This year the theme of International Women’s Day is “embrace equity”. This is a theme that resonates deeply with Mad Mex. We’re committed to providing equal opportunities for women at every level of our organization – from our staff in restaurants to our executive team.
As one of our team recently said to us: “As a working mum, flexibility and support is important to me, and it brings me so much joy to be able to say that Mad Mex has provided this along with amazing growth and development for me in my career.” Another that has also been building their career with us said: “I love working at Mad Mex because the entire team celebrates everyone’s wins and accomplishments, it’s in our DNA.”
Our COO, Therese Frangie, also shared her insights on what it means to be a woman in leadership and how we can continue to promote equity in the workforce. Here are two thoughts from her that reflect the Mad Mex ethos and philosophy:
Provide flexibility and support to accommodate employees’ individual needs
Embracing equity means recognising that everyone has unique needs, and we need to provide tailored opportunities for success. By asking our employees to bring their ‘whole selves’ to work, we need to support them to do so. Take returning mums for example. Understanding their return to work needs and providing flexibility and remote working can allow for women to return to work as early as they desire without having to sacrifice things like breastfeeding. This allows organisations to retain top talent, and woman can continue to contribute.
Educate teams on culture differences and celebrate these differences
Diversity and cultural differences are an advantage to businesses and should be celebrated. We must educate and coach our teams on cultural differences so that they are aware of their own biases that may impede on their leadership, or customer service. In a multi-distributed business, this may feel out of our control, but with ongoing training and education, cascaded across all levels, we can help teams within the network understand and appreciate cultural differences and celebrate these differences.
At Mad Mex, we don’t just pay lip service to our philosophy on leadership and women. We truly believe that every team member deserves a positive and authentic experience in their workplace. That’s why we’re committed to delivering not just equality, but equity to everyone who joins our familia – no matter their background or lifestyle.
From the team at Mad Mex Happy International Women’s Day! Let’s all do our part and #embraceequity.