Aegon N.V. and Rockwell Automation: Walking the Talk

Creating a diverse and inclusive culture in your organisation is not just a nice thing to do, it is a must have. The business case is clear that diversity will improve your organisation’s financial health. Yet it doesn’t cease to amaze me how many companies still aren’t actively engaging.

PWN Global actively support women, men and organisations in 30 cities around the world to advance gender balance, and support the professional growth of women through networking, mentoring, learning and development. Our strong local presence is supported by Boards in each city that offer a range of programmes. Our online resources and dedicated member platform, meets the needs of professional women and men who want to learn, development and network whilst on the move or for those living in areas where PWN Global haven’t launched yet.

Organisations at differing stages of diversity initiatives, from kick-starters to diversity award winning organisations contact PWN Global to form partnerships, and to tap into our knowledge and expertise. Aegon and Rockwell Automation kick-started gender diversity with PWN Global in 2017.

Rockwell Automation Committed to Advancing Gender Balanced Leadership

Under the leadership and commitment of their EMEA President, Thomas Donato, Rockwell Automation kick-started their gender balanced initiative last February. PWN Global’s Wendy Mackey Jones and Robert Baker facilitated their off-site event in Barcelona with nearly 70 leaders and employees from across EMEA. It was a high-energy, focused day of sharing and working groups, which ended with hard actions and timelines for different leaders, including Thomas, to implement. 

They didn’t stop in Barcelona. Throughout the year they hosted a series of events, and in November 2017 their Gender Balance Resource Group, led by Lina Forsyth-Grant, launched their new 2018 programme ‘Achieving your Best Potential’ focused on developing women and men within Rockwell Automation. Wendy followed Thomas’s introduction with a keynote on what individuals can do to achieve their potential. Kudos to Rockwell Automation, they had over 170 participants at the event in the UK, as well as online in Germany, UK, Poland, Spain and Middle East, with a truly inclusive audience (56% women, 44% men).

 Rockwell Automation want to develop an inclusive culture and have paid great attention to being gender neutral, discussing themes that are beneficial to women and men, and have worked with a top down and bottom up approach. They have good momentum – curious to see what happens next!

Aegon Meeting the Needs of their Employees

Wendel Hofman-Schulp, Brand Manager, is just the sort of gender balance Ambassador an organisation needs to make a difference. With 18 year’s experience in Aegon, Wendel understands the challenges to implement gender balance initiatives in their Netherlands offices, in The Hague. In collaboration with PWN Global and PWN Amsterdam, Aegon held two events at the end of 2017 on themes Wendel believe make a difference to the advancement of gender balance – 1. Women and Money and 2. Mentoring to advance careers.

Recognising the success of combining lunch networking with events, Aegon hosted PWN Amsterdam members and Aegon employees at a joint event with Wendy Mackey Jones (PWN Global) and Mike Mansfied, Aegon’s Retirement Research Manager, to share PWN Global’s European research on Women and Money and Aegon’s Retirement research. Wendy shared highlights of the passive attitudes professional women have to current and future finances, and Mike shared highlights on how to improve financial security. The participants were invited to write their bucket list of future wishes, discuss their pain points and identify what actions they could implement.

The 2nd event was a broader collaboration between PWN Global , PWN Amsterdam and Aegon. Wendy shared insights on how individuals can use mentoring to advance their careers, including evidence from PWN Global’s and PWN Milan’s EU Mentoring Research. PWN Amsterdam’s Mentoring Lead, Nita Korsten shared how their Mentoring programme can make a difference to advancing careers. The event was a great opportunity for Brad Lang, Aegon’s Global Development Lead, to explore the development needs of Aegon employees with the aim to develop a bespoke internal mentoring programme.

Aegon have an Inclusion Committee representing Gender, LGBT, Young professionals, Internationals and Culture. The two collaborative events between PWN Global and Aegon have now ignited the potential of what the Netherlands HQ can do to keep advancing inclusion. Small steps making a difference.

PWN’s Reflection on How to Make Progress

Budgets and needs vary greatly from organisation to organisation. Collaborating with external Associations and Networks can make the uncertain path on how to change your culture, how to start moving towards a more gender balanced organisation or to kick-start your inclusion activities. We are privileged to work with companies Rockwell Automation and Aegon and are inspired by the steps they are taking. Reflecting on our Global Partnerships, we can see what a difference we can make when we work together.

Author: Wendy Mackey Jones, PWN Global