International Women's Day, Part 2: Join Us in Celebrating Our Women@ Community
Our women@harness Employee Resource Group leadership team has been hard at work adding structure to our program, and used International Women’s Day as an excuse to announce exciting new updates! First and foremost, we revealed our updated mission, which is to empower women to thrive at Harness by hiring, supporting, and advancing them at all levels of the company. Through connection, mentorship, education, collaboration, discussion and engaging allies, we aim to increase individual and organizational success.
With our north star clear, we knew we needed someone to help champion that mission and ensure our efforts were heard at all levels of the organization. This brings us to our second exciting announcement: we are thrilled to announce and celebrate the fact that we now have an official exec sponsor – our General Counsel, Jill Passalacqua. Jill brings years of wisdom and leadership to the table and will help us elevate our mission.
Employee Resource Groups can be great tools in inspiring and driving D&I in the workplace, but it is important that these are run and driven by employees. We’re lucky to have a group of passionate folks who are willing to invest the time and energy in building out our women@harness ERG.
This role is volunteer-based, and the work done for the program is in addition to our regular day jobs - but the nature of the work is rewarding and important. Over the next two blogs in this series, we will continue to highlight our amazing women@harness ERG team, and invite you to celebrate them with us!
Meet Our Women@ Leaders
Introduce yourself! Who are you, what is your day job, and why are you part of the women@harness ERG leadership team?
Hi, I am Ankita Rosensweig. I am Sr. Director in the Customer Success Management team. As one of the first female hires at Harness, I was fortunate to get a lot of opportunities to progress in my career, which would not have been possible without the support of the leadership team and my colleagues. Being on the ERG leadership team helps me give back to our expanding community of women at Harness. A lot of studies show that closing the gender gap improves business outcomes. I am hoping to do my part in bringing about that change.
This year’s International Women’s Day theme is #BreakTheBias. What is one way you help bust biases at work/on your teams?
In my experience, women oftentimes downplay their achievements and are a lot less likely to self-promote than their male colleagues. I am fortunate enough to have some amazing women on my team. This year, I am challenging myself to create an environment where they feel empowered to share their achievements and successes. I want to create opportunities to highlight the amazing work that they are doing and celebrate with them.
Do you feel like you’ve had to work harder to prove yourself?
I have always worked hard in life to achieve my goals and I wouldn’t have it any other way. If I don’t have to work hard, I’m probably not setting the right goals. A lot of times, women have to break down more barriers on their path to success, but it also makes us more strong-willed. I am grateful for all the opportunities that I have gotten at Harness, but I am also very proud of myself for taking those opportunities and making the most of them. Nothing great was ever achieved without hard work and determination.
Introduce yourself! Who are you, what is your day job, and why are you part of the women@harness ERG leadership team?
My name is Britney Pierini, I’m the Global Director of Workplace Design + Experience, focusing on creating a positive, engaging, and inclusive experience for our employees at home, in office, and hybrid. As a woman in tech, I’ve found myself pushing boundaries and coming up against obstacles many women face in the workplace. Being part of the ERG leadership team is so important to me to support and uplift women at Harness as we continue to push the boundaries and provide that positive space for women and allies alike.
This year’s International Women’s Day theme is #BreakTheBias. What is one way you help bust biases at work/on your teams?
My teams in Workplace typically are all female teams, and in my experience, can oftentimes be underappreciated for their contributions. My goal and focus this year in breaking biases is to provide opportunities and space for my team to be uplifted and expand in their roles outside of their day-to-day responsibilities and recognizing those contributions.
Do you feel like you’ve had to work harder to prove yourself?
Yes, I have felt that I have had more to prove as a woman than men my equal, especially as a leader or subject matter expert in my role. It’s at times been really disheartening and frustrating, but focusing on showing up as myself with my thoughts, ideas, and expertise to the table is really important to me. I remind myself that I’ve put in the work, know what I’m doing, and always have the best intentions for my employees and the businesses I support. These experiences have given me many opportunities to show what I am capable of and appreciate when allies step up to support.
Introduce yourself! Who are you, what is your day job, and why are you part of the women@harness ERG leadership team?
I’m Fanny - I’m based in London where I’m lucky to be supporting our TDR team locally here in EMEA as their Manager. I jumped on the chance to join the ERG leadership team as soon as I heard about it. Having worked in startup tech sales for the past 5 years, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been the only woman in the room, and it’s painfully outdated.
This year’s International Women’s Day theme is #BreakTheBias. What is one way you help bust biases at work/on your teams?
Even as a feminist, I know I still have biases I can’t get rid of. I think we all need to accept that so that we can correct it. Something I want to focus on this year is to be very intentional in hiring for the team: not just that I’m interviewing enough women, but that when I interview people I’m valuing traditional female traits (empathy, listening, collaboration) as strongly as traditionally male traits (assertiveness, independance, confidence). Several studies have proved that women in sales outperform men, so why do they outrepresent us?
What are ways we can lift up and support one another?
Love this question because one of my favorite sayings is, “we rise by lifting others.” Empowering those around us and being champions for other under-represented groups is one of the most important things we can do to further equality. Feeling supported and celebrated breeds confidence as well as creativity, and honestly it is so easy for us to do that for one another if we take the time to think about how we can be helping each other.
Conclusion
We are excited to see where this new structure and support can take us, but the work we are doing will take more than just a few passionate women’s time and support. We continue to invite folks to get involved and help out, and our goal is to impact the climate of tech overall - not just the experience for women at Harness.
If you want to get involved and join our community, we are hiring across all departments and geos! As they say, timing is everything. Interested, but not quite yet? Join our Harness Talent Community on LinkedIn to stay connected and in the know!