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ABOUT AURORA:
Based in London's Square Mile, Aurora is a company that provides gender management software to industry and delivers a 20,000 member businesswomen's network that advances women-led ventures and women’s corporate careers. Aurora serves over 50 corporate clients globally covering across most sectors and has won a number of awards for its innovation. Aurora's gender management software powers the 'Where women want to work' online service for women to research and compare companies. For more information visit www.wherewomenwanttowork.com.
HOW HAS AURORA PROVIDED AN ALTERNATIVE, INFORMATIVE VOICE ENHANCING DEMOCRATIC DEBATE?
Aurora has developed a unique online service for women to tell other women what it is like to work in different organisations and comment on organisations’ diversity promises and activities. By using the global online application www.WhereWomenWantToWork.com (www2wk) women can research and compare organisations in different sectors and their commitment to recruiting, retaining and advancing female talent. Currently over 110,000 women across the globe use this online service every month to access invaluable information on over 35 corporate and government clients. This helps women to make discerning choices about where they want to work, spend and invest.
www2wk is also a democratic voice of women and organisations alike. Women are enabled to comment on organisation’s gender management performance and to express their satisfaction as well as concerns regarding organisations represented on www2wk. Organisations in turn have the right to reply to women’s comments as is demonstrated in the example below:
“Goldman Sachs has a 'tuition reimbursement' policy, but reading the fine print you'll see that this doesn't support all courses. According to the HR handbook: courses that are not eligible for reimbursement include Executive MBA courses and you are not entitled to Study Leave for courses for which you will be seeking reimbursement through the Tuition Reimbursement Program". Aurora asked Goldman Sachs about this, they said: "Reasonable time off will be granted, subject to your manager's discretion, for study leave in order to prepare for certain job-related exams."
Women are also encouraged to rate organisations via the polling feature on www2wk voicing their opinion if a specific organisation actually is an employer of choice for women. Polling results are fed back to organisations on a monthly basis enabling Human Resources / Diversity Managers to influence the barometer of women’s opinions by reacting to women’s points of view.
Since 2000 Aurora has successfully been collecting, exchanging and distributing information with women employees, industry and government about the significance of understanding the economic impact of where women want to work, spend and invest. Aurora is the only company to focus on the needs of women and focuses primarily on the advancement and growth of women development in the workplace. For the first time women can see which organisations are employers of choice for women by reading and comparing organisations responses to 20 gender related questions. Women, as well as organisations, have a right to reply and to voice what is important to them. Claire Pacificador
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ABOUT AURORA:
Based in London's Square Mile, Aurora is a company that provides gender management software to industry and delivers a 20,000 member businesswomen's network that advances women-led ventures and women’s corporate careers. Aurora serves over 50 corporate clients globally covering across most sectors and has won a number of awards for its innovation. Aurora's gender management software powers the 'Where women want to work' online service for women to research and compare companies. For more information visit www.wherewomenwanttowwork.com.
HOW HAS AURORA INFLUENCED OPINIONS AND BEHAVIOUS THROUGH THE USE OF NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGY?
Aurora uses new media technology to influence women’s perception and behaviours regarding where to work, spend and invest. Aurora has successfully planted valuable information with women employees and industry about the importance of understanding the economic value of women. As a campaigning organisation, Aurora is improving workplaces for women by making organisations publicly accountable and visible regarding what they do to actively recruit, retain, and advance women employees. Via www.WhereWomenWantToWork.com (www2wk), Aurora’s online service for women to research and compare organisations, women are also actively encouraged to apply for careers they may have previously deemed as unsuitable for them as women. Aurora is the only company to focus on the economic advancement of women in the market- and workplace.
Aurora provides GENDEX, the world’s first online gender management application that also powers www2wk. Organisations represented on www2wk reach a global audience giving them a powerful opportunity to publicly show their commitment to female employees, consumers and investors.
GENDEX also comprises a best practice database channelling organisations’ gender management strategies and activities in 20 key areas including flexible working, parental and care support, business case for women, mentoring and coaching, etc. Large corporations such as Shell, IBM, HSBC or Deloitte use the GENDEX best practice database to successfully plan their gender management activities. The database also includes a self-assessment tool enabling individuals responsible for diversity to assess the organisation’s gender management performance.
