After a career break that lasted almost a year, I had been working from home for a lot of personal reasons for almost 4.5 years. Although I really enjoyed the work we did, the set up was comfortable, there was no need to spend time commuting, complete flexibility to manage my own time and be around for my daughter. And after 2 promotions in 4 years, I was maybe not happy but extremely content with where I was. 
However, every-time I caught up with my batch mates or spoke with my peers, I realized there is something I need to change about myself. Make life and career more dynamic. I had become too comfortable in what I was doing every-day and needed to break out of the shell. 
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The biggest apprehension I challenged was with my daughter. "What if I’m not able to give her enough time or be with her when she really needs me.??" The next big concern obviously was self-confidence -- 
How will I adjust to corporate life after so long ? I had almost forgotten the everyday complexities of professional relationships and what if I’m not able to cope with work and home and kids and so many complexities at the same time ?? 
With support of my family, I stepped out to face the challenge and in hindsight feel glad and lucky to get an opportunity with dunnhumby as I do not believe any other organisation would have understood and supported my situation.
The managers have been supportive with flexibility to manage work and clients. Team members supportive with onboarding and especially every new joiner or in a new role, you get assigned a buddy, the power of two as they say it, you could disturb him for every little thing without a tinge of hesitation. Facilities like commute to and from office really help as it can be painful in a place like NCR.
3 years ago, when I was moving cities, dunnhumby was kind enough to offer me permanent work from home and even helped me find a role that would be appropriate for this kind of arrangement.
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dunnhumby is a place that listens, that understands and almost always finds a solution to every situation.
Over the last 7 years I have worked across all the 4 major workstreams of dunnhumby retail analytics, got exposed to almost all dunnhumby solutions and worked across all the 5 geographies with a variety of retailers. I have grown both horizontally and vertically and been able to expand my horizons beyond my imagination a few years ago. So far it has been a great journey, extremely fulfilling and continues to be so.
Like “CUSTOMER FIRST” is the basic principle on which we work, dunnhumby is a truly an employee first company as well. 
To those returning from a career break, I would like to say –
1. Update yourself with the necessary skills or certifications before jumping into the water, however be honest about your break, do not try to over sell yourself
2. It is normal to feel a pit in the stomach at the start, but the only way out is to take a LEAP OF FAITH.

Return to Work | Take a Leap of Faith

I am delighted to share that dunnhumby is certified as a Top Employer for 2022 in the UK and USA. I'm hugely proud of this accreditation, which reflects the steps we continue to take to preserve a working environment that allows our people to enrich their lives and flourish through our people strategies underpinned by our culture and values. 

This year, we are investing in digital learning for our workforce, creating new pathways for their development and supporting them in enhancing and enriching their work experiences. This ensures that we can help them thrive both now and in the future in this ever-evolving and changing world. 

 I have been so pleased with the variety and volume of work we have completed focusing on employee engagement, inclusion and well-being, along with the recognition our people have received. Some highlights include:

Launching our global initiative, Belonging @ dunnhumby, to enable our people to be their authentic self at work.
Running our second returners programme, in partnership with Women Returners, supporting mid-to-senior level, professional and experienced women back into the workplace.
dh Thrive, our mental health and wellbeing network, shortlisted for ‘Best Mental Health in the Workplace Strategy – Multinational Implementation’ at the This Can Happen Awards 2021
Relaunch of our Wellness Hub, with offerings including Mental Health First Aiders, Headspace, Mindapples and physical health support
Receiving the TechGig 2021 awards for both HR Best Practices & Diversity Advocate Star
Our Chief Data Science Officer, Sandra Stanley, being nominated for Data Leader of the Year at this year's Women in IT Awards
Our Head of Data Governance, Alison Williams, being nominated for Ally of the Year at this year's Women in IT Awards 
Huge thanks to our remarkable people – this is fantastic recognition for the tremendous work we deliver, focusing on our people every year and especially during such unprecedented times.

dunnhumby certified as a Top Employer

It’s not what you say; it’s how you say it. As part of a drive to attract more women to areas where we’ve struggled to build a balanced shortlist historically (e.g. technical positions such as data scientists), we’re introducing an insight and research-led approach to how we write our job descriptions. 

