reach their full potential through the power of computing and digital creation.
This not only recognises and seeks to address the skills shortage in the IT sector, but also supports research to deepen the understanding of how young people learn about computing and related topics.
The Foundation has recently undertaken a number of studies into how girls learn digital skills, and they continue to inform the national curriculum.
We value the work of Tech Talent Charter (TTC) and support their mission by submitting our diversity data on an annual basis. The TTC is a non-profit organisation that is spearheading a movement to address inequalities in the UK tech sector and promote inclusion and diversity.
8x8 are proud sponsors of the London Women in Tech Conference which aims to inspire women into technology roles and is a valuable source of information for all within the industry.
This year we have placed an emphasis on culture within the business and are growing a number of programmes to support this such as raising awareness of issues around diversity, management training and recognition of our female champions.
We remain focused, transparent and committed to continuous evaluation.