#7 VGR Sets the Bar, Woman Leaders in IT

I’ve never conversed with two people so proud and motivated to show up to work every day.  Suzzie Ljunqvist, Head of the ICC, and Kristina Gyllander, Team Leader at VGR.  VGR has 56.000 staff, 700+ projects, 2000 different system applications and is 70% woman. The Pod is broken into two parts; Part 1 – Awesome initiatives happening at VGR. Such as demo-ing drones to transport Covid tests or the massive FVM project which will have a truly tremendous impact.  By merging 50+ systems, there will finally be ONE place where you as a patient will find all information about yourself, book appointments, see your test results, etc, and the same for those at the hospitals who need your records for analysis and recommendations. It’s no simple task, with 120.000+ Integration hours planned over the next 5 years. Part 2 – Woman in IT Suzzie and Kristina express some of their experiences in a male dominated industry. They explain why VGR is a true leader in cultivating, attracting and keeping woman by giving concrete examples such as starting them as Super Users, and providing endless opportunities to develop skills to grow, whether that be in IT, management or other areas that they show interest in. Suzzie & Kristina finish off the Pod by providing 6 points of how we can all improve our awareness and knowledge to get more woman involved (and keep them) in the IT industry; Accept that discrimination exists, understand the difference.Get external help for recruiting and advertising ‘’what’s cool from a male perspective might not be cool for a potential female candidate’.Build your woman network (via speeches, conferences, reach out to interesting profiles in IT)Start early and go after university candidates, talk to them, understand what motivates them.Assign a Mentor for woman entering the IT workforce.Leaders need to re-think evaluation processes. Should always have at least one woman in mind. A very inspiring podcast, talking with two who are not only so proud of their organization, but also provide incredible advice for the rest of us to learn from.