Diversity is a key focus for us at dunnhumby; the race is on for all companies to achieve a more gender-balanced boardroom and therefore we all have an important part to play. This isn’t a women’s issue, it’s a business issue. What’s more – examining over 1,000 companies across 12 countries last year – management consultant firm McKinsey & Co found that businesses in the top quartile for gender diversity were likely to perform better and benefit from higher profit margins.

Diversity at dunnhumby

Working with the inclusive careers site Vercida, we recently ran a campaign to help us spread the word about our ‘Women in dunnhumby’ programme. Created to support women throughout the various stages of their careers, the initiative involves matching employees with mentors, running webinars and networking events, and propelling women into exciting leadership roles. In addition, our ‘Unconscious Bias’ training programme – designed to equip and empower our leaders – is compulsory for all UK people managers at dunnhumby. Our focus on diversity continues to expand with the launch of four new community-led networks, an enhanced shared parental leave offering and promotion of flexible working stories.

Businesses can’t continue to pay lip service to the issue of gender diversity. In 2019, getting it right depends on setting realistic, measurable goals and taking action. To make this happen, we’ve pledged to improve the number of women in our management roles by 2% – every year. Naturally, this may prove easier in some business areas than others, where we have traditionally struggled to recruit female talent.

What makes an excellent job description?

Any sensible hiring manager knows that a good job description can make or break the application process. Even so, when pressed for time it’s all too easy to become complacent and write them quickly to get the message out there. 

A great job description should do three things:

Give a clear idea of the job
Give a flavour of what it takes to do the job well
Achieve both of the above in less than 600 words
The copy in your job description should be punchy and effective, with every word working hard to attract the right candidate. Get it wrong, and it can sound like a list of clichés – hinged on someone’s past performance, qualifications and experience. True diversity requires the human touch and an open mind.

Striking the perfect balance

As the need to create a well-rounded shortlist becomes more pressing, we’ve started to challenge how we’re reaching out to new candidates by changing what exactly we’re saying to attract the right applications.

In the search for talent, language matters more than you’d think. Back in 2013, a Yale Scientific study found that when scientists at research-intensive universities were given two fictional CVs – one for John and one for Jennifer – detailing the same achievements, goals, and personal statements, the male candidate was judged far more favourably than the female. 

It’s easy to see why this could be deemed controversial, but whether we like it or not, bias exists in language – and it deserves our attention. Informed by research, we’ve introduced software to highlight ‘gendered’ language, thus making our job descriptions more attractive to both men and women.

But I thought all job descriptions were gender-neutral?

Without realising it, we all use language that is subtly ‘gender-coded’. Society has different expectations of men and women, and this tends to seep into the vocabulary we choose. Words like ‘feisty’ and ‘bossy’, for example, are rarely used to describe men. Broadly speaking, research finds that while men are attracted to strong, definite words like ‘leader’, ‘competitive’ and ‘dominant’, women are more likely to be attracted to softer, more flexible language like ‘support’, ‘understand’ and ‘interpersonal’.

As a result, linguistic gender coding can find its way into job descriptions where it can be off-putting or discouraging to some – not ideal when you’re trying to attract a diverse talent pool.

When analysing the type of language used to craft these mini briefs, a study from the American Psychological Association found “systematic wording differences within a randomly sampled set of job descriptions”:

“When job advertisements were constructed to include more masculine than feminine wording, participants perceived more men within these occupations and importantly, women found these jobs less appealing.” 

This statement alone just goes to prove the power and influence a particular lexicon of words has over the perception of a job description, and how it’s in the hands of the author to truly do something about it.

Small steps can lead to great change 

So far, we’ve been using software to bring our attention to ‘gendered’ words. While it’s too early to judge anything from the results just yet, we’ve already seen an increase in the number of women in managerial roles and above – a 2% improvement in the past year alone.

Of course, we are all individuals, and must be treated as such at every stage of the talent acquisition journey. This is just due diligence, ensuring we’ve done all we can not to alienate anyone, whether consciously or unconsciously. Making a few subtle tweaks to the type of language used is one way to ensure you reach the best possible talent pool via your job descriptions – securing that all-important, well-balanced shortlist.

