The security sector is committed to female talent

At present, these programmes that promote female talent are being implemented in Spain, as a pilot project that is intended to be exported to Latin America in a few months. As regards women who might be interested in joining the company, the Prosegur Foundation has also set up awareness-raising workshops in schools to encourage women to pursue science-focused careers that will enable them to enter the security sector. "I had never been aware of the role of women in managerial positions until I came to Asia," explains Maria Angeles Bosch, Head of HR for Asia-Oceania and Africa.

Bosh explains that she has always ensured that there is no discrimination and that, when selecting candidates, it never matters whether they are a man or a woman, although she is aware that there is still a long way to go. She suggests that surveys and studies should be carried out "to discover the reasons why there is a lower percentage of women in the security sector so that we can change it. Once we know the reasons why women leave, then we can look for solutions to help them find a better work-life balance and establish loyalty programmes".

A few months ago, Prosegur’s office in Argentina participated in a blind recruitment initiative carried out by a job portal. "The voters could not know the gender, nationality or age of the applicants and the results were very interesting," says Paula Di Paola, project leader for Employer Branding and Talent Management in the South American country.

Di Paola explains that " this type of initiatives are very good because they allow you to choose based on skills and technical knowledge, without any bias". At the same time, she challenges women to join the world of security: "Here they will discover a world they will be passionate about. And their vision is vital and can make a big contribution to achieve the company's purpose of making the world a safer place.

The security industry has stepped up its commitment to promoting female participation in the business world. In recent years, society has been increasingly vocal about the role of women, and companies in the sector don’t want to trail behind.

Prosegur, in accordance with its commitment to gender equality, parity and talent management, has developed a roadmap along these lines, with the aim of promoting female talent through a battery of programmes to tap the potential of women in the security sector.

"We are developing a programme that includes everything from awareness-raising on biases for the entire workforce, to workshops to promote leadership, self-promotion and visibility of women with responsibility in the company", explains María Victoria Jiménez, Global Director of Labour Relations. Actions that help to reverse the figures that show that, as of 2017, only 27% of managers in Spain are women, according to the Grant Thornton Women in Business report.

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The company has always been committed to fostering internal talent, which has meant that people who started in the lower levels are now reaching management positions. However, this has limited diversity, which is why the company is speeding up internal mobility and promotion of women, providing them with networking tools, career planning and workshops on equity and promotion of women with specialists such as Sylvia Jarabo, managing partner at Promising Women, a consultancy firm that supports companies in the promotion and advancement of female managers. 

"It is important to train these women on the importance of relationships in the business world and emphasize the importance of building a strong network of contacts from an early stage," notes Jarabo in her book Es la hora de las directivas (Amazon KDP). She is the author of several publications where she reflects on female talent within companies, arguing that if the percentage of women graduating from higher education (58.4%) is higher than that of men (57.0%), and women in turn obtain higher grades, why is it that their job placement rate, their job quality and the average salary of women are lower than those of men?

KPMG's 2014 Cracking the Code report found that women become more ambitious regarding leadership as they reach senior positions. Against this backdrop, Prosegur’s Top Performing Women (MAR) Programme, developed in partnership with Promising Women, seeks to individually track women in senior positions to help them achieve extraordinary results.

According to Prosegur’s Global Director of Labour Relations "this type of initiative is a commitment to give greater visibility to the great professionals that we have in the company, and to help them advance and hold positions of greater responsibility".

The objective is clear: to foster and retain female talent. To this end, the company has launched #EmpoweredWomen, an initiative that seeks to raise awareness among our professionals, promote women's leadership and self-promotion and foster and retain female talent.

The Prosegur Foundation, in turn, awards the Empowered Women scholarships aimed at all female staff, especially operational staff. "We are looking for women who, due to work-life balance issues, have not been able to develop professionally as they would have liked to, and we want them to grow within the company," says María Victoria Jiménez.