Women in STEM
Women are still massively underrepresented in technical professions. That’s no different at Bühler. An initiative of employees wants to change this and is focusing on three important aspects – education of children and young people, recruitment of female employees, and retention of female employees in the company.
Sorana Ionita, Anastasija Fusuljevic, Stefan Prockl, Molly Coleman, March 31, 2022
A high level of diversity is beneficial to the success of a company. This is evident from numerous studies such as the one from the Harvard Business Review, which surveyed over 1800 professionals and carried out over 40 studies with companies. The main take away was that diverse firms are 45% more likely to report a growth in market share and 70% more likely to capture new market. Achieving a roughly equal share of women and men is an important piece in this puzzle. Since this aspect in particular is still very unequal in many technical professions, companies are working to change this. Bühler aims to increase the proportion of women in its workforce by one percent annually. A team of motivated employees has founded the initiative “Women in STEM”, and is driving change with various projects. The team wants to overcome gender stereotypes, not only within the company itself, but also in the broader picture: among friends, students, parents and our managers. “We want to show girls around the world that they are capable and welcome to work in a STEM field in our company,” says Corinne Schneider on behalf of the team.
STEM is an abbreviation for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It is often used when referring to academic or professional careers in these four fields.
Every day, gender stereotypes impact even the youngest children. In children’s books, the media, school books and from the adults around them. By kindergarten at the latest, every child knows what colour to wear, what hobby suits his or her gender, and what professions to aspire to. If you ask children to draw a scientist, most children tend to draw a male scientist rather than a female scientist, according to the social scientist David Chambers. The 2017 “Women and STEM” study from the National Bureau of Economic Research brought to light that in schools, many girls receive less support than boys in making their college choices. Bühler’s Women in STEM initiative aims to show students, teachers, and parents the potential of girls to pursue STEM careers. Bühler ambassadors regularly visit school classes from elementary school to university.
To inspire women to pursue STEM careers at Bühler, members of the initiative make themselves available as advisors and consultants to the HR department. They provide support in developing inclusive recruiting strategies. They also offer concrete assistance in formulating job advertisements to specifically address all genders and create content for social media to draw attention to Bühler as an attractive workplace for women.
Women in STEM at Bühler is a Generation B initiative for a diverse STEM world and an inclusive workplace.
Generation B is a global movement of passionate employees at Bühler that aims to bring employees together and create the company people want to work for.
The proportion of women leaving a career in STEM professions is high. According to the Harvard Business Review study 40% of women who earn engineering degrees either quit or never enter the profession. The initiative aims to counteract this trend. Fostering a sense of belonging by forming networks such as “Women@Bühler” and providing support for career advancement and the pursuit of personal goals are important strategies for retaining employees. Promoting the professional opportunities of women across business units, regions and hierarchical levels is key in this regard. Removing current barriers is a high priority. To achieve sustainable progress in this area, the initiative team is working hard to find ambassadors for the causes. Many employees and managers are already on board and many more will hopefully follow their example.
As with other Generation B initiatives, everyone can help drive the initiative forward. There is no one right approach. Rather, it is a matter of taking many individual steps to improve the current situation within the company as well as to stimulate change outside the company, among our partners and future generations. Below you will find examples of five ambassadors who explain why they support the initiative and what they themselves have already contributed. Would you also like to help drive this important change in our company and our society? The Women in STEM project team will be happy to support you with your ideas. Get in touch with a member of the initiative or at generation.b@buhlergroup.com.
“I personally, fully buy into the need for D&I, and consequently, fully support the Women in STEM initiative at Bühler. The nature of Manufacturing, Logistics and Supply Chain, means that many of our colleagues and potential candidates have a background in this area. This importance for us is why we dedicated one entire day of the Global MLS Conference this year to the topic of “Leadership and Culture”. We need to start with recruitment, and I have reached out to my managers and asked them to incorporate D&I within any kind of recruitment processes. We need to go to the root cause of this and change the process itself so that it becomes unavoidable, and everyone must engage with the topic. One idea we are currently challenging is to build an automatic workflow route in the recruiting system where each decision maker at each level also has a respective D&I “partner” to take the decision with. I want to make clear that I take this topic very seriously. It is one thing to talk about D&I, but the important thing is making it happen. Giving a voice to D&I in the recruitment processes at MLS is the way we must go.”
It is one thing to talk about D&I, but the important thing is making it happen. Giving a voice to D&I in the recruitment processes at MLS is the way we must go.
Holger Feldhege,
Chief Operations Officer
“I strongly believe that diversity and inclusion will lead to greater innovation, increased productivity, and enhanced personal satisfaction for all of us. I support this by being a mentor. When we have an open position, I encourage people to be creative about potential candidates, and to pro-actively encourage females to apply. When looking at succession planning, I challenge the team to nominate female talents. Also, I’m encouraging flexible working hours where possible so that our team members – women and men – can balance work and family life better. Diversity and inclusion should be at the forefront of our hearts and minds every single day. It must be a part of our culture, of how we operate and collaborate.”
Diversity and inclusion should be at the forefront of our hearts and minds every single day. It must be a part of our culture, of how we operate and collaborate.
Carmen Schlatter Broger,
Head of Business Area Digital Technologies
“The Procurement organization is managed in a global network with local teams which are represented at more the 30 sites in the regions. I am convinced that diverse and inclusive teams are much more powerful in addressing the complex global supply chain environment we are in. For some of our current open positions we actively target female candidates and proactively contact talents that we have internally at Bühler. In anticipation for this we have worked with the Women in STEM team to rephrase our job descriptions so that they are potentially more attractive to female candidates.
We support female candidates in the recruitment process for procurement roles. I am convinced that procurement roles are very attractive for women in STEM and would like to have much more female candidate in our recruitment processes, especially also for strategic procurement and leadership positions.”
We have worked with the Women in STEM team to rephrase our job descriptions so that they are potentially more attractive to female candidates.
Hansjörg Ill,
Chief Procurement Officer, MLS
“It’s scientifically proven that diversity in teams enables better performance. Inclusion of different points of view enriches discussions and supports “better” decisions. In R&D, we have less than 14% female employees at Bühler. Less than 7% of our managers in R&D are women. It would be too “simple” to now just focus on recruiting to improve the gender balance. The challenge starts much earlier: How can we get young girls interested in the exciting world of STEM? We need to break biases in our education systems and act as role models for the future generation of female engineers. And let’s be honest: Lego is so much cooler than dolls.”
We need to get young girls interested in STEM. And let’s be honest: Lego is so much cooler than dolls 😉.
Sandra Lutz,
Global Director of Technology & Product Development Process & Facilities (M2M1)
“Diversity & inclusion allows us to be innovative. In a diverse team you can be sure you don’t get stuck in one way of thinking and a diverse organisation shows a great level of fairness. If you enjoy working in a diverse workplace, you’re more likely to build diverse teams and it’s important that the organisation reflects our market. The regions have made good progress in diversity at every level. Personally, I have witnessed that women change the dynamic in teams. I try to ensure women are in the applicant pool – I want at least one woman per application, and I want to ensure women have access to opportunities and are represented across business areas. I believe D&I should not only come from the top; we can all positively influence it at every level.”
I believe D&I should not only come from the top; we can all positively influence it at every level.
Adrien Beauvisage,
Head of Region Southeast Asia and Pacific
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