Work for a Company that Knows Mentorship Matters

In an age when some men are actually avoiding women at work, mentoring women has never been more important. Mentorship has benefits for everyone, but given that we're still struggling to reach gender parity in STEM fields and only 6% percent of CEOs are women, mentorship is of particular importance for women and gender inclusion in the workplace.

Why mentorship for women matters:

People with mentors are more likely to get promoted
Women are 24% less likely than men to get advice from senior leaders
62% of women of color say the lack of an influential mentor holds them back
Some studies have found that women are less likely to have mentoring relationships than their male counterparts

That's why we chatted with 6 companies that understand the role mentorship (and sponsorship) plays in elevating women's careers, and ultimately, building better businesses. Read on to learn more about the ways—formal and informal—these companies foster mentorship and growth for female employees:

Please Note: This is a list, not a ranking.

1) PAX Labs

PAX Labs is an award-winning, consumer technology brand that supports responsible, adult use of cannabis.

Mentorship at PAX Labs

PAX is proactive about mentoring, promoting, and following in the footsteps of all of their great women leaders. PAX has established a Women@PAX group that supports women all-around, and some of their current programs/opportunities include:

All women at PAX have access to high-touch 1:1 executive and leadership development coaching with Head of L&D, Rachel Bassignani.
PAX has a peer group for the women of PAX. They use the Women@PAX group to share information, articles, experiences, and opportunities with one another. For example, of group of women will be taking Krav Maga training together.
Rachel Bassignani, with the support of Molly Orloff, will be hosting internal Peer Coaching Circles for Women@PAX. Peer coaching circles are highly confidential, multi-disciplinary learning environments. Women have the opportunity to learn & practice coaching skills, receive exceptional coaching, and leverage group-think around current challenges and career goals. Furthermore, it is a huge opportunity to network, build deeper connections, and bond with other Women of PAX.

2) Helix

Helix is dedicated to making DNA learning accessible and actionable for everyone.

Mentorship at Helix

Helix has a formal mentorship program, which provides mentors and mentees an opportunity to have conversations about growth, development and professional advice
We have a social awareness group which is a more informal way we provide support to underrepresented groups within the company
As a whole, Helix has a pretty good split of women (45% of the company), so there's opportunity to connect with other women in different departments or backgrounds
Helix also provides funding to go to conferences if you want to grow your professional network and find mentors outside of Helix

Learn more about Helix and their open roles here.

3) Avanade

Avanade is the leading provider of innovative digital and cloud services, business solutions and design-led experiences delivered through the power of people and the Microsoft ecosystem.

Mentorship at Avanade

Mentorship is an important career development vehicle at Avanade as the next generation of leaders need accessible role models from which to learn and be inspired. Avanade has multiple formal and informal mentoring schemes across the company, which enable women to further develop their talent at critical stages of their careers:

The Women's Employee Resource Group (ERG) connects female talent globally facilitating opportunities for networking, development and informal mentoring
The Pathways to Success speaker series, sponsored by the Women's ERG and formally known as Mentoring Circles, has been recently relaunched and it involves a series of talks on a number of topics including mentoring, coaching, career progression, soft skills, motivational talks and senior women sharing their career journey and lessons learned
Local meet ups are organized across our regions, which provide informal mentoring opportunities
As part of Avanade's yearly International Women's Day celebrations, they host 65+ local events globally to provide female talent with networking and informal mentoring opportunities
In late 2018, they launched an Executive sponsorship initiative with leadership from their Executive Committee. They continue to provide mentorship and coaching for top-rated executives, many of which are female.
Avanade builds STEM careers earlier. They proactively cultivate interest in STEM and create new opportunities for young women and girls via their strategic partnerships and STEM Scholars program. This is a long-term commitment by Avanade to help close the gender, technology, and income gaps for women to better enable them to realize their full potential. Each year Avanade selects universities to work with to identify women who are eligible to receive an Avanade scholarship.

Learn more about Avanade and their open roles here.

4) Ubiquity6

Ubiquity6 is working on some of the most compelling challenges in computer vision and augmented reality.

Mentorship at Ubiquity6

They're also working on building an inclusive workplace that supports diverse cultures, backgrounds, perspectives, skills, and experiences. To help support the women at their organization, they:

Encourage mentorship for all employees
Host monthly happy hours and get-togethers
Foster engagement via their women Slack channel
Host a DE&I focus-group meeting bi-weekly, which releases programming on how to promote an inclusive culture towards women and URMs!

Learn more about Ubiquity6 and their open roles here.

5) Solstice

Solstice is a modern software engineering firm that helps Fortune 500 companies seize new opportunities through world-changing digital solutions.

Mentorship at Solstice

"At Solstice, we believe everyone benefits from mentorship!" There are a few key ways that they've created an internal structure that facilitates mentorship accessible to all "Solsties."

Each Solstie is paired with a mentor to help guide and champion their career development and foster meaningful connections along the way. Mentor pairs are decided upon based on the strengths, opportunities, and career objectives of the mentee. A mentor will, then, support the mentee throughout the year as they work towards their goals, while also driving the delivery of feedback and advocacy.
A mentor is different from an individual's manager at Solstice. Separating these two positions allows a mentor to support an individual's career growth from more of a coaching perspective - providing constructive feedback, supporting the individual's goals, and bringing a new perspective to the Solstie's day-to-day when they encounter obstacles. Mentors are paired intentionally to ensure underrepresented groups are not only supported personally, but continue to be advocated for.
Solstice also has an internal Women in Technology group that is a part of our Diversity Committee. This group of Solsties plans events from Lunch & Learns to celebrations to educate the firm on diversity within their community and within the tech space. In addition to events, the group has created Slack channels that are specifically geared towards the support of women. One channel is focused towards Solsties who identify as women, while another one is for women across all of our global sister companies. Through these groups, Solsties can find mentorship and learn from not only the 500-person firm, but from their global Connective of 1,500. The Diversity Committee and Women in Tech are committed to ensuring that Solstice remains a welcoming & inclusive space for all.

6) T. Rowe Price

T. Rowe Price is a global investment management firm with over 6,900 associates, nearly $1 trillion in assets under management and offices in 16 countries.

Mentorship at T. Rowe Price

WAVE @ T. Rowe Price supports the firm by increasing its ability to attract, develop, advance, and retain talented and principled women.

WAVE instituted a mentorship group that engages associates across the firm and encourages them to connect with fellow associates to learn, exchange ideas and to create support system that enhances a woman's career at the firm.
WAVE is focused on attracting, developing, and retaining talented women across the firm. Through this program women are enabled to engage with other women and WAVE advocates, who are male associates, to remove barriers and proactively advocate for women.

Learn more about T. Rowe Price and their open roles here.