According to the Unesco (UIS data), less than 30% of the world’s researchers are women. Sika aims to reduce the gender gap, one third of all R&D positions are already held by women. But the company goes beyond the hard numbers and recognizes contributions and achievements of women in science. Diversity in science and R&D fosters varied perspectives and innovation, enhancing research quality and relevance while addressing complex, global challenges effectively.
Science, Technology and Innovation: A Question of Participation and Focus
A clear focus of Sika’s strategy is to attract, engage, and promote more women. Recruitment campaigns across various channels are increasingly targeting women. As part of the Women of Sika campaign, started in 2019, an action plan with toolkits was developed that focuses on the following three pillars: increased attraction, engagement, and promotion of women at Sika.
Improvements are measured through yearly Corporate HR reporting which is executed to monitor data not only on gender but also on age and nationality. As an example, to improve the gender mix in the sales department, Sika has established the Trainee Program in Latin America Women in Sales where participants can gain experience on the job and via specific sales trainings that focus on: Excellence in Pricing and Negotiation; Excellence in Key Account Management; Key Project Management RACE; Sales Performance Program; Essential Sales Skills.
In the United States, Sika signed a partnership with two key women associations with the goal of attracting more women: the National Association of Women Sales Professionals and the National Association of Women in Construction.
Innovation is part of Sika’s DNA and brand positioning. Sika has created the Global Innovation Challenge as part of its ambition to foster the innovative drive of high potential employees. The purpose of this program is to prepare a new generation of innovation leaders and to embrace key change drivers such as sustainability, digitalization, and the circular economy.
The innovation and development journey 2023 involves 36 candidates from 15 different countries that have worked together across regions in five different innovation teams.
In line with Sika’s people strategy and performance culture, the Corporate HR team has embarked on a journey to strengthen its Learning & Development organization and reinforce the digital learning experience with a new technology. The goal is to augment the learning experience and simplify content creation with an integrated learning interface called “SikaLearn”. This new generation of learning platform is now interfaced with SAP SuccessFactors and will exponentially expand Sika’s training portfolio in strategic capability areas. As a blended learning platform, this interface simplifies and facilitates content sharing while creating a more intuitive and user-friendly learning experience.
Sika supports worldwide programs that aim to promote women in STEM professions and to retain them by offering opportunities to develop.
In Switzerland for example, Sika cooperates with the Swiss Association of Women Engineers (SVIN) Network, a platform for the exchange of experience and career development. Sika and SVIN aim to increase the attractiveness of STEM professions for women, to represent the interests of STEM women in public and to attract more young women to STEM professions.
The Sika Business School provides more than 70 programs. Sika Business School courses encompass programs across function with a focus on sales and science. Programs like the Sustainability Academy and the Operations Academy have their own goals, targets, and specific attendees nominated by local management/HR and regional HR managers. Furthermore, many training courses on Sika products and their applications have been moved to a virtual or digital learning format, which expands the reach of these opportunities. To improve the program offerings, the Sika Business School conducts post-programme surveys for all employees undergoing the trainings, and develops action plans based on collected feedback.
Sika participates in Hackathons as they offer a dynamic platform to harness fresh ideas and talent. They foster sustainable solutions by encouraging the development of eco-friendly technologies and processes. As the con-struction industry undergoes a profound digital transformation driven by the urgent need for sus-tainability, efficiency, and resilience, Sika recognizes the importance of embracing this change. To harness the creative and technical talents of the global hackathon community, Sika participated at the HackZurich fom September 15-17, 2023. This Hackathon united the world's best tech talents, selected from thousands of applications, representing several elite universities and leading organi-zations from +85 countries, to collaborate and develop innovative web-, mobile- and hardware applications during a 40-hours hackathon.
