#WellyRecMeetup 10 - Diversity & Inclusion

Hi People Finders.

We are super pleased to announce we are going to be making a few changes going forward.

First up, Troy Hammond (http://linkedin.com/in/troyhammond) will be stepping down as the Emcee as "he is sick of his own voice" or so he keeps telling us. Our sponsor, Jon Rice of Rice Consulting and virtualRPO will be your Emcee for this event and going forward we will have a host or sponsor Emcee.

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I want to make a big shout out to Jon, Claire and the teams from Rice Consulting and virtualRPO for stepping up and providing all food and beverages for this #WellyRecMeetup. It's very much appreciated!

Second, we are going to be rolling out a meetup every month going forward. Yay.
This means we are looking for many more speakers, so if you are keen you can fill out this form (https://docs.google.com/a/talent.army/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfaTqPWKPhF_OdY-EkOhvTrOErb33HrnHzsWVotgqvPY73epQ/viewform?usp=sf_link) anonymously to add your name into the mix.

Now, onto #WellyRecMeetup 10....

We are super pleased to announced this meetup will be on Diversity & Inclusion and we have two amazing teams talking to us about their D&I journey.

Carrie O'Meara-Malcolm (http://linkedin.com/in/carrie-o-meara-malcolm-73545a54), Head of Global Talent, Xero and Kirsty Towers (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirstytowers/), Senior Talent Specialist, Xero are going to be leading the first session.

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Beyond Gender - Attracting a Diverse Workforce

I think you may have gotten the older version of the blurb from Carrie by mistake...If you can be bothered to change it, the new one is below. If not we'll roll with it :D

"A lack significant diversity is a challenge faced by many established technology companies. The stereotypical profile of the “Tech Guy” has been predominantly young, white and male. While our #human value has helped keep Xero from being one of the worst offenders we’re still on a long term journey to continue build a welcoming, diverse and inclusive environment for people of all backgrounds in Tech.

At our core Xero not only believes in Social Justice and that empowering our people to create a Diverse & Inclusive environment is an ethical imperative, but that having a workforce with a variety of perspectives and experiences will be key driver of our continued innovation and success as a global business.

We’re here to tell talk about how our Executive and People Teams have been working from the top down to champion the importance of Diversity and Inclusion at Xero. Addressing our largest problem first we've focused our efforts over the past year on retaining, developing and attracting talented women. The success of our continued gender diversity drive from entry through to senior leadership means that we are now at the leading edge of gender diversity among technology companies, and in a strong position to springboard into a broader Diversity and Inclusion drive for 2017. So what have we done, and what’s next....?"

Session two will be lead by, Beatrice Thorne (http://linkedin.com/in/beatricethorne); Senior Account Manager at Trade Me Jobs

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As a tech business, and a business that is often in the NZ spotlight, it’s important to Trade Me to ensure that we have a pipeline of diverse talent coming through to us. We are committed to making this happen and recognise that in order to do so we need to look outside the box of the current workforce and plan for future diversity success. Hear the story of how we’ve come to this commitment, and what our next steps from here are.

We really look forward to this one as it really is a pertinent topic and one that we should give our full attention.

Thanks,

Troy and Tristan