Why we’re introducing gender-neutral job descriptions

---When the routine is easy, change it---
Everyone I’ve spoken to who has lived abroad has had no regrets and I was determined to discover what all the fuss was about.
Announcing a move to America in 2020 elicited very different response to the follow up message that I was moving to Bentonville, Arkansas. Most of my friends had never heard of Arkansas, and those that had were even more worried.
For me, the prospect of moving somewhere completely different made it more exciting and I couldn’t wait to begin my adventure. Leaving my hockey club, my friends, and a job I really enjoyed was hard, and also completely unnatural. I questioned why I was leaving a life I was happy with. But deep down I knew it was all becoming a little bit too easy in London. My social and work life were a happy routine and without something drastic happening I would just continue on that path. 
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Vincent and I after completing the Bentonville Half Marathon (with American sized medals!) October 2021.
--- Be prepared to start again ---
Covid and visa complications slowed the move, but within two weeks of the visa being granted I was on the plane. The feeling of having packed up my whole life into a bag and heading somewhere completely unknown was incredibly liberating, unlike the feeling I had during my first night in the hotel of not having anything on my social calendar, and only knowing a handful of people. So, that first week I bought a car, joined a running club and ran the Bentonville half marathon as a way of exploring the town. Problem solved!
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Hiking the Yellow Rock Trail, December 2021.
---Accept the change and embrace the difference---
As I began to get to know Bentonville it became extremely clear that it wasn’t London, very far from it. It’s much smaller, pavements are pretty non-existent, and everything closes very early! On the other hand, the running and cycling trail system is amazing, the people are incredibly friendly, and the pace of life is far more relaxed.
The running club quickly became a huge part of my life. We meet in the (very) early hours, run on the trails, and then meet back at the bagel shop at 7am for breakfast before the working day begins. I’ve spent weekends away with the group for races, embarrassed myself at the Christmas party (the word ‘Crackers’ which was on my jumper does NOT translate well across the pond), and I’ve made some lifelong friends.
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Celebrating Christmas with the running club, December 2021
----If it was easy, everyone would do it, so do it!---
The dunnhumby mobility team guide you along the way and support you in getting your new life set up and ready to go. Bank accounts, pensions, tax, student loans…the list goes on, and all need organizing when you move, which certainly isn’t easy. One of my favorite mottos I go by is ‘if it was easy, everyone would do it’. This stuck with me as I navigated through the horrendous amounts of paperwork, so I got my head down, organized what I needed to, and quickly started to feel at home.
Working with the largest retailer in the world and being part of the ‘landing team’ is such a fantastic career opportunity. It’s challenging but also incredibly rewarding. Everyones opinion in the team is valued and due to the diversity of the team (13 nationalities and counting), we are always learning from each other and sharing our experiences from around the world. And, as a dunnhumbian, who wouldn’t want to experience living and working in the Silicon Valley of Grocery?!
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Hosting a British Tea Party for the running club, March 2022.
---Two is always better than one---
As I reflect on my first six months of adventures, there is one thing that has stuck with me. One has become two. I am now part of two worlds – two languages (yes, US English is different!), two currencies, two homes, two lives…. but two is always better than one, and I wouldn’t change a thing!
----Ellie's top tips for moving abroad---
Move with an open mind. Everything will be new and different, so embracing the change rather than comparing ‘old’ and ‘new’ will make things easier.
Join a community (sports club, social group etc.) as quickly as possible. It’s an easy way to make friends outside work and build your personal life.
Don’t put a time stamp on your adventure. A time stamp means you’re always counting down to the end, rather than opening yourself up to new opportunities.

From London to Bentonville!

“It’s a world mostly designed for men,” said Manoj Madhusudanan, head of dunnhumby India, during his keynote address on ‘Importance of Gender Diversity in AI’ at Analytics India Magazine’s Women In AI Conference: The Rising 2022. According to a McKinsey report, firms with greater gender diversity outperform competitors in profitability by up to 21%. AI is a space where this is particularly relevant. Gender diversity is not just a woman’s issue, it affects men as well, he added.

