In the world of business, diversity is now considered an important factor in corporate success. Recognising this development, the Federation of Austrian Industries (IV) has created the new diversity award SPEKTRUM which honours industrial enterprises actively promoting greater innovative strength and competitiveness by adopting an open corporate culture. In the first year of the award, AIT has won in the “Gender Diversity” category.
The award ceremony was held yesterday in Vienna’s city centre. Manfred Tscheligi, Marie Theres Raberger, Susanne Kiefer and Christine Wahlmüller-Schiller jointly accepted the award on behalf of the many employees whose commitment and hard work have made this success possible. “We are delighted with this wonderful award. Innovations arise from applying varied approaches and perspectives to problem solving. The decisive factors include diverse teams with employees from a range of cultures and age groups, and of course the equal recognition and promotion of all genders – this is one of our company’s core values,” says Manfred Tscheligi, AIT Gender Equality Officer and Head of Center for Technology Experience.
Reactions to the IV SPEKTRUM Diversity Award
Managing Director Brigitte Bach congratulated the members of the Gender Office and everyone who has encouraged diversity in recent years. “For everyone involved, this award is not only comforting proof of how far we’ve come, but also a great incentive to continue improving gender and diversity management at AIT. We need to bring more women to AIT, and ultimately also into management positions.”
Gender equality is firmly anchored in the AIT strategy and is integral to its corporate philosophy. A series of diversity measures have been developed and implemented in recent years. They include the Female Leadership Programme which was created to prepare female employees for future leadership or project management roles and to promote their career development. AIT also offers all employees, whatever their gender, the opportunity to adapt their working conditions to their individual needs as a means of optimising their work-life balance. And finally, the AIT Women:Network was established as an open platform to encourage networking amongst female employees on both a formal and informal level.