Supermums and Slalom UK: Working together to attract diversity into tech.

“There’s a lack of diversity in tech and a definite shortage of women,” says Heather Black, CEO, Supermums. “When I made my own career pivot to a freelance Salesforce Consultant, I realised that many mums could benefit from a flexible job with the opportunity to earn well. However, it can be hard for women returners to get back into the workplace. Solving this issue gave me the seed of an idea, which eventually became Supermums in 2016. Now, working with companies like Slalom means we can add extra value to our trainees when it comes to what employers are looking for.”

To accelerate careers in tech for diverse talent, Supermums delivers training in Salesforce Admin, Marketing Cloud and consultancy skills, and offers a recruitment service. For the past few years, Heather and her team have been working in partnership with Slalom to scale up these opportunities. Heather continues: “We’re a very inclusive community - despite our name, we welcome parents and non-parents onto our training courses. We’ve built our talent development programmes around nine key ingredients, including technical training and a structured learning programme, as well as real work experience, 1-to-1 mentoring and peer networking. Everything is designed to empower individuals.

“Working with Slalom, we’re able to boost the success and confidence of our trainees via a range of different initiatives. Imposter syndrome can be high when people are changing careers so networking events and weekly one-to-one mentoring from experienced professionals really helps. In fact, our partnership has been so successful, some trainees have even progressed to working there.”

As a purpose-led, global business and technology consulting company, Slalom’s vision is to help people and organisations dream bigger, move faster, and build better tomorrows for all.

Jessica Stern, Alliance Marketing Manager at Slalom, says embracing this motto gives an insight into why it feels so right for the two companies to work together. “It can be difficult to change careers but I’ve seen first-hand how Supermums gives people direction and opportunity when navigating different routes in the Salesforce ecosystem.

“At Slalom we bring innovative solutions and perspectives to our clients so having individuals from all walks and stages of life across our team is essential. As well as sponsoring the Consultancy Skills programme, we run an initiative where our colleagues can volunteer to mentor Supermums’ alumni, host workshops and be guest speakers at their events and courses. This gives our team the opportunity to give back and support others just starting out on their Salesforce careers.”

Someone who started her Salesforce training at Supermums and is now employed by Slalom is Trailblazer Denise Atkinson.

She held senior leadership positions in retail marketing for 20 years before feeling she needed a change. “I wasn’t enjoying my career anymore and decided to retrain. I’d heard about Supermums from several different sources and three things stood out. Firstly, I liked the fact that there were people from so many different backgrounds rather than just IT, which created a lovely supportive atmosphere. Secondly, they offered hands-on experience, something I know employers look for. And thirdly, there was a mentoring element, which I thought would be really useful as I navigated this new phase.”

Denise was mentored by Minesh Patel, a Slalom consultant with 18 years experience. He comments: “Not everyone realises that, when they retrain, they really aren’t starting from scratch. People like Denise already have a lot of life skills and insight from their previous experience which can be applied going forward. The most important part of mentoring is helping people with their approach and building their confidence about how they go about solving a problem.”

Denise adds: “I’d never used Salesforce before so retraining was challenging at the beginning. But that’s part of the beauty of having a mentor – they’re there to guide you through. And Minesh was a wonderful mentor, very calm, collected and happy to answer my questions.”

Denise started with the Supermums’ Admin certification course, and progressed to Marketing Cloud. “Marketing is the world I know and love. My journey to finding a new job wasn’t straightforward but I’m now in absolute heaven being able to get involved in Marketing Cloud roles for Slalom, especially when the client is a retailer. It’s an amazing company to work for, a place where diversity is far from a tickbox exercise. I was very senior in my previous career so it can be quite hard to start again, but they’ve always made me feel like I have something extra to offer, that I’m included and that my opinions are valued.”

Jessica comments: “Denise is an incredible example of what can happen when you decide to jump and try something new. She’s already been promoted and now mentors others within the team. We are very lucky to have her.”

Looking to the future, Heather is excited to support other Trailblazers like Denise into the Salesforce ecosystem. “I love that we have an impactful organisation, which has already made a difference to over 900 learners like Denise in more than 10 countries. With the partnership of companies like Slalom, we’re going to keep growing our community and building existing courses out. People are so passionate about our mission and the feedback that we get is that we’ve changed people’s lives. It’s an amazing thing to be able to do as part of your day job!”