General Electric

Who are General Electric?

GE exists to bring progress and possibility to every corner of the planet —safely delivering people where they need to go; powering homes, schools, hospitals, and businesses; and offering more precise diagnostics and care when patients need it most. By combining world-class engineering with software and analytics, GE helps the world work more efficiently, reliably, and safely. For more than 125 years, GE has invented the future of industry, across aviation, power, healthcare and renewable energy. Today we lead new paradigms in additive manufacturing, materials science, and data analytics. GE people are global, diverse and dedicated, operating with the highest integrity and passion to fulfil GE’s mission and deliver for our customers. In the UK, GE has operated for more than 100 years and is a major contributor to the UK economy, employing 12,000 people.

What projects / schemes / initiatives to support women’s recruitment, retention and progression in STEM are General Electric involved in?

GE recognises that diverse teams accelerate innovation and transform organisations, positioning them for success.

Our comprehensive and family focused benefits schemes contribute significantly to the changing perceptions of females in the workplace. GE offer a generous enhanced occupational maternity policy to attract and retain our female workforce and we match this through our Shared Parental Leave policy to allow greater flexibility in childcare for parents. Our goal is to eliminate preconceptions that females have to be the primary caregiver.

GE has a proactive Women’s Network (GEWN), whose mission is to foster and develop professional growth and retain women. The GEWN sponsors a comprehensive calendar of events including training, networking and leadership roundtables. The GEWN is sponsored from the highest levels within the organization and takes an active part in career development and succession planning.

In 2020, we celebrate ten years of our girls’ focused programme, GirlsGetSET, which aims to attract more girls into engineering careers. There is a clear need to encourage girls to make STEM subject and career choices. This is why GE works with the same girls over multiple years through GirlsGetSET. GE role models mentor students on increasingly complex STEM projects, as well as teaching softer skills that business requires such as influencing and negotiation. Although it requires a big commitment from GE, the payoff is even bigger since we are now seeing GirlsGetSET alumnae join the business. GirlsGetSET is led by 183 volunteers who mentored 711 girls in 25 schools during 2019.

To complement GE’s focus on increasing gender balance in STEM, GE also partners with the EDT and the Smallpeice Trust.

Why did General Electric join WISE?

“WISE’s vision to have gender balance in STEM from the classroom to the boardroom aligns perfectly with GE’s drive to address the UK’s and its own STEM pipeline challenge. Partnering with WISE will enable us to reach more girls during the 10th anniversary year of our girls-focused outreach programme, GirlsGetSET. “

– Rosalind Munro, Co-Head of Community Investment, GE UK