'You genuinely have to build a culture where women at any stage of their life feel included'
“How much work can you really do in a day?”
So says Priscilla Chand, founder of female talent and job platform, Hire Her, in talking about International Women’s Day (IWD).
“We’re hosting these events for this one specific day, but I really believe it should be happening all the time,” said Chand. “I’m in the business of empowering women and helping women build really incredible careers and businesses. It’s ongoing work, and that work doesn’t stop just because that day came and went.”
If you look at the stats, companies that have more gender equality and diversity are known to perform better, she says.
“Therefore, in order to build a company that performs better and has better functioning teams, you genuinely have to build a culture where women at any stage of their life feel included, and that doesn’t happen in a day.”
Despite the reluctance to believe that authentic change can happen in a day, Chand says she will be observing IWD. Through her social media channels, she’ll be sharing profiles of women and their careers or businesses but says that it won’t be for a day, it will be for the month of March.
“From a marketing perspective, IWD is fantastic,” Chand conceded. “It’s an opportunity to bring women together and if you can bring women together and genuinely empower and inspire women to take action and be more courageous, if you can do that in one day, that’s awesome.”
Marketing is Chand’s area of expertise but after having two children, she found herself stifled by an inflexible Kiwi job market that pressured her to choose between being a mother and having a career.
“I was a bit frustrated because I didn’t want to have to pick one or the other,” she said. “I was just looking around at this world going ‘Why do I feel like I have to pay a price?’”
Hire Her provides a platform for women looking for work on their terms. Women can set up a free profile outlining their expertise and availability to the platforms 300 registered employers and receive coaching on how to build a career on their terms.
“When organisations come onboard, they’re committing to a partnership, they must be committed to looking at their policies and thinking about the different challenges a mother may face, or a woman re-entering the workforce in 50s may face,” said Chand.
