Celebrating International Women’s Day today, Michelle DeBella, Chief Financial Officer at JumpCloud, believes it’s a great opportunity to put gender equality in innovation and technology in the global spotlight. In this blog for IFA Magazine, she reflects on her own experience as a professional woman and why she’s relieved ‘that looking “professional” for women doesn’t have to mean a skirt suit and pantyhose” any longer!
In 2022, Deloitte Global’s Women at Work study revealed that only 24% of financial services respondents feel their organisation’s leadership is gender diverse, and only 16% say their organisation communicates on gender diversity targets. In the technology industry, women make up only 26% of the workforce. This International Women’s Day, STEM representation continues to be a key focus and this year’s International Women’s Day theme of #embraceequity, prompts us to discuss exactly this: gender equality in innovation and technology. It’s clear that Michelle DeBella, Chief Financial Officer at open directory platform, JumpCloud, is a passionate representative of women in STEM. Named one of 2019’s 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology by the National Diversity Council, Michelle has been sharing her insight and career stories with us in celebration of International Women’s Day.
We start by asking Michelle about whether she’s seen a change in the working environment for women throughout her career. As Michelle says “Yes, I’ve definitely seen a lot of change in the environment since I first started working. Whether it’s things like normalising the conversations about harassment and efforts to make workplaces safe and inviting for women to bigger things, like during the pandemic growing conversations about work flexibility and work-life balance. I’ve seen a lot of positive changes that will help women and all kinds of underrepresented people. And thank heavens that looking “professional” for women doesn’t have to mean a skirt suit and pantyhose every day. I love that we continue to expand our ideas of what being “professional” means and it isn’t defined by some white, euro-centric, patriarchal standard set in the 1950s.”
But are there broader issues involved here that businesses need to consider? In Michelle’s opinion, “Diversity of any kind is always a win-win. It brings people to the table with new ideas who challenge the status quo and help companies innovate and expand how they serve customers. Specifically, as women continue to expand their financial independence and role in their personal and family finances, especially relative to my parents’ times, they become a critical customer segment that need to be considered when building products and services in the financial services industry and all industries. Companies need to make sure that the people designing their products and services have a deep understanding of those customer segments.”
Today’s tight jobs market means that recruiting and retaining staff is no easy task for businesses. We were interested to hear Michelle’s take on whether adopting a more strategic D&I approach can help in this regard. She doesn’t hold back saying “Yes, it certainly can -100%. Belonging is a critical component of employee engagement and engagement helps drive retention. Years ago, a Gartner survey identified that employees who could answer “yes” to the question “I have a friend at work” were significantly more engaged than others. Think about that – “friendship” is highly dependent on commonalities and finding affinity with others – a sense of belonging. Inclusive cultures attract a variety of humans to them, which means that any individual’s ability to find commonalities, affinity and a sense of belonging increases exponentially – and therefore underpins staff retention as well as better business outcomes and results.”
But are things moving in the right direction?
When it comes to today’s more flexible working mandates such as hybrid working which have become more embedded since the Covid pandemic, Michelle believes that having “flexibility for all employees increases our ability to support gender and other diversity. Women have always borne a disproportionate share of domestic responsibilities, but now everyone was dealing with their domestic responsibilities on top of work. Work interactions had to be scheduled, and there is no room for some of those ‘water-cooler’ conversations where women were at risk of not being “included” in the conversation. Hybrid and remote work have enabled us to work without some of the physical environment limitations or challenges we may have previously faced. Networking had to be virtual and intentional, rather than taking place at the bar or a ball game. Hybrid work has the opportunity to level the playing field for a lot of women and underrepresented groups. Continuing to uplevel parental leave and benefits (including extending family leave to non-birth parents) continues to normalise “parenting” for all genders and gives team members with families, including women, that ability to balance work and life in those critical life moments.”
About Michelle DeBella
Michelle DeBella is a highly successful career woman and dynamic executive who has been leading change at some of the most well-known names in Silicon Valley, such as HP, Uber, and Lyft. She served on the HP Global D&I Board, started Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s Women in Finance Leadership program, was named Mentor of the Year, and served as a Women Leading Travel & Hospitality board member. In every company she has worked for, Michelle was active in leadership development and DEIB programs.
