OSLO: For the fourth year running DNV has launched its management development programme tailormade for women. Women currently make up 17% of the company’s managers, and the programme’s goal is to increase this share considerably.

Programme participants and their DNV mentors: Bottom row from left: Magdalenda Kubiak, Karoline Solhaug, Cecilie Ihlebæk (Programme Manager), Anne Rød (External contributor) Second row from left: Dörte Peters, Jelena Gruja, Mireille Larnac, Maury Devine (Vice Chairman of DNV Board of Directors), Karen Dodds, Marianne Valderhaug, Trine Kopperud, Mireille van Kol, Inger Marie Sannerud Third row from left: Anette Kromann, Astri Gaarde, Elisabeth Harstad, Johan den Biggelaar, Jan Einar Horne, Ioannis Kourmatzis, Arnstein Eknes, Rune Torhaug, Peer Chr. Anderssen, Trond Hodne, Yann Hamon, Liv Hovem. Not present: Bjørgulf Haukelid (mentor) and Carl Arne Carlsen (mentor). Photo: Anders Øvreberg

A focus on diversity
DNV wants to have diversity among its employees and managers as regards age, nationality and gender. The company makes active use of various measures, such as mentor programmes, to increase the diversity of its managers. One area with improvement potential is the number of women in managerial positions. A traditional, technology-heavy company like DNV has had a limited recruitment basis when it comes to women.

In order to increase the number of women in managerial positions, DNV has developed its own mentor programme for women. The objective is to increase the number of female managers by motivating women to be, and developing them as, managers, as well as to contribute to network building. The mentor programme has not least focused on increasing the awareness of the female-manager potential in the company among DNV mentors and other top management.

“Based on our experiences so far, the programme has proven to be a valuable and concrete tool to boost the number of women in DNV’s pool of potential leaders,” says HR director Cecilie B. Heuch. About 70% of the women who have taken part in the previous programmes have moved on to positions with more responsibility.

This year’s participants
Twelve women from DNV’s European offices are taking part in this year’s programme. Each of the women has been assigned a mentor who has a top management position in DNV. Seven of this year’s participants come from European countries apart from Norway. The participants have been handpicked and nominated by their managers, based on a number of criteria; among other things, the candidate must have demonstrated clear management potential and have experience from managerial positions in the organisation.

DNV Statistics

• 8,259 employees in DNV
• 1,056 managers
• 31.5% of the employees are women
• 17.4% of the managers are women (new record!)
• The Senior Management Group (SMG) has 54 members, six of whom are women