Kylie Bryant, Country Manager – New Zealand
Gender Pillar Lead in the Bravura Diversity & Inclusiveness community.
International Women’s Day, 8 March 2022, has as its theme Break the Bias.
This is a theme that resonates strongly with the Diversity and Inclusiveness leadership team at Bravura. I co-sponsor the Gender pillar of our D&I programme with our CEO Nick Parsons, supported by other global champions. The D&I programme focuses on delivering wellbeing, education, confidence and opportunity for women within our business.
The Bravura Gender Pillar is committed to driving change through education, systemic change and the empowerment of women, with demonstrated results.
Over the past year, we have delivered many positive achievements. These included re-launching our local Bravura Women’s Network Forums with more diverse representation from all career levels, as a safe space and forum for discussion on topics relating to female advancement. A gender network was also formed to help drive initiatives on a global scale. We ran support sessions on a number of topics including menopause awareness and financial wellbeing and saw increased senior management engagement.
This year we have started with a strong focus on mentoring and launched a global mentoring circles programme, working with external delivery partner Oro Group Mentoring to help support women to progress their careers within Bravura. We also launched Maternity Mentoring to support women who are planning, currently on, or transitioning back to work from parental leave.
Research has shown that one of the most important factors in women’s career success is mentoring and sponsorship. Mentors are trained to provide a high-quality experience, support and focus on strengths-based psychology to accelerate impact for mentees.
We are also participating in the #IamRemarkable initiative from Google. I have become a facilitator to run #IamRemarkable sessions at Bravura, as well as Unconscious Bias workshops, which we look forward to expanding throughout 2022.
Gender is a pillar I feel particularly passionate about having built my career in largely male-dominated businesses and experienced first-hand the gender biases that can arise consciously and unconsciously. These are biases that we really do have to break if we are to achieve diversity, equity and inclusion, not just within Bravura and the technology and financial services industries, but businesses everywhere. I have been an active champion of change for D&I and Gender throughout my career.
As a mother of two daughters and a son, I have a vested interest in helping to build a world where my children have equal opportunities, irrespective of their gender. I hope that the goal of equal opportunities is shared by all adults desiring a better future.
And as Country Manager, I am accountable for the management of Bravura’s business in New Zealand, which includes identifying emerging needs and opportunities and overseeing the delivery of Bravura’s Professional and Support Services in the region. My role is evidence of breaking bias for women in tech and women in technology leadership roles.
This is why it is important we contribute to #BreaktheBias, by challenging gender norms, assumptions and stereotypes. As individuals, we are responsible for our thoughts and actions, meaning we are capable of changing the way we think and the way we view those around us. Taking responsibility for those thoughts and actions can help us make better choices and drive the change that we want to see.
In New Zealand our gender representation target for 2022 was 30%; we achieved 40%. Our female Leadership target for Bravura as a company is 35% by the end of FY22; in NZ we have achieved 48% – of which I am very proud.
In 2019 I had the opportunity to attend Stanford University, which has the mantra change lives, change organisations, change the world. Through IWD and through D&I programmes like ours at Bravura, I hope we can do that in a highly positive way, starting with a determination to #BreaktheBias.