Introducing Women in HeadBox
The HeadBox team is almost exactly 50/50 in terms of gender. A stat we are extremely proud of! As part of our 2019 People and Culture programme, Ann-Marie, our Head of Marketing, set up Women in HeadBox for the wonderful women we have in our business.
Women in HeadBox has three simple aims:
- Educate HeadBox team members on the importance of gender awareness
- Maintain and actively encourage equality between men and women in HeadBox
- To continue to grow the female support network within HeadBox
Over the last 4 months, the Women in HeadBox committee has been hard at work with each member taking on a different mini-project, which has resulted in lots of different incentives running at HeadBox from Book Club to Coffee Mate, we’re here to share the highlights.
Book Club
…or Millennial Content Club as it’s also known is held every month and is a range of books, podcasts or documentaries that have been voted by the HeadBox team. The book club committee set questions and themes for the group to think about and anyone that wants to get involved brings their lunch and comes with an open mind. The book club doesn’t just cover feminism, although we’ve read things like ‘Why we should all be Feminists’, we’ve also read things like ‘The Good Immigrant’ and ‘Notes on a Nervous Planet’. With lots of interesting opinions and perspectives being talked about at Book Club, it’s been a huge hit across HeadBox.
Tom Dyer one of our Junior Front End Developers is a regular at Book Club and said:
HeadBox book club is a great opportunity to get together and discuss issues outside of our normal work contexts. The group allows us to explore issues freely from different perspectives and read some great books that I would have otherwise missed.
Corrie Reeves one of our Account Managers also loves Book Club:
Book Club is an amazing insight to the thoughts and views of your colleagues. Within only an hour you can learn more about them than you often do in a whole month. We cover a range of views on varied subjects, which invariably leaves you considering the more meaningful things in life for longer than just the session itself. It’s a highlight of my work week and one that everyone should make time for.
Favourite Book Discussed: The Good Immigrant
Coffee Mate
Everyone loves a coffee, but sometimes we can get into habits of always going with the same people. Coffee Mate offers is integrated with Slack and pairs people up randomly every 2 weeks and then you’re left to schedule a coffee catch up with this person. This has been an amazing initiative and has meant people from across the business are able to talk to people in different teams.
As a recent addition to the HeadBox team, Daisy, one of our Product Managers, loves the Coffee Mate initiative, she said:
Being new to the HeadBox team, being able to meet people through Coffee Mate has really helped me get to know people beyond my day-to-day working interactions, as well as trying out the best local coffee spots!
Mentoring Scheme
Alongside or Health and Wellbeing Committee, Women in HeadBox set up a mentoring scheme which people could opt into to. The mentoring scheme offers an informal way for mentees to be paired with more senior members of HeadBox and be mentored on a one to one basis.
Camilla our UK Marketing Manager from HeadBox takes part in the Mentoring Scheme and loves it:
Taking part in the mentoring scheme has been a fantastic way to talk through some of the personal development areas I’d like to work on that will help me take my career to the next level. My mentor has given me some very actionable and impartial advice that has already helped me in my day-to-day role
Guest Speakers
The Women of HeadBox committee wanted to invite some external speakers in to talk about their successful career journeys. This has proved to be a huge hit and the women of HeadBox have loved learning about and taking advice from other successful entrepreneurs. Our first Guest was Olivia Knight the founder of Patchwork and she offered amazing insight into her business which consists of a solely female team.
Felicity one of our Account Managers loved the evening and said:
Olivia was a truly inspiring guest speaker. She discussed the challenges she’s faced and overcome as a female entrepreneur and how she’s accomplished all of her achievements. Olivia answered all of our questions honestly and gave us invaluable advice. It was a really special evening that inspired a lot of discussion and reflection amongst the team.
With plenty more events coming soon, watch this space for the next update.
