8 March is International Women’s Day. With rallies taking place all around the world, International Women’s Day is a time for reviewing the situation of women and reflecting on the different actions to be taken. Women are still under-represented in the technology and telecoms sectors, which have always been male-dominated. However, companies like the Adista Group work daily to ensure equality between male and female employees and to encourage women to work in the IT sphere. Here, we take a look at actions taken by Adista SAS, Waycom and unyc (Adista Group entities) and focus on three women working for those companies.

Telecoms: a traditionally male-dominated sector that is gradually employing more women

Recent appointments bring good news for the IT and telecoms sectors. We recently learned that Christel Heydemann, currently the Senior Manager Europe for Schneider Electric, was to become the Managing Director of Orange, which is a first for that operator. Similarly, the appointments of Eva Berneke as the head of Eutelsat and Laure de la Raudière as the chair of Arcep were particularly notable. However, this is still marginal when we consider other more technical and commercial professions in the industry that continue to be highly represented by men.

More broadly, the Women’s Foundation recently published a study to mark 8 March, which is particularly edifying[1]. According to their calculations, and taking into account many criteria in women’s personal and professional lives, gender inequality costs French society €118 billion a year. This is a staggering figure that represents a challenge for both policymakers and civil society.

Adista SAS: an equal pay index of 89/100 in 2021 versus 85/100 on average

Having achieved a consolidated turnover of €222 million in 2021 despite the health crisis, Adista, as the leading competitor of the incumbent operators, aims to achieve €500 million in 2026. But such high growth is not to be attained at the expense of strong human values, one of which is, of course, equality in the workplace.

One strong testament to this commitment is the equal pay index, which has made good progress over the past year: 89/100 this year compared to 81/100 last year, while the average for companies with 250 to 1,000 employees was 85/100.

Among the levers that have allowed this high level to be achieved at Adista SAS, we note:

– Special attention paid to maternity leave and the return to work of female employees, particularly in terms of salary and equal access to pay increases.

– An annual review for all employees (and not biennial, as required by law) allowing them to express their aspirations and development wishes.

– Awareness raising on the egalitarian nature of the individual pay increases granted to women and men.

“In our Great Place to Work survey last November, 83% of Adista SAS employees said they felt they were treated·fairly regardless of their gender. This result reflects how much attention we pay to equality at Adista on a daily basis. Indeed, we continually ensure that our female employees receive the same treatment and the same career and salary opportunities as their male colleagues.”

Alexia Amand, Director of Human Resources, Adista SAS and Adista Group

Other initiatives at Adista SAS include support for the Face Loire Club’s 2022 edition of the Wi-Filles programme, which is working for the development of a real digital culture for girls and enabling them to acquire the skills that will give them access to digital professions. For this reason, 11 girls will be made welcome at the Adista SAS offices in Saint-Etienne.

The company also pays the registration fee for Pink October runs for employees wishing to participate in them and gives female employees two hours free for breast cancer screening by a radiologist.

Cindy FÈVRE has been Service Delivery Manager (SDM) in Adista SAS’s Customer Relations department since June 2021. Having joined the company in July 2020 as Service Delivery Manager, she is now also responsible for a team of 12 SDMs located throughout France. She did not receive the same recognition in her previous position:

“In the company I used to work for, I had to work twice as hard as the others to get recognition. As a female manager, you have to prove yourself from the start and you’re expected to provide more support than a man. Even if telecoms is opening up to women, girls are not yet given enough of a chance to take an interest in the sector without ending up being classed as a geek.”

unyc: + 46% of women in the workforce between 2019 and 2021

In addition to the increase in the percentage of women in the workforce, unyc has put in place a Gender Equality agreement to prevent discrimination at recruitment, to carry out checks at the annual remuneration conference and to activate measures such as the right to disconnect to improve the work life/personal life balance. The outcome of this policy is encouraging, as unyc obtained an equal pay index of 86/100 in 2021.

