Best Programmer for Women in Cable: Forerunner Accolade Recipient
When the PAR Initiative launched, Oxygen’s culture was prowoman, but unstructured. Now, women at Oxygen have clear career paths, delineated work/life policies, and a state-of-the art pay equity policy. In short, its culture has matured, benefiting all its women in the process.
This year, Oxygen succeeded on all PAR fronts. Imaginative and results-oriented recruiting efforts leveraged online and realworld social networks to reach women of color. Oxygen’s strategies yielded gains in their women of color, boosting them to 45 percent of its first line managers and supervisors.
By integrating its commitment to preventing domestic violence into its pay equity and other policies, Oxygen gains even more credibility as a force in this cause and strengthens its position as an advocate for women without compromise. Oxygen bans employees from using any company resources — from the copy machines to e-mail service — to engage in domestic violence or harassment of any sort. By weaving its commitment against domestic violence into its cultural DNA, Oxygen is further equipped to market itself as a company that cares and reap the market credibility that will deliver.
Oxygen’s new consumer software development effort pulled in women from across the company into a new product launch, giving them valuable developmental experience. On the work/life front, Oxygen has found inexpensive ways to bring wellness and concierge services to employees.
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Equal pay is a starting point for a pay policy, but it shouldn’t be the ending point. Oxygen Media’s pay equity statement reflects the company’s culture and one of its social missions: to prevent domestic violence.
Not only has Oxygen adopted a pay equity policy that bans discriminating against employees who are experiencing domestic violence, but it conducted manager and employee training on the topic. Oxygen also forbids discrimination against employees reporting pay inequities.
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Oxygen pulled women from all departments and levels into a new consumer software product scheduled to go live in late 2007. A cross-functional group of women came up with the idea based on their perceptions of consumer trends and how women prefer to use Internet services. The online department led product development, and Oxygen managers made sure that the process gave high-potential young women experience in the business and financial aspects of vetting a new service.
Millennial women expect to be included from the start in company initiatives — something Oxygen discovered when it added classes in public speaking. Because that’s a skill important for nearly every employee, from those who present at internal meetings to those who represent Oxygen at nonprofit and recruiting events, the training is now open to all employees.
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With its characteristic imagination, Oxygen takes full advantage of its big-city location to snag discounts on nearby services for employees — delivering a no-cost, high-impact benefit.
To increase participation and better communicate its health and wellness benefits, Oxygen offers prizes to those that attend its health fairs. Prizes include massages, personal coaching phone sessions, manicures and healthy lunches. Oxygen also extends to employees its corporate discount for ergonomic office chairs and furniture, proving that it takes more imagination than money to offer timely, relevant employee amenities.
Oxygen also launched a new program to assist employees involved in domestic violence. The program provides leave and work schedule adjustments for employees needing time for legal, medical, counseling, and other complications.