Gemma Lloyd is one impressive female leader. She’s an award winning entrepreneur whose business is focussed on making workplaces better for women. Gemma’s background is in IT consulting. After 10 years of working in an industry under-represented by females, she co-founded Diverse City Careers (DCC) with the goal of making a difference.
DCC is a job board that only advertises jobs with organisations who are committed to supporting women in the workplace. So far, DCC have accredited over 30 organisations as Employers of Choice for Women. Here’s what Gemma had to share with us about her entrepreneurial roller coaster ride.
What do you love about what you do?
Where do I start? I love almost every aspect of what I do! The biggest thing I love would have to be seeing women gaining employment with the companies advertising with us and how happy they are. Many of these women have previously worked with unsupportive employers or struggled to re-enter the workforce after having children. It’s wonderful to see how confident they are and excited in their new roles.
Secondly, it’s great to work with large organisations who are doing incredible things around diversity and supporting women. I really enjoy it when DCC does digital campaigns to promote some of the diversity initiatives our clients are working on, such as the re-inventing outdated recruitment practices or 2016 IWD #pledgeforparity campaigns. It’s great to promote these positive messages and for them to serve as inspiration for other organisations.
What has been the most significant step in Diverse City Careers’ journey?
Whilst again I feel there’s been so many, I’d have to say it’s when we won the 2016 Tech Diversity Award for Leaders in Advertising. This was very surreal and felt incredible as we’ve worked so hard to build this business.
What has surprised you the most since starting Diverse City Careers?
How much you can do when you work hard and put your mind to it. My co-founder Valeria and I have learnt to do things we’ve never done before that are critical when you start a business from scratch. This includes everything from finance, operations, IT, hiring and training great people. All of these things can seem scary at first, but we’ve been lucky to have great people around to support us.
If there was one piece of advice you would give to a future female leader, what would it be?
Believe in yourself and trust your judgement. When you are confident in your own abilities, you will be your real, authentic self and speak up, openly share knowledge and ideas. I’ve found women (and I’ve been personally guilty of this in the past) can often be more modest than males and not as quick to speak up in meetings. However, it’s also important to realise believing in yourself goes beyond confidence and speaking up, it’s also about knowing who you are, what you value and how you want to influence positive change.
Gemma Lloyd’s commitment to equality goes beyond Diverse City Careers
Gemma won the Sue Wickenden Entrepreneurial Award at the 2016 Women in IT Queensland Awards. She contributes as Company Secretary of the Diversity Practitioners Association (DPA), and has served on two not-for-profit Boards: IT Queensland and Females in Technology and Telecommunications (FITT). Gemma is also a dynamic speaker on diversity and inclusion, entrepreneurship, personal branding and developing confidence for career success.
Having only started DCC 2 years ago, Gemma has already achieved an incredible following. Stay tuned to hear more of her rise and rise. Femeconomy is proud to partner with DCC to advance gender equality.
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