Gender Equality Plan for 2024
Version 3.0, February 2024
Author: Pernille Hippe Brun
Introduction
According to the UN, gender equality refers to “the equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities of women and men and girls and boys”. This is a crucial prerequisite for society sustainable development and, as such, it concerns both men and women and can be achieved only with the engagement of both genders. Equality between women and men is seen both as a human rights issue and as a precondition for, and indicator of, sustainable people-centered development, as outlined by the UN.This concept acknowledges the importance of considering the needs, rights and interests of men and women in any aspect of our professional and private life. Same possibilities should be available to any person regardless of gender and any other personal characteristics.
Session strives for gender equality and does not tolerate discrimination of any kind - based on sex, religion, sexual orientation, nationality, ethnicity. At Session, all employees are given the same opportunities to develop as professionals and human beings.
The Current State of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Session ApS
This section reports on different aspects related to gender equality in the Company.
Data presented are referred to February 2024.
Gender distribution in the company:
Session is proud to demonstrate that our company shows equality in its gender distribution. As illustrated above, our founding team, c-suite executives, and general employees enjoy an equal 50/50 gender distribution split, while the majority of our freelance coaches are female. We are actively seeking to employ more male freelance coaches to bring about equilibrium among gender distribution for our coaches.
Salary
All employees with the same qualifications receive equal pay for equal working time and work, regardless of their gender. Session commits to continue equal pay for all genders now, and in the future.
Contractual relationships
Employees are employed either with full-time or part-time contracts or on a freelance contract.
Parenthood
Maternity and paternity leaves are guaranteed according to the laws of the different countries where employees are based. After the completion of parental leave, employees are provided with the same responsibilities and working hours as before the leave, unless otherwise agreed with the employer concerning working hours. Working time is flexible in order to enable reconciliation of work and family life.
Internationality
Session welcomes - and celebrates - cultural and national differences and employs workers, coaches and freelancers who are internationally based. Session currently brings together 8 individuals working on our core product (developing the platform, delivering high quality service to our customers, selling to new customers, writing and developing marketing materials and content, selling etc). These 8 people come from 6 different countries - including Denmark, Ireland, Canada, Ukraine, Poland, and China.
Our Coaches are from all over the world, currently we have coaches based in 15 different countries, including Denmark, Spain, India, Kenya, Australia, China, the USA, and more.
Targets and actions
No specific gender biases could be detected from the previous analysis of the state gender equality in Session. The only aspect that stands out is the fact that the gender distribution amongst our freelance coaches is not evenly distributed, with a majority of female coaches. As mentioned in the previous section, we endeavor to hire a more balanced male-female ratio of coaches in the future.
Action 1 - Employ more male coaches
The way we intend to work with this is to be mindful of looking out for more male coaches and to employ more male coaches in 2024.
Action 2 - Enlightening society on DEI matters in 2024 through professional content
Unfortunately, biases are prevalent in society, and prevent all persons from having the same opportunities regardless of their gender. Session is aware of these biases and commits to strengthen public knowledge of DEI issues in 2024 and beyond. In 2024, we will be writing and publishing more articles on DEI matters. We are aiming to publish 2 articles with different perspectives on the topic, such as the importance of workplace diversity, job levelling, how to eliminate biases in the recruiting process, and how to include diversity initiatives as strategic business priorities. These articles will be aimed for publication by the end of 2024. We will also hold at least one webinar in 2024 with a specific focus on diversity.
Action 3: Promoting wellbeing, mental health and work-life balance amongst all employees - ensuring that all genders thrive and flourish in their work
At Session, we believe well-being and mental health is a basic human right. In 2024 we will focus on our wellbeing, mental health and work-life balance by establishing a culture of check-ins with one another and creating a safe space for all employees to talk openly about how they are doing. We will host 3 check-in circles 1:1 with each employee to make sure they are thriving and growing in their job, and that they have a good work-life balance.
Action 4: Finding and employing female founders to lead subsidiaries of Session in their home country
Our aim is to have 2 female founders lead subsidiaries of Session in their home country by the end of 2025. We would like to grow our business with a model where we will offer women and gender minorities in various countries the opportunity to establish a Session branch and leverage our platform to build their business. We believe in the power of network, and by supporting women to step into the role of leading their own division, we create more women role models,
Action 5: Employ more female Engineers to help develop our platform
The worldwide gender distribution of coders, engineers and software developers is hugely dominated by males. In fact, according to Statista, a staggering 91.97% of software developers are males. At Session, we are very aware of this disparity - and would like to do our best to support women in STEM and engineering. We endeavor to add at least two more engineers to our team in 2024, and strive for these developers to be women.
Monitoring
The Gender Equality Plan will be updated every year. Monitoring actions through our internal OKR system is implemented to ensure that the targets are achieved in the short and long- term.
The founders of Session commit to monitor the actions planned to achieve the targets. The targets and actions set in this document are publicly available for everyone to hold us responsible for our intentions and actions.
Approved by Session shareholders and senior management on February 5th, 2024
