Lenovo’s EMEA Diversity Manager of the Year award is designed to recognise managers who model inclusive behaviour and embrace DE&I in their teams. everywoman sits down with the 2023 winner, Werner Schoeman, Relationship Sales Manager at Lenovo, South Africa, to discuss the importance of fostering inclusive cultures and how he is actively building teams with gender diversity within the organisation.
Congratulations on receiving this award—what brought you into the active DE&I space?
Thank you, it’s an honour to receive the award. I’ve been at Lenovo for nine years, and about a year and a half ago, I was promoted to Relationship Sales Manager for Southern Africa, with 12 people reporting to me. And when I took my team over, it was quite heavily skewed towards males with 70% being male— so one of my earliest goals was to have a balanced team. We had some movement within the team, with retirements and promotions, and I made it my focus to always look first at internal talent when I was filling those spaces. For example, there was a very strong female that had worked here for many years, and I wanted to promote her. I also made sure that where we had to find external female candidates, which was sometimes challenging and took time, we persevered to find the right talent. Through conscious and inclusive hiring, we took the team’s make-up to 50% male and 50% female over the course of one year, which I’m very proud of.
Why is diversity and inclusion so important to you personally?
I think, in part, it comes from being South African and growing up in such a diverse place with so many cultures, religions and languages. Being surrounded by this really resonated with me from a young age and made me realise the importance of diversity, in every aspect of life. This belief has stayed with me and in business I’ve always believed that a team needs to be well-represented to really have the value of South Africa in it. In South Africa we have a spirit of what we call ‘Ubuntu’, which means that we achieve by sharing ourselves with others- and caring for those around us. So, when it comes to DE&I, it’s not just about gender- but about giving everyone an opportunity to represent our country as a culture.
What are your thoughts on tackling issues of gender diversity representation at Lenovo in EMEA, and how are you going to actively address that this year?
The key thing for me is around setting clear goals. Recognising that increasing gender diversity is a call to action we all must be accountable for, not just in my team, but as a global player. Only by having clear goals can we benchmark ourselves and see where we are and how much further we have to go towards them.
When it comes to gender diversity in South Africa’s tech industry, just 27% of the tech workers are female. At Lenovo across the EMEA geo it is 35%, so we are leading the curve, and having clear goals has been integral to achieving this. I also strongly believe that mentoring and sponsorship programmes are crucial to success, and I have seen first-hand how mentorship programmes have worked to help people get promoted and give them the skills to do the job. Mentoring programmes are also useful when it comes to tracking progression and helping individuals flourish—so that when an opportunity arises, they feel ready to take it.
What gender diversity initiatives are currently in place at Lenovo across the EMEA geo and what kind of impact have you seen?
At a local level in South Africa, part of the Women in Lenovo strategy has been to ensure that as soon as a position opens, we always have female candidates on the interview list. The 50:50 gender balance in my team is testament to this.
When we do have an opening, it’s important to earmark people that are outside of the organisation too- and that starts with having the talent out there. We stay on top of this by participating in the tech space through a range of initiatives. One of these being our ROBO GIRL coding initiative (a free-to-access project designed to encourage coding and robotics in government schools for girls). By engaging with young women when they get to graduate level, we are able to make sure that tech is a consideration when they start choosing their careers. This helps them to see the potential of the tech space for them and, importantly, to see themselves in that space. In turn, we’ve really seen the interest in female learners pursuing a career in the tech sector rise as a result. In the business itself, our Spill the Tea meet-up once a month is a place where women get together to talk about the challenges that females are going through within the industry. It’s not just the numbers and the business part of it that is powerful, but it is also about making female representation visible, highlighting challenges and finding out how Lenovo can help as an organisation to change things for the better.
What do you think the benefits of a diverse team are and how do you see those benefits in action at Lenovo?
Having different views, not just in terms of gender but from a cultural aspect too, gives everyone a unique perspective that is invaluable; it fosters creativity and innovation and helps us to consider different ways of tackling problems. I also believe it increases employee engagement and satisfaction as well as a sense of belonging, acceptance and safety. Finally, it makes the team more fun! It’s important from a customer perspective too; our customers come from many different cultures, so we must be sure to reflect this as a team. By doing so we are able to understand where they’re coming from in terms of culture or religion.
What do you personally believe is the biggest DE&I issue globally now in the tech industry, and how can we best address this?
The biggest issue in tech right now is that there are still just not enough females in tech, and we need all voices and perspectives in order to advance. Even though Lenovo is ahead of the curve, it is still very much a concern and something we will continue to address and set clear goals towards. This can be seen through Lenovo’s latest ESG report which includes references to the goals we have set and the progress we have made as a company. An example of this is the Lenovo workforce in EMEA recently setting a new target of 27% increase in female representation by 2025. In addition to this, inclusive recruitment and hiring policies, diversity training and education and support groups are playing a big part in moving DE&I forward at Lenovo and seeing everything that’s being done in the organisation is really exciting and inspiring to be a part of.
