For our employees

Diversity and inclusion for better business

Without different perspectives, there would be no "thinking outside the box", no innovation and no pushing the limits. That's why we focus on building diversity and giving everyone in the company a chance to speak their mind and share their perspectives.

It's quite simple: inclusive thinking sparks better business results.

A woman sits at work looking at her phone while her male colleague looks at a document in the foreground.

The official logo of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #5: Gender equality.

Related SDGs

SDG Target 5.1 End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere.
SDG Target 5.5 Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision making in political, economic and public life.
SDG Target 10.2: By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status.

Our approach to diversity and inclusion

The wellbeing of our employees is one of our greatest priorities. Through various measures for diversity and inclusion, we take steps we believe will lead to a more dynamic, happy, and innovative company.

When it comes to diversity, gender balance is one of the most pressing areas that we can impact. Despite good progress, women remain underrepresented in tech and leadership positions. Fortunately we have many opportunities to drive change, guided by data.

An illustration of two comment boxes, indicating dialogue between genders.

Gender balance

An illustration of the earth, indicating an inclusive and international work environment.

Inclusion

Management groups and boards

There is always more we can do to improve gender balance in our company and in the technology industry as a whole. Our management teams focus on gender balance, which leads to more dynamic discussions and more robust decision-making. This policy does not go in just one direction: it means increasing the share of females overall, but also increasing the share of males in traditionally female occupations.

Talent and trainee programs

One key way we can achieve gender balance is by focusing on programs where we are recruiting and developing talents. Making sure that we have gender balance in our development programmes, as well as in leadership trainings, will make the pool of talents more balanced when hiring and promoting people internally. We are applying these principles to our management trainee programme, summer internships, and other trainings.

Led from the top

A vital feeling shared by all people, inclusion in the sense that one is accepted for being oneself. It is highly correlated with well-being and the ability to perform and succeed at work. In our monthly Employee Engagement Survey, we ask employees several questions on topics such as Organisational Fit, Management Support and Freedom of Opinions. Leaders are then responsible for making sure their teams are thriving in an inclusive environment.

For a connected workplace

We take a a stand against bullying and discrimination. Our employees should experience a safe and trusting work environment where they feel comfortable raising concerns. Decisions regarding promotions or development opportunities are made on behaviour-based standards such as performance, experience and level of goal achievement. In our Employee Engagement Survey, we have a question regarding discrimination. It is our goal to have a perfect score.

The result? Visma is proud to be ranked #23 out of 15,000 European companies for inclusiveness, as ranked by employees.

From theory to practice

It's about the people

Our focus is hiring, developing, and retaining skilled, happy, and dedicated employees—with the purpose of increasing competence and ensuring career development.

This also includes attracting the best and brightest young professionals, offering traineeships, mentoring, and leadership development programmes.

Getting everyone on board

We provide a working environment that caters to the disabled. Our buildings are highly accessible, including for employees using wheelchairs and those with other disabilities.

Work at Visma is generally not physically demanding, meaning that all people have good opportunities in the company.

Mentoring circles

We know that you can't be what you can't see, which is why we focus on having role models and mentoring circles for women, where the objective is to increase the recruitment of women to management roles.

Supporting SHE

The SHE Community hosts events, conferences, and study programs to make business better through diversity. We are an ongoing sponsor of the SHE Community's signature event, SHE Conference. We are also extremely proud to participate in the annual SHE Index, a voluntary annual assessment of how companies are performing with respect to diversity and inclusion.

Closing the gender gap

Although diversity isn't only a question of gender balance, this is one of the most pressing matters that is easiest to address. We work towards a more balanced gender ratio in the workplace because we believe—and have experienced—that this contributes to a better working environment, greater creativity and adaptability, and better results in the long run.

Equal possibilities and opportunities

We make sure that if two candidates are equally qualified for the same job, we will hire the underrepresented gender. This and other guidelines around equality are sent to all managers in the company and are regularly reviewed in management meetings.

We are a founding partner of Equality Check

To close the gender gap, we are a founding partner of Equality Check, a non-profit organisation aiming to increase financial profits and improve social returns by fighting unconscious discrimination and gender stereotypes in business. The solution is a data-driven and research-based effort to increase gender balance in corporations. See more of our partnerships focusing on equal opportunity

Network for LGBT at the workplace

To meet our goals for Diversity & Inclusion, we are a proud member of an LGBT network consisting of many large companies working actively with diversity in general and LGBT specifically. Through the network we share experiences and learn from each other. We also put on events such as Oslo Pride Business Forum, a yearly forum putting sexual orientation and gender identity on the agenda by motivating companies to actively work with these issues at the workplace.

Through her passion for mentoring young female talents, she has acted as a role model which has benefited them in developing themselves and their careers.

Christian Westlye Larsen, CTO of Visma