"GENDEX provides us with a useful framework for identifying what is required to become an employer of choice for women. It has helped us to identify our core strengths and has highlighted areas in which we can improve. The 'Where women want to work' service is a great platform for marketing our achievements in attracting, retaining and advancing our female talent," said Emma Appleby, Diversity Manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
On another front Aurora substantially influenced women businesses by providing www.network.auroravoice.com, an online source of information for female entrepreneurs. New technology helps Aurora to accumulate the voices of the company’s Gazelles Network, a platform for over 20,000 women. This in turn ensures that Aurora identifies emerging trends and issues regarding women enterprises so Aurora can provide a critical voice to industry and politics. Having a unique platform for women-owned businesses is vital to influence key decision makers. Aurora pushes the horizons through rigorous debate.
After 5 very active years in the market space Aurora is a recognised brand for women’s economic advancement. The company plays an important role in changing corporate cultures into inclusive and gender-diverse work environments. New technology such as the Internet is Aurora’s main method to influence corporate and public perception of women’s participation on all levels of economic, social, political and academic life in the UK, US and Europe. www2wk truly provides “A wealth of detail for women to do their homework on a prospective employer” The Financial Times, 11 March 2004. Claire Pacificador
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ABOUT AURORA:
Based in London's Square Mile, Aurora is a company that provides gender management software to industry and delivers a 20,000 member businesswomen's network that advances women-led ventures and women’s corporate careers. Aurora serves over 50 corporate clients globally covering across most sectors and has won a number of awards for its innovation. Aurora's gender management software powers the 'Where women want to work' online service for women to research and compare companies. For more information visit www.wherewomenwanttowwork.com.
HOW HAS AURORA MAXIMISED ACCESS TO INFORMATION OR SERVICES THROUGH NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGY?
Aurora makes work-related information accessible to women worldwide who want to find out as much as possible about organisation’s approach and activities in recruiting, retaining and advancing female talent. Aurora provides a global online service called www.WhereWomenWantToWork.com (www2wk) for women to maximise access to information about organisations’ commitment to women. Women use Aurora’s www2wk to research and compare different organisations and their commitment to the development and progression of female employees. This includes organisations’ detailed information on 20 key indicators such as values, business case for women, management support, parental and care support schemes, flexible working options, equal pay, female role models, corporate women’s networks, statistics and figures, women employees’ satisfaction, etc. Additionally women can access latest business news and organisations’ press releases from a gender perspective. Currently over 110,000 women across the globe use www2wk each month to access current and reliable information on over 35 corporate and government clients from all sectors and hence make discerning choices about where they choose to work.
Aurora also supplies clients with insightful gender-related market intelligence on a month-to-month basis. GENDEX, Aurora’s online gender management application that powers www2wk, enables organisations to access gender-correlated stats and trends 24/7. This information includes the most researched indicators on www2wk, competitor’s performance, sector and industry performance, women’s perception of the organisation as employer and service provider, etc. This knowledge is vital for organisations to identify effective diversity strategies and monitor progress over a set period of time. GENDEX thus has a great influence on organisations gender diversity behaviours and policies by providing access to women’s comments and polling, employee internal surveys and comparative benchmarking data. Organisations also use the information to identify strong and weak areas in their corporate culture as well as to identify future steps on their diversity journey.
"Gathering our evidence under the GENDEX 20 gender capital indicator framework has been a really worthwhile exercise because it has enabled us to pin point what we're doing well with regard to gender diversity and where we can either enhance what we are doing or improve how it is embedded in our management systems. Also, we have recognised a need to better communicate our activities in this arena internally and externally, and regard the 'Where women want to work' service as a key strand in our communication strategy. Using personal case studies has proved to be a very powerful way to explain what it is like working at IBM and why it is a great place for women to work," says Gaynor Cooke, EMEA & UK Women's Leadership Co-ordinator, IBM.
Considering Aurora’s Businesswomen network the company also provides imperative data to women entrepreneurs on www.network.auroravoice.com. Aurora mainly focuses on providing key information on two core business areas: finance (access to capital for business growth) and technology (business scalability, operations and latest development). Aurora’s online discussion forums offer useful access and exchange of information for business and career acceleration. Questions are usually answered in less than ten minutes establishing a truly unique and very supportive online platform for women entrepreneurs. Aurora’s online web casts enable female entrepreneurs to share their knowledge with the community, please see http://network.auroravoice.com/ict/home.asp.
Aurora is pleased to make vital information accessible and obtainable for female employees that would otherwise not be available in the public. Claire Pacificador
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