Towards gender equality

More and more, we want to be ourselves at the workplace: free to share our opinion, free to come as we are, free from hiding any part of our personal life… Accordingly, companies bend over backwards to make this happen and embed it in programmes that ensure environments where we can experience this freedom.

Cellnex has brought this to life in its Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Programme, which includes the company’s commitments and strategies in these areas and focuses on five lines of action: gender, generational, emotional-sexual, cultural and functional. The company, which in five years has integrated multiple teams in 12 countries and represents numerous identities, philosophies, ideas and perspectives, is aware that this strategy requires work in collaboration. For that reason, it has EDI Champions, a group of employees from varying countries, positions, genders and ages who help to implement and promote the action plan.

One of the five EDI pillars is gender. In a historically unequal sector like telecommunications, Cellnex’s work on equality in this field aims to promote equal opportunities and foster gender equity at all levels, inside and outside the company.

In 2021, Cellnex joined Target Gender Equality, an accelerator programme helping signatory companies on the United Nations’ Global Compact to deepen implementation of the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEP) and strengthen contributions to SDG 5.5 (participation and equal opportunities for women’s leadership).

With Target Gender Equality, Cellnex’s challenge is to assess its gender equality performance, set ambitious corporate targets and take action to address barriers to gender equality both within the organisation and across its wider sphere of influence. “Our goal is for women to make up 50% of all new hires, occupy at least 30% of management positions, and receive at least 50% of all promotions by 2025”, says Arantza Caja , Global Head of Talent Management at Cellnex.

This effort is paying off: in 2022, Cellnex was selected as one of 418 companies to join the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index (GEI), which measures gender equality against five pillars: female leadership and talent flow, equal pay and gender pay parity, inclusive culture, sexual harassment policies and pro-women branding. The index recognizes Cellnex’s commitment to advance gender equality in the labour market by developing policies and initiatives to promote women’s careers and greater female representation in the organisation. (As of this July the company’s Board of Directors has six female directors, exceeding the 50% gender-diversity target.) It also acknowledges the company’s efforts in recent years to continue moving towards wage equality, gender pay parity, female leadership, talent promotion and more.

Another indication that we are moving in the right direction is shown by the fact that Cellnex was the first company in Italy to achieve UNI/PdR 125 certification, proof that the company has introduced concrete measures to reduce the gender gap in growth opportunities, equal pay, equal roles, gender management policies and maternity protection. “We welcome the integration of the gender equity principle into national legislation and are very proud to have received this certification. In fact, this is the only way to overcome stereotypes and focus on designing and implementing concrete policies that invest in talent, regardless of gender”, says Gianluca Landolina, CEO of Cellnex Italy.

But not all the work is internal; part of the solution lies in promoting and fostering STEM careers among young women outside the company. In that connection, this June, in Poland, Adesola Ajibola, CFO of Cellnex Poland, gave an inspirational presentation at the Women in Tech Summit discussing her personal experience in tech companies and at Cellnex in particular. “Little by little I started to build my foundation. One job at a time, one step at a time”, she said, adding, “I have worked in many sectors, but nothing has been as exciting as my time in technology. It is constantly changing, it is dynamic. The innovation is unparalleled. And this innovation is creating more and more roles and opportunities for women in technology”.

The company also works to promote STEM careers among young women by collaborating with Technovation Girls, a global technology and entrepreneurship initiative led by girls aged 10 to 18 that fosters careers in technology, opens doors to the world of tech for young women and encourages enterprise.

Taken together, these are firm steps towards gender equality at every level of the organisation and in all dimensions of the company.