Awareness raising is also being conducted with managers concerning the allocation of a pay increase following a return from maternity leave. During the Pink October campaign, communications encourage female employees to get tested and they can participate in the ‘Demoiselles de Bugatti’, a run to raise funds for breast cancer research.

Nadège Gonçalves is a Purchasing and Customer Service Manager at unyc, having joined the company in 2013 as a Sales and Production Assistant. Today, she manages four people and two new people are being recruited. She attests to unyc’s genuine desire to integrate more women into the teams:

“Women are sought after in our sector, but unfortunately very few apply for engineering, production (project manager positions) or technical support positions. For example, in development there is still a very large majority of CVs belonging to men.

On my side, the opposite is true: my team is made up of only women, and I would like a man to be included for more parity. This is certainly due to the fact that it is still mostly women who work in assistance.”

Waycom: from 10% to 25% of women between 2017 and 2021

Waycom, just like Adista SAS and unyc, is educating its teams on equality in the workplace. For this reason, the company is a signatory to the Diversity Charter and distributes a newsletter devoted to the subject every year. Employees experience this commitment, since 100% responded favourably to the Great Place to Work survey’s phrase “I am treated fairly in this company regardless of my gender.” Many other events also take place during Pink October and female employees of Waycom are invited to participate in the ‘La Parisienne’ run (costs covered by the company).

Rizlaine Terrak has been a Sales Assistance Manager at Waycom for almost two years and manages three people on her team. She joined the company a year earlier in a newly created job as Sales assistant to a dozen sales representatives:

“I have been a Sales Assistant during my various work experiences, and I have been faced with mostly male sales reps who did not always appreciate the work of their assistants.

At Waycom, it was still not easy at first because the challenge was considerable for this new position, especially as a new department had been created, but I was given my chance! Now I manage three people, and there is even a man on the team! At Waycom, it is clear that women are appreciated for their work.”

About the Adista Group

A Hosted Services operator, Adista is positioned as the number one alternative B2B cloud and telecoms operator in France and the specialist in IT and voice services. Adista’s strength lies in its capacity to combine expertise as a host, a telecommunications operator and a specialist in business IT and the security of information systems. End to end control over the quality of services, a hybrid vision of the Cloud and the capacity to deliver IT services and THD technologies all over France have made the company’s success. With the acquisition of Fingerprint in 2020 and Waycom in 2021, Adista has this year joined forces with unyc, a major player in indirect sales of telecom services. The company achieved sales revenue of 222 million euros in 2021 and counts 900 employees working in forty agencies. Its ambition is to generate sales revenue of 500 million euros in 2026 and become the number 3 B2B telecoms operator in France in ten years.

www.adista.fr

About Waycom

Waycom is a subsidiary of the Adista group that positions itself as the number one alternative Cloud and Telecoms operator in France. Specialising in WAN/LAN, unified communications and cloud computing, Waycom stands out from the rest with the bespoke service it offers to its ETI  and major accounts customers. Yves Rocher, But, Maison du Monde, Geodis, Taxi G7, Disneyland Paris and many other big  names trust Waycom to manage all or part of their information systems in France and abroad. With its 900 employees, 10 data centres, 35 branch offices and its €222M turnover in 2021, Waycom is a specialist and the leader in its market.

www.waycom.net

About unyc

Founded in 2004 by its current chief executive, Damien Watin, unyc offers ever more agile solutions for communication technologies and addresses the digital challenges of businesses or communities: speeding up their connectivity, simplifying access to collaborative uses, and securing the digital working environment. In 15 years, unyc has become a major player in a dynamic sector: the Tech Comms sector:  €55 million turnover, 145 employees, 370,000 users, more than 18,000 customer companies and 700 distributor and reseller partners. In September 2021, unyc announced its strategic merger with Adista, the leading alternative B2B cloud and communication operator in France. This Group had a turnover of €222 million in 2021 and has 900 employees. Together, Adista and unyc aim to reach a turnover of 500 million euros in 2026 to position themselves as the number one competitor of the incumbent cloud and telecom operators.

www.unyc.io

[1] https://fondationdesfemmes.org/actualites/rapport-cout-inegalites/