A wider employment and gender diversity is good for everyone
Use of technology is not limited to a specific department or group of people inside of a company. It is part of everyone’s personal and labour life and companies, says Cristina Ghetti (Massa Lombarda, 1973), director of Nestlé’s Workforce 360 group and responsible of the technologhy that is daily used by 300.000 employees of this multinational company. Ghetti, who is also responsible of TI centers of Nestlé in Barcelona and Milan, where more than 700 digital professionals are employed, is also convinced that companies must have a wider diversity in gender, nationalities or experience because it becomes a benefit for them and society as a whole.
The pandemic showed that technology is part of our lifes, personally and professionally, says Ghetti. Having technological knowledge and kwnow how to use technology is a very requested skill for companies like Nestlé, where she works. It is not about the profile that the company is looking for a specific job, because technology is an essential skill for every role, finnance, production, logistics… Technology is important because is used and required for everyone, clients, consumers and employees.
That’s why “technology is at the center of Nestlé’s activities, and in the activity of a huge number of companies”. What we want is that, in the end, technology be at people’s service and most important, helping people who is not used to it, she precises. Developing “friendly” technologies, easy to use and intuitive, is a very pursued objective. Before the pandemic, at Nestlé we started a pilot of augmented reality for the production department, and with the pandemic, we decided toaccelerate it, she precises. Now, all the areas ask for this kind of tools, because it is proved that we improved our eficiency. Ghetti says: “It is not necessary to have a huge development, sometimes, a small improvement in an automated process is very profitable for employees and the company”.
Increase companies diversity
Cristina Chetti is also convinced of the need to boost diversity in companies, in gender, nationality or generational. “In our innovation hub we have a team with four generations of professionals and each one of them brings different points of view: experience, opinions and different ways to approach the problems”. Gender gap is also a huge problem. Ghetti thinks that is not acceptable that the main objective is to reduce differences between men and women, we should focus in a total equality. As it happens in security, we have to reach 0% of mistakes”, not reduce them.
It is precise to work with new generations, consider Ghetti, to accept that a woman can be a good professional. That also can bring a change in leadership mindset and the way that companies approach problems to solve them. Diversity improves companies quality in every way. Having women in leadership positions allow companies to approach situations in a different way. But we don’t have to focus only on “the first woman” it must be also a second one and a third. At Nestlé’s innovation center in Barcelona there is a team of 600 people from 52 nationalities
Very active ecosystem at Barcelona
Besides diversity, it is also important to be part of an innovation ecosystem active, says Ghetti. Barcelona is a privileged spot for innovation and that was one of the main causes why Nestlé decided to set its mail innovation centre in the city. Barcelona is among the four main european cities capable to attract and retain innovative talent, the other ones are London, Amsterdam and Tel Aviv (but she recognizes that we can discuss if we can consider Tel Aviv as European).
The remuneration offered is important to catch innovative talent, but the candidates use to look to many other aspects such as quality of life in the city, climate or having a good ecosystem of other companies and universities to boost the entrepreneurship spirit in startups or big compnaies. “If we talk about boosting innovation, Barcelona has a very properly ecosystem”. Barcelona has a little bit of everything and this is very important, same as diversity, this is very necessary to move forward.
“Technology is now part of our personal and professional life”