Supporting Women at Work: Insights from Sopra Steria’s WIN Co-Chair

Kerry Paylor is Co-Chair of our Women’s Inclusive Network (WIN), alongside her role as SSCL Synergy People Lead in our Sopra Steria UK Family. Here, Kerry shares how we’ve been celebrating International Women’s Day this March and how we support women in our organisation year-round. 

The Women's Inclusive Network 

In 2023, a Co-Chair position became available on the committee of the Women’s Inclusive Network (WIN). As someone who’s passionate about making sure all women can feel happy and confident at work, I decided to throw my hat in the ring. 

What’s great about WIN is that it’s open to colleagues of all gender identities to join and participate in. As women, we can find solidarity in our challenges and celebrate our successes, but we need everyone to get on board, to understand how they can support and champion us too.   

I co-chair the network alongside Kelly Burman. Kelly is a Key Account Client Director in our Aerospace, Defence and Security sector in Sopra Steria. She’s been actively involved in women’s networks in all her previous roles, so she is the perfect person to share the responsibility with. 

We have amazing committee members, as well as two groups adjacent to the main network: the Menopause Community and the Young Women’s Community, both aimed at providing camaraderie and support to people in similar situations. 

Since joining WIN, I’ve been able to expand my network and meet some amazing women working here. It’s been great to see colleagues openly sharing their experiences, often helping others to see that they’re not alone, or sometimes inspiring them to consider paths they hadn’t considered as possibilities before.

Celebrating International Women's Day 

This March, we’ve been celebrating International Women's Day with events and initiatives aimed at empowering women and promoting career development. The celebrations included two internal events, and the return of our Inspiring Women’s Awards and 'WIN on Tour': 

• ‘Inclusion: What’s in it for you?’

This session was for anyone feeling like they don’t fully understand why Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives are so important or why they should get involved. Joined by guest speaker, Gary Ford from 'Men for Inclusion' and one of our own Managing Directors, Craig Wilson, this thought-provoking call explained how getting inclusion right benefits everyone and gave practical tips on how you can be inclusive. 

• ‘International Women’s Day 2025: Rights. Equality. Empowerment’ 

This event was a chance to recognise the amazing achievements and dedication shown by women in our UK organisation.  

WIN on Tour: 

'WIN on Tour' consists of a series of workshops delivered by members of our WIN committee. The in-person workshops have been designed to help women think differently about their transferable skills, and the different career pathways that are available to them. As well as how to build confidence through micro acts of courage.     

Jen Whiteside is our Committee Lead for WIN on Tour: 

“Following a successful pilot of WIN on Tour last year, it’s been great to be out and about again in 2025 visiting our offices and engaging with some of our fantastic women within the business; helping them unlock different ways to grow and develop themselves. The feedback following the pilot was extremely positive and has led to a number of our women growing their confidence within their current role and also exploring new career paths they may not have considered before.” 

Other ways we support women 

Sopra Steria has a range of initiatives to influence gender equality, promote female inclusion, and make sure women can thrive in their careers. This includes female mentoring programmes, women’s mentoring groups, targeted workshops and coaching groups for women on talent programmes, in addition to diverse recruitment initiatives and inclusive benefits.

We offer enhanced maternity and adoption pay (plus a maternity pot available via our Health Cash Plan), carers leave, flexible working arrangements, and all employees have free access to Peppy – a healthcare and wellbeing app that connects you with human experts. 

Future initiatives 

We'll soon be piloting a support programme for colleagues returning from maternity leave to share their experiences, gain practical advice, and build confidence in balancing work and family life.

We’ll be introducing new assessment tools for senior hires to further reduce bias in selection decisions and improve fairness and consistency in our interview process. And we’ll continue to set objectives for our senior leaders to support our ambition to increase the number of women in senior leadership and higher-paid roles. 

At Sopra Steria, we want to continue being a top-choice employer for ambitious and talented women, offering a supportive environment where women can thrive, develop new skills, gain valuable experience, and advance their careers. 

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