A D,E&I (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) strategy for StepStone’s Product and Tech organisation

‘Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’ is something we want to take seriously at StepStone, beyond the buzzwords.

Not just as an employer of over 4,000 people worldwide that can improve employee experience, company culture and recruitment practices for themselves. But also as a key player on the recruitment market.

Each year, we help hundreds of thousands jobseekers start their careers, change jobs, support their families and lifestyles, and enable thousands of companies and recruiters find the best talent.

As a strong signal that StepStone commits to DE&I, I’ve been entrusted to oversee our DE&I strategy for the Product, Tech and Marketing (PTM) organisation. But what does that mean?

About my role

My professional background isn’t on DE&I. Neither it is Product or Tech. But over the years, working in content marketing and paying close attention to data and market trends, as well as the experiences of workers and colleagues, I developed a strong interest (and opinions!) for DE&I topics. Which led me, among other things relating to gender equality and workers’ rights, to develop and publish StepStone’s Gender Bias Decoders. And to notice that there’s so much more we can do (and should do) in that space.

My role as Senior Manager for our DE&I Strategy is, in a nutshell, to define how we’ll build more equal opportunities for all on the job market, and centralise and coordinate our activities connecting with, or focusing on Diversity and Inclusion.

I’ll bring in my experience to support the teams and guide the decision making to increase our impact on the area of DE&I, and to embed equity thinking into everything we do. So it’s at the core of what we do, and not a second thought. And so that it also benefits us as an organisation.

Our contribution and innovation to make the job market (and therefore society) fairer and more equitable, is one to be proud of. And a very ambitious one that everyone at StepStone is responsible for.

Where are we at?

Since my appointment in this role, I’ve spent some time listing out and storing information about all our activities that connect, closely or remotely, to DE&I.

With this, I was able to better understand how effective our activities are, and whether we can support them better, scale them up, or review them to consolidate and build strong(er) foundations for all things DE&I at StepStone.

It’s also enabled me to uncover new areas of action, which effectively, are going to be the basis of our strategy for this year.

Alongside setting up our first DE&I strategy for PTM, I’ve been sharing our approach with key members of StepStone, and stakeholders who will really continue to help us shape up our voice on the DE&I space and the job market.

Those include:

• Our employee resource group All_In (which works with the business to make our workplace more inclusive and enabled the creation of dedicated communities and safe spaces, like Women@, The Black Network, With Pride, The Parents Network or Anti-Racism) that was born in the UK in 2020 is continuing to have a huge impact on our culture.
• Our HR teams to not only test and help shape up features, but also contribute tactics to build a diverse and inclusive workforce for ourselves.
• Our communications teams to continue the conversation on important DE&I topics and raise awareness for everybody, regardless of their DE&I knowledge. Both internally and externally.
• Our leadership team, to ensure we all aspire and work towards the same objectives, key themes and unlock our potential in that space.

Across the business, we’re aligning what we will stand for and commit to as part of our ESG and DE&I strategies for StepStone, and what we stand for and commit to for candidates and clients alike.

StepStone has more than an opportunity to build a fairer job market for everyone: it’s a duty that we have to build a more just and more equal society.

Read more about StepStone, the technologies we use or take an inside look at our organisation & processes. Interested in joining us? Check out our careers page.