IT’s Her Future (IHF) is KPMG’s award-winning flagship programme dedicated to advancing women in technology. Launched in 2015 as a gender diversity initiative, through our IHF workstreams and in partnership with tech communities, we aim to facilitate targeted strategies and interventions to attract, recruit, retain and advance women in tech careers across the firm. IHF supports our women at every stage of their career, from the attraction of young girls at school age right through to supporting progression of our senior female tech talent. We provide learning, mentoring, networking, and community led opportunities, instilling confidence to allow women to be architects of change in technology. Aligned to the firmwide IDE plan, Our KPMG: A Fairer Future For All, we exist to support women to thrive in tech careers at KPMG. As leaders in the technology sector, we want to positively impact not only our colleagues, but wider society, especially in a rapidly changing landscape influenced by the advent of new technologies. Our mission is to facilitate the creation of an inclusive environment and equitable experiences for women working in tech roles across KPMG and beyond.
IHF has had notable progress and impact, enabling significant changes in the attraction, recruitment, and engagement of women in technology. In 2015, when our programme was founded, tech representation at KPMG was 26% female. Now, that figure is 42%, an incredible increase, with a 50-50 gender split at graduate level. We not only focus on recruitment, but on retention, with 46% of promotions in tech last year being awarded to our female colleagues. We’ve proven to be a driving force in a meaningful social cause, advocating for the provision of free menstrual products in all KPMG offices.
IT’s Her Future supports a range of internal and external initiatives operating across our workstreams and communities. Each workstream tackles an identified problem or barrier facing women in technology.
Our juniors workstream provides insight and access into technology careers for 14-16 year olds, encouraging young girls that they are more than capable to pursue a career in tech. Running our Future Leaders Technology Programme in multiple locations across the UK, each summer we welcome over 120 students into our offices, providing a free, two-day insight event that exposes year 10 female students to the world of technology.
Our code workstream targets women at all stages of education, to help develop their awareness of, and ability to, code. Coding is a highly employable skill, and our workstream teaches this, boosting the technical ability and confidence of its members. We’ve recently introduced Industry Technical and Digital Accreditations for students and employees who complete our flagship 10-week Python coding course, which has run with great success and feedback so far.
Our mentoring workstream supports the career advancement of women in technology through targeted mentoring and network-orientated interventions. We have created learning pathways to support mentors and mentees target common soft skill development themes. We are especially proud of the mentoring partnership we have established with Mulberry Girls School, located in a deprived area in Tower Hamlets. This supports 80 students aged 13 to 15, encouraging them to consider STEM subjects and challenging misconceptions of what a job in technology involves.
Our propeller workstream provides personal and professional development support for senior technology talent, to help them advance into senior leadership positions. This focuses on our retention pillar, as there are many initiatives to help drive female tech recruitment, however fewer supporting the career advancement of these women.
Our client engagement workstream builds targeted relationships with senior women leaders and creates a platform to facilitate industry-led discussions.
And finally, our brand and attraction workstream aims to increase brand awareness and engagement within the IHF community, the wider firm and in the external market. We’re currently working to facilitate a huge collaboration of notable professional services and technology firms to come together and create a forum for sharing ideas and successes for supporting women in tech, reducing the silos that can arise when initiatives similar to our IHF network are running in individual firms without collaboration.
IHF also works with existing female tech communities across our firm, including Women in Cloud, Women in Cyber, Women who Model, MBS Women in Tech, and the Engineering Women’s Network. These communities all work to champion gender diversity and foster an inclusive culture within their respective technology teams. Collaborating with our communities allows targeted insight into feedback from female colleagues across our business, and facilitates the continued progression of our women by reaching into all corners of our tech workforce.
