Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) are goals that companies strive toward in order to better support their employees and create healthy environments. By embodying these values, companies can find and retain top talent, respond to the needs of a broader customer base, and remain resilient in the face of change.
We sat down with Barbara Schmoll, Vice President AutoBanks and FINN as a Service at FINN. As part of the Women at FINN squad and the Women’s Mentoring Program, she has extensive experience in the topic. Barbara shares her thoughts on the power of fostering an open community, making people aware of their biases, and staying motivated.
Hi, Barbara 👋 Could you tell me about the diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at FINN?
We’ve got many initiatives in progress. First of all, we have two squads: the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion squad (DE&I squad) and the Women at FINN squad.
The DE&I squad and the People team provide impactful resources like an “unconscious bias” training and drive a diversity survey to gain an informed understanding of where we have to improve, create initiatives, and be proactive in fostering diversity.
The Women at FINN squad was formed almost three years ago with the intent to create more awareness around gender issues. We officially launched the squad on International Women’s Day in 2022, which was centered around the topic ‘Breaking the Bias’. With this great kick-off motto, we educated FINN employees about the efforts of women in mobility and how they broke the bias to pave the way for mobility as we know it today (think: Bertha Benz). We also used the occasion to celebrate the talented women at FINN with some drinks and cupcakes.
We also have an ongoing Women in Tech initiative, which we launched in 2021, aiming to grow our share of women in the tech teams and encourage them to pursue a career in this field. The main goal is to get women into the workforce and into leadership since STEM subjects, especially, lag behind other areas. With this initiative, we want to make it obvious that these tech roles are for women, too, and therefore they shouldn’t be hesitant to apply. We want to specifically encourage their applications.
One of the most recent initiatives is the Women’s Mentoring Program where we connect young professional women to more experienced mentors and allow them to have a safe space to ask questions, receive career advice, and feel inspired in their professional and personal growth.
What do you focus on in the Women at FINN squad?
In the Women at FINN squad, we have defined three pillars to guide us: Educate, Empower, and Energize.
Firstly, we aim to educate everyone at FINN on gender-specific topics, including sharing clear behavioral guidelines, raising awareness of the personal experiences and challenges of our colleagues, and providing visibility over the many additional training opportunities that women have access to through their personal development budget.
Secondly, we aim to empower women through formal opportunities, such as the Women’s Mentoring Program, as well as informal opportunities where women can exchange thoughts on professional and personal topics. We want to ensure that women have a seat at the table, especially for decision-making, by raising awareness of current practices and ensuring a higher share of women in leadership.
And thirdly, we aim to energize people by building communities in which women at FINN find the opportunity to share, network, build relationships, raise their concerns, find allies, and have a safe space to ask “uncomfortable” questions.
How do you measure the impact of these initiatives?
There’s variety in how we approach measuring initiatives and drawing conclusions, so it depends. For instance, we recently asked mentees and mentors in the mentoring program for feedback through surveys. We use that kind of qualitative feedback to find out what we can do better, how we can support people better, and how we can find the best matches.
FINN also uses Officevibe, our tool for measuring well-being, engagement, and inclusivity. We ran a survey specifically on the professional development aspects for women and looked at how they differ between men and women. This feedback was more quantitative and it allowed us to find areas for improvement.
Of course, for initiatives like Women in Tech, we can quite easily track the number of applications and subsequent hires. Since the initiative started, we have already hired 13 women who applied.
Since you mentioned the Educate pillar, I wanted to ask you: How do you approach educating people on recognizing their biases and setting them aside?
I mentioned earlier we’ve also rolled out an unconscious bias training, offered by DECIDE, as our diversity training. It was made available to people in senior management, those involved in hiring, the People team, and to other people who were interested. The training was science-oriented, so it was less about who says what and more about the science of bias and how to overcome it. The idea was to go into different situations asking yourself ‘Why am I thinking this way now?’ Since nobody is immune to biased thinking, women also participated in the training.
Do you have examples of specific improvements that you have seen in the company culture since the start of these initiatives?
A few initiatives that started in the last two years are making a visible impact. The qualitative aspects, however, are hard to measure. It’s difficult to say if people are more aware of a personal bias, for example, or to track whether their behavior has changed in a certain way. What we can see is that there is more awareness of gender inequalities and, in response, more effort to combat personal biases.
The People team is continuously working tirelessly to ensure an equal ratio of men, women, and diverse colleagues distributed across different levels in our career development matrix. The distribution of salaries has been redefined through salary bands that ensure there is no pay gap.
We are in it for the long run. It’s not realistic to aim for a state where we are all done. Countless cultural, political, and economic factors impact how women are seen and treated, as well as the opportunities available to us within and outside of the workplace.
Changing people’s mindsets is definitely a marathon. Not just at FINN, but also in the larger context, there are so many topics that need attention. There’s so much work to be done on safety, health, work, mobility, and so on. Literally in every part of life. It isn’t something that we can solve easily. First, we need to become aware of this, and that’s why we have Educate as one of our major pillars in the Women at FINN squad. After we have educated people, we can empower women to speak up, push for change, be heard, and energize others to be part of the movement, of the change, and work toward a more equal world.
What is the one achievement in that area that you’re most proud of?
For me, it’s the mentoring program. We started this as an OKR initiative and now have almost 80 professional women at FINN, who are participating as mentees. We were able to win top experienced women leaders from outside of FINN to participate as mentors. I am super proud of the Mentoring Committee and the work those women put in to support other women - it’s great to see them grow through it.
What inspired you personally to get involved in diversity, equity, and inclusion?
I don’t think it was one person or one specific event. I’ve been working for thirteen years in a full-time job in the automobile industry. I’ve been the only woman at the table countless times. I have been asked to get coffee for everyone or take notes along with less senior people in the room. I have had my looks commented on, on countless occasions. I have been paid less than my male peers. I have found myself in uncomfortable and inappropriate situations that were inflicted on me by managers, colleagues, and partners.
As I progressed in my career, I became more confident in dealing with those situations and was able to speak up whenever I felt mistreated. I think that I still took the hard road. Uncomfortable situations were played down, I was never given a reason for being paid worse, etc.
This led me to a learning process and into a “bubble” of sorts, where I now read a lot about these topics and follow many people who discuss them. I got connected to other women in the industry through Women in Mobility. I made sure to be an advocate and an ally to other women. Now, empowerment is such a big part of my life.
I still have moments where I find this topic extremely frustrating. What difference does a FINN knowledge session or a Women in Mobility MeetUp make if we live in a world of femicides, hate crimes, and victim blaming? Not doing anything is just so much more frustrating.
These are all the things that motivate me. It didn’t start with one singular moment, it’s been a process, or a marathon, really, that is probably going to continue for a long time. Just being active, doing something, and knowing that others will appreciate it or learn from it, is already worthwhile. I, too, learn a lot by researching topics, preparing sessions, and hosting events and I enjoy that a lot.
What is your advice for someone who wants to get involved and try these kinds of initiatives at their workplace?
First of all, just do it. Remember, there is really no right or wrong way. I’d be happy to talk to anyone who is keen on these topics. A great way to connect and learn from others is through professional networks. For our industry, Women in Mobility is a network focusing on connecting women in the mobility space.
From my perspective, though, the number one tip, especially in companies, is to find allies. Reach out to your team, your management, and your peers, and find people with whom you can have a constructive conversation. Finding allies to run with you or pick you up when it gets hard is the most fundamental thing for finding the right fit for your organization and for driving change forward.