The Stena Metall Diversity & competence program
In February, Stena Metall started up a Diversity & Competence Program where a group of technicians and economists with foreign backgrounds and a university degree are participating in the work in different departments that matches their competence and expertise. Michael McGrath, Director of Corporate Affairs, notes that the results are living up to expectations.
“We wanted to match competence with need and make people in the group aware of how we recruit. With this in mind, I think the program has made excellent progress”, says Michael McGrath.
There have been challenges, such as matching tasks with the participants’ competence and finding solutions when language difficulties arise. According to him, the group must have an open and accepting attitude when it comes to employees who are learning Swedish. This makes the workplace attractive to international competence, which adds value to the whole group.
“Diversity contributes to a dynamic in both working groups and management groups. New approaches and ideas make it possible to see completely new perspectives”, says Michael McGrath.
According to Stena Metall’s recruitment strategy, the Group should search for competence in new areas. As a result, today, the Group is collaborating on a long-term basis with Mitt Liv, a social enterprise that promotes an inclusive society and a labour market that values diversity. According to the founder, Sofia Appelgren, this collabo-ration is proof that the Stena Metall Group is on the right track when it comes to diversity.
“The Stena Metall Group is an employer, which is showing by means of concrete actions that it wants to work more inclusively. The company has key persons who already see the value of diversity and care about opening up and seeing opportunities from a profitability perspective. We are very proud of our collaboration and all that it will result in”, she says.
Mitt Liv, together with the Stena Metall Group, will soon follow up the Stena Metall Diversity & Competence Program. Managers, who are involved in the program, will discuss together with trainees how the program can lead to a long-term investment. This is expected to make the company even more open to all the values and opportunities represented by diversity.
“We have created a completely new way of benefiting from people with other experiences and ways of thinking. We have begun a maturational process as a group when it comes to the question of diversity”, says Michael McGrath.
Michael McGrath, Director of Corporate Affairs & Sofia Appelgren, founder of the social enterprise 'Mitt Liv'
