Diversity & Inclusion Diagnostic Within A Leading Fashion Retailer

Our client is a leading fashion retailer. As digital disruption continues to change the retail landscape, they have found innovative ways to expand services and grow their presence as an online retailer. This has led to the expansion of the technology business.

Recognizing that the tech industry is faced with unique gender equity issues, the Technology Leadership Team (TLT) made a commitment to focus on gender equity and sought out a partnership to gain better insight into the potential barriers to inclusion.

• The project began by leveraging insights from a series of internal listening sessions with 40 of their female technologists.
• To validate the themes from these sessions and bring another layer of depth and objectivity, YSC produced and presented some broader research around the role of gender within the technology sector.
• Bringing the focus back to the client’s unique context, YSC then infused the themes from the listening sessions with the voices of senior leaders. Through one-to-one interviews with five members of the TLT to explore their perceptions and experiences of gender equity within the function.
• Bringing the valuable insights together, YSC produced a comprehensive report, informed by anonymized and aggregated data, which set out a list of strategic recommendations for the TLT to drive next steps.

As a result of this project, the TLT has increased their commitment to prioritizing gender equity in 2019. In alignment with the organization’s broader Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging strategy, the Tech Team has decided to focus on its people managers, providing tools and training to empower managers to understand DIB and take accountability for their roles in building an inclusive culture