In connection with International Women's Day, we want to talk about how CERTEGO strives for diversity and a better gender balance, and how we work to increase women's representation in the security industry.
At CERTEGO, we currently have an uneven gender distribution among our employees. The question of gender distribution and diversity is complex, but we are convinced that a diverse workforce gives us access to more perspectives, experiences, and good ideas, which in turn allows us to perform our work even better.
Today, we find it difficult to recruit new employees due to a shortage of security technicians relative to the amount of work there actually is to do. It's a problem shared with other actors in the industry. We realize that we need to reach beyond the group we usually appeal to in order to get more people to see the opportunities in a career within the security industry.
In connection with International Women's Day, celebrated every year on March 8th, we asked ourselves: What is it that makes women less likely than men to apply for the vacant positions advertised? To help us, we turned to security technicians and twin sisters Regina Gyarmati and Kristina Lindholm from Eskilstuna.
Regina and Kristina, like many other women, struggled with thoughts about feminine and masculine roles, prejudices, and fear of being an outsider when they finally decided to pursue an education as installation electricians. This also marked the start of their career in the security industry:
- I thought I wouldn't fit in, that one had to have it in them. A big thing for me was that it didn't feel like a girl thing. You almost become a villain in the drama yourself and contribute to keeping that mindset alive. But I thought it would be too tough, and I thought I might be too fragile. I manage it splendidly today, but it was something I thought then and that held me back, says Regina.- I know for myself that in high school I didn't dare to step outside the norm and for a long time had a job that I felt was more accepted for a woman to have despite my great interest in technology, Kristina adds.
Fear of discrimination and exclusion
As Regina and Kristina testify, there can be fear of being discriminated against or not fitting in, but as employers, it is our responsibility to ensure that we offer an inclusive work environment. In 2023, CERTEGO developed policies on how we should work for equal opportunities and against discrimination. All employees should be treated equally, and harassment or abuse must not occur. In addition to clarifying our policies, we have taken some other concrete actions: through our pulse measurement tool Winningtemp, we give all employees the opportunity to regularly answer questions regarding discrimination, bullying, and harassment, and to prevent and inform about the issue, we will soon launch an internal training program on diversity and inclusion.
- The fears of not fitting in were not at all true when we came to CERTEGO. At a previous employer, they seemed to have trouble understanding why I, as a rather petite girl, thought this would be a good thing for me. There were a lot of comments like "It's heavy, it's strenuous, have you thought about that?". You had to counter that with yes, the thought has occurred to me that it will be heavy, you will need to carry cables and so on. And yes, it was a bit of a tougher culture or whatever you want to say, than what it is at CERTEGO, Kristina explains.More women in leadership positions
The proportion of female employees at CERTEGO has gradually increased in recent years. In 2023, the workforce consisted of 20% women and next year CERTEGO aims for it to be 25%. The proportion of women is somewhat higher when we look only at leadership positions. Last year, 25.8% of all leaders were women at CERTEGO and for 2025 the goal is 30%. The importance of having women in leadership positions should not be underestimated when it comes to evening out the gender distribution, Regina and Kristina say:
- Our branch manager is female and it feels great. She contributes with such a broad perspective and I have great confidence in her, I can even say that one feels proud to have a female boss, says Regina.- In fact, it was one thing that made us think it was so good when we started our internship at CERTEGO. You had a female role model and saw that it is possible to make a career and develop in the direction you want here. Compared to the firm we interned at, the atmosphere at CERTEGO was completely different, Kristina continues.
The importance of reaching out
We still have a lot of work to do to reach out to the women who could have a fantastic career in the security industry. That Regina and Kristina ended up here is because they defied the norms to educate themselves as electricians and it wasn't until they were there that they opened their eyes to security technology:
- None of us knew the profession existed when we started, but it was our teacher who told us about it. He had worked at CERTEGO as a security technician in alarms and access systems and it just sounded so interesting, Regina says.- We need to reach out to girls at, for example, high school level and perhaps even junior high level. And make them see that this exists, it's fun, and you won't necessarily be met with a tough jargon. You shouldn't limit yourself like I did when I was that age, Kristina believes.
When asked why one should work with security technology as a woman, Regina answers like this:
- There's no reason women shouldn't work with this. We just need to show that it exists and is an opportunity. I am very proud of what I do and that I represent the profession as a woman.For us at CERTEGO, highlighting International Women's Day is important. Thanks to both Kristina and Regina for sharing their experiences from the industry.
‹ See all articles