To celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD) 2022  and support the #BreakTheBias campaign, FPC Global came together in two informative sessions across 3 continents. There is still a gender pay gap in the UK and an under representation of women in senior roles. In Engineering, progress has been made with 14.5% of all engineers now women - a 25.7% increase since 2016, but this still highlights a huge gender disparity in the engineering industry as a whole (as reported by Engineering UK 2021).

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The very well attended FPC sessions delved into the issues around bias in the workplace and generated thoughtful challenging discussion.

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We understood what unconscious bias is and how and when we are vulnerable to it, looked at statistics to understand the problem and its impact on women in the workplace, and ran through example scenarios. For each scenario we looked at the reasons why that may occur and how to support women in the moment. We discussed gendered language in the workplace, and specific examples of language that is and is not acceptable. There is an overwhelming collective commitment from the FPC team to eliminate bias and to call each other out whenever we spot potential for it.

Gary Holmes, Global Director of IoT Services said “For IWD 2022, we wanted to celebrate the outstanding and highly capable women in the diverse team we have here at FPC in a way that had real meaning and aligned with the objectives of IWD. This year’s theme of #BreakTheBias really resonated with us, especially as gender bias - unconscious or not - is still at times present in the technology and engineering sectors. FPC carried out internal training worldwide to raise awareness and understanding of what unconscious bias is, how it manifests itself and in turn affects team members. The sessions were highly engaging and a tremendous success, with positive debate about unconscious bias, how to recognise and tackle it, providing a catalyst for further action by our team.”

Dean Francis, Founder and Principal, said “At FPC Global we are dedicated to championing diversity in our growing company, and providing a workplace where everyone can thrive. We are committed to supporting the International Women's Day mission to forge inclusive work cultures where women's careers thrive and their achievements are celebrated”. 

Salim Khan, CEO, said “We are proud to be a diverse and inclusive business that fully supports International Women’s Day. It is great to support IWD across our business as well playing our role in maintaining this in the spotlight to ensure we all #BreakTheBias even when it may be happening sub-consciously! We are equally proud to support #NoGenderGap also.”

There are company wide plans for further training on bias, as well as an ongoing commitment and discussion to embed a culture of eliminating and calling out bias in our workplace. #BreakTheBias.

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