Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has committed to making their workforce more inclusive, after revealing that almost a quarter of their leadership role employees are women.
SVP & Head of Global Human Resources Orit Ziv authored the company’s blog post, on their “commitment to inclusion and belonging for our workforce.” As part of Women’s History Month, SIE shared ” an update on our commitment to support women in gaming.”
Building on their announcement of their employee gender data last year, SIE revealed the progress they had made over the last 12 months from February 28th, 2022. In summation, the overall percentage of women working at SIE increased 0.5% (25.3% last year to 25.8%). Women in leadership roles (senior director & above) rose 2.6% (21.8% to 24.4%), and women in tech roles rose 0.6%.
It should be noted Ziv states, “We’re especially encouraged to see the 1.3% increase in women in senior leadership roles.” It seems Senior Leadership is different to Leadership.
“The focus on supporting future women leaders in the organization through examples such as mentoring programs, women leadership development programs, sponsorship programs, and internal VP+ Women Leadership Forum will remain a priority at SIE,” the company declared. Further, the SIE: Our Employee Networks (eNets) continue to encourage inclusivity.
This included the Women@PlayStation eNet hosting several virtual and physical activities to build on their “#ThriveTogether theme. Ziv elaborates, “For example, together with our larger Sony sister companies, we co-hosted an executive panel with women in leadership positions across the organization to speak about gender equality in the workplace and beyond.”
“We know that there is still a lot of work ahead of us and keeping our recently refreshed Company Value of acting as ‘One’ front of mind, we are committed to furthering equality at SIE,” Ziv insists. “While our corporate numbers show positive progress and remain consistent with our industry, we know there is more progress to be made and more work to do.”
“That’s why we have developed longterm Global Gender Goals with the aspiration to achieve them by the end of March 2026. These goals include achieving a total headcount of 26.5% women and 26.5% women representation in leadership positions (Senior Directors and above),” Ziv revealed.
Ziv also explained there would be some challenges for SIE to reach its goals. “While we would love to see our target workforce more closely reflect our consumer base of close to 48% of gamers across all ages who self-identify as women, many factors continue to influence workforce data. For example, the availability of women talent is still limited in the gaming and technology sectors.”
“That’s why our work and partners’ support for the next generation of talent and creation of new talent pipelines is crucial,” Ziv touted. “Other impacts range from inorganic growth such as strategic acquisitions to low attrition.”
“Nonetheless, our long-term goals I’ve shared today are a starting point for moving the dial: realistic enough to be achievable and significant enough to make a lasting difference over time,” Ziv argues.
“Our goal remains that we want to have a workforce that reflects diversity of thought and experience so we can continue to create new characters, tell new and different stories, create a culture of ‘One’ within SIE and ultimately, push the boundaries of play in the wider gaming industry.”
In the weeks after that, SIE discussed their work with Girls Make Games, Earth Day 2023, the India Hero Project, and accessibility options in their games and on PlayStation consoles.
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