Signatory guest blog: Embracing Equity at Coeo

At Coeo equity is absolutely fundamental across the organisation the employee lifecycle. We’re still in our infancy in our diversity and inclusion journey, but as a Tech Talent Charter (TTC) Signatory, the energy and determination is well and truly there. Coeo has been built on a "people first" foundation; we believe that if we invest and look after our employees they will do the same for our clients, and if our people don’t flourish, neither does the organisation. 

We operate against a challenging backdrop of a majority-male industry. Partnering with the TTC has been fundamental to hold ourselves accountable for change and has allowed us a benchmark to recognise external challenges and celebrate successes for change. And as we grow, at speed, and internationally, focus on equity is paramount. 

With high levels of recruitment for new and existing roles across the business, our inclusive recruitment practices are supporting us in finding the best talent, but we’re not always able to pick from a wide and diverse talent pool. Not that we haven’t tried, and will continue to persevere, but there isn’t enough diversity in tech. As an example, only 22% of senior tech roles are held by gender minorities, this is 6% lower than tech roles overall. It takes challenge and focus to break the status quo. So embedding equity into our internal talent movements remains the top priority for change in this area.

Paula McDevitt, Support Practice Team Lead at Coeo, talked through her experience of progression at the organisation and how equitable business practice supported her success in a senior tech role. Here's what she shared with interviewer, Alice Pilbeam-Brown

APB: Paula, it’s so great to sit down with you! Please tell me, with such a diverse career so far, how did you initially find yourself at Coeo?

PM: My path to Coeo was not the traditional path; I took the scenic route to get here. I left school with a couple of GCSEs to my name in 1999. I ended up working in hospitality and worked my way up through the ranks to managerial level. After feeling I had got everything I could from this industry career wise, and while youth was still on my side, I took a job as an English teacher in Bali, Indonesia in 2010 and stayed there for a few years. I came home in 2015 and went back to college and did my A-Levels at the age of 32. I got a place at Queen's University in Belfast where I studied for a degree in Law. Once I completed my degree, I could see how competitive this industry was and realised that the finances needed to progress further were unobtainable to me. I took a few months to reflect on where I should go next, and found a masters degree in Software Development that I could take. Having never touched tech in my life, I didn't know if I would be capable of this, but with everything I had already done in my life, I gave it a go and it seemed to work out. When I finished this in 2020, I was approached by a recruiter for a role at Coeo as a Data Platform Specialist. I am based in Northern Ireland, however the pandemic actually played to my advantage as this showed Coeo that remote working was possible.

APB: Thank you, it’s great to hear an “off-the-beaten-track” career story. So tell me about when you landed at Coeo, which stakeholders would you say have been fundamental to your success so far, and how did they demonstrate equity in their actions?

PM: My biggest support has to be Joe Pollock who is a Team Lead at Coeo. Joe interviewed me for the job at Coeo and made it clear from day one that while this was a technical role, the skills I had gained in previous employment were extremely valuable and transferable to a career at Coeo. While I developed my technical skills during the 2 years I worked as a Data Platform Specialist, Coeo recognised the diverse skills set that I already had and gave me many opportunities to develop these further, such as organising and hosting monthly Lunch 'n' Learn sessions for the team. There had been discussions for several months about the possibility of progressing to a Team Lead role, and as a safety net I was offered the opportunity to do this on an interim basis to get a feel for the role to ensure that it was right for me and for Coeo. There was a clear development plan in place and once I had the opportunity to test the water, I knew this was the right role for my skills set. Martin Summerhayes, the Support Services Practice Director has really helped me settle into this role and encouraged me to share my opinions by emphasizing the diversity I bring to the Leadership team which demonstrates the equality I have among my peers. Justin Langford the CEO has also been instrumental in my career development as the approach he has to a growth mindset really motivates me to constantly improve and seek out opportunities to do so. 

APB: It’s so amazing to hear the wide range of stakeholders who have championed you towards this space, but of course, you played a huge part in this too! So what tips would you share to other women in tech who are looking to progress their career towards a management role?

PM: My advice would be for other women to look at their skill set and really think about what transferable skills they have, especially mums. The skills developed raising children can also be applied in the workplace, such as organisational skills, multi-tasking, managing schedules and prioritisation. Do not be afraid to take on tasks outside your comfort zone, having a diverse skills set can really help your team as innovative ideas and unconventional approaches to solving problems are crucial to any business.

APB: Fantastic, it really is a joint effort from the employer and the employee to embed equity for success. What would be your top tips that you’d offer up to other organisations?

PM: Recognise the softer skills that your employees have from their previous life experiences. Look for opportunities to develop these in the workplace and emphasise the importance of these skills to the employees. It's one thing to know that you value these skills, but to actually voice this to the employee can go a long way in helping them recognise how valuable they are in the workplace.

Talking with Paula, and other talent from across the organisation, learning about their journeys and about them as individuals reminds me of just how wonderfully unique we all are in very many different ways, and the real value that brings to an organisation like Coeo. Yes, gender minority representation is a big challenge in tech, and along with ethnicity, it’s where our Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (EDIB) strategy prioritises, however, we don’t just stop there. Within those two lens of difference, we see a whole host of intersectionality’s that can’t be missed, and this is where our inclusive practices across the whole employee lifecycle come in – not just in recruitment. We’re learning as an organisation that slight adaptations that support the few, really do lift the many. None of these amendments should feel like a heavy weight or a burden to satisfy the minority, they are tweaks that allow all our talent, our best asset, to flourish. Every three months, the leadership and management population sit down and look at our diversity data straight in the face. We ask ourselves, what’s changed and why?, what hasn’t changed and why?, and we hold ourselves accountable to actions that will help us achieve our aspiring EDIB vision, that by FY29, Coeo’s population will mirror the representation of the Talent Tech Charter in the gender and ethnicity spaces in tech-specific roles. 

 The journey has just got started for us, and Coeo are so excited to hear more and more stories such as Paula’s as we continue to embrace equity throughout our people practices and everyday operations.