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/ Wednesday, February 9, 2022
Supporting Women Through Hard Times Evertec leads Puerto Rico businesses in gender-equality
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Zoe Landi Fontana, The Weekly Journal
or the fourth year in a row, Bloomberg has selected Evertec for distinction according to its gender-equality index. Evertec, a transaction processing company headquartered in Puerto Rico and with operations in 10 countries around the Caribbean and Latin America, has made gender inclusion and equality an essential part of its business culture, creating a resilient and productive workforce. The Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI) is (as described on the company’s webpage), “a modified market capitalization-weighted index that aims to track the performance of public companies committed to transparency in gender-data reporting. This reference index measures gender equality across five pillars: female leadership and talent pipeline, equal pay and gender pay parity, inclusive culture, anti-sexual harassment policies, and pro-women brand.”
Women’s Empowerment
Evertec has 32 years of experience, operates in 10 countries, has a diverse range of customers across 26 countries, and over 2500 employees. They were the first Puerto Rican business to acronym, PARE), a government program that participate in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality recommends measure and policies to comply Index in 2019. Last year, 40% of the company’s with the state of emergency that was declared women employees were promoted. in response to a previous increase in cases of Paola Perez, Chief Administrative Officer at gender-based violence in Puerto Rico. Evertec, spoke with THE WEEKLY JOURNAL to Evertec was the only private company to explain what a diverse workplace looks like, how it present to the committee the importance of benefits both customers and employees, and what supporting women in the workforce through their next step is. education –they continue to “We want to continue to grow speak in the forum and support our workforce from a woman ongoing initiatives. perspective in the technology area, strengthen the balance Women’s Mental Health And between women and men Evertec in STEM, promote women in The Pandemic has 32 years of leadership roles; women continue Evertec’s employees were experience, operates being promoted into leadership sent home to work remotely just in 10 countries, has roles,” said Perez, “Our customers two days before the lockdown a diverse range of are diverse –our customers are was announced officially –but customers across 26 not all male– so, our products it didn’t hamper productivity. countries, and over are made for a diverse clientele. Two years in, and Evertec hasn’t 2,500 employees. It is important to have diversity laid off a single person due to in [our company] so we can the pandemic –productivity has continue to build products that actually gone up. address needs from a customer This was achieved by a strategy perspective.” that emphasized employee well-being. Evertec also participated in the formation of the As the pandemic progressed and lockdowns Committee for the Prevention, Support, Rescue, lasted longer than hoped for, Evertec began and Education of Gender-based Violence (Spanish building programs focused on mental health. They
In fact,
We want to continue to grow our workforce from a woman perspective in the technology area…” -Paola Pérez Chief Administrative Officer, Evertec
wanted to make sure that their employees didn’t become exhausted from the combined difficulties of working from home while taking care of kids who suddenly weren’t in school for eight hours a day. Their solution was to provide employees with access to free psychologist services by phone and webinars on managing stress. Their human resources team was prepped and trained for navigating difficult conversations on unpredictable issues with stressed-out coworkers. The company also participates in the “‘Women’s Inspire Network” - a multicultural community where women can share experiences, access a support system, talk about personal matters, and be inspired by invited speakers.