Watch all the recorded sessions of Rising 2022 here>>

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Image: Mckinsey

“If you remember, smartphones used to be very small before. Then, came the craze for bigger phones. Now, the average size of the smartphone is 5.5 inches. An average man can hold the smartphone comfortably in his hand, but an average woman’s hand is just about the same size as the handset. It has not been designed keeping a woman in mind. In the 21st century we are in the world of AI. If you already have a lot of design bias in history, what would happen when you are training these AI systems with those biases and reinforcing those biases further and further,” he said. Madhusudanan pointed to the gender bias in voice assistants, medical devices, and other AI systems.

“When you have a pain in your left arm for a man, it is an immediate signal that you should be taken to the ICU as it can signal towards a heart attack, and this may be a warning sign, But for a woman, because of a gender data gap, these symptoms will be linked to depression and anxiety. The truth is that women are equally prone to heart diseases from these symptoms,” said Madhusudanan.

The three major causes of gender bias in AI systems include: 

Data: Madhusudanan highlighted the gender gap in the data used to train AI models. “For example, a lot of health apps use the US military data for underlying training dataset. However, only 6 percent of the US military are women. Where will you find the data for half of the world’s population?” he asked.

AI workforce: Madhusudanan said the right data science interventions can neutralise the impact of bias in data. But there is a huge disparity in the gender ratio working in AI globally. Only 22 per cent of the AI workforce globally are women, as per a report by World Economic Forum. “We have a 50: 50 gender ratio in society. Why can’t we have it in the corporate world as well?” he asked.


Image: Speaker

AI leadership: “It is even worse when it comes to AI leadership. As per WIRED/ Element AI, only 12 percent of AI researchers are women. Diversity is very important for any research team. We need to have more women entering the AI field,” said Madhusudanan.

Solutions

Hire, promote and retain a diverse workforce
Bringing in diversity has to be a measurable goal for a leader, just not a company policy. “We can create a policy saying that we will have a diverse set of people. But how many of you really do that? Do you have it in your CEO’s KPI for that year? If it’s a measurable goal that you are committed to and many aspects of your job depend on fulfilling this KPI, then you will be more proactive towards working on it,”said Madhusudanan.

Actively support women in your workplace
dunnhumby is supporting XLRI Centre for Gender Equality & Inclusive Leadership (CGEIL) and XLRI for Women (XL4W) on their flagship program called up! SURGE, to propel more women for C-suite roles.

Why can’t we have a 50: 50 gender ratio in the corporate world, asks dunnhumby’s Manoj Madhusudanan

D&amp;I Strategy
We are really proud of our diversity and inclusion strategy as it demonstrates clearly our commitment to embedding real change. 
Our strategy is made up of three parts:
Inclusive Leaders
To fulfill this, we have created a strong governance structure around our Employee Network groups (ENG's), including senior sponsorship for each group. Our leaders will have renewed accountability for role-modeling inclusive behaviours and are expected to actively champion inclusion through their business practices. 
Inclusive Behaviours
We will be resetting the expectations of all employees on what it means to work inclusively through an inclusive behaviour learning programme. This will help us to infuse our ways of working with inclusivity and help us to demonstrate the benefits of diverse perspectives through innovation and creative problem-solving. 
Inclusive Policies and Processes
We have committed to a thorough review of all our people policies through the lens of inclusion and are more employee-led, increased transparency around our talent processes (including pay, performance and promotion measures), and measuring our progress here through data.
All of our D&amp;I work combines to help us fulfill this strategy over the next three years and has been signed off by the Exec. 
How do we define diversity and inclusion?
Verna Myers is the VP of Inclusion Strategy at Netflix and an inclusion specialist, and we think her quote below perfectly illustrates the difference between diversity, inclusion and belonging (our ultimate aim at dunnhumby). 
A simple way to view D&amp;I is that, diversity is the fact-based metric based on characteristics (i.e. gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, disability etc). 
Whereas inclusion is much more behavioural and is about the choices that each of us makes every single day to create an inclusive environment for those around us.
Belonging, therefore, is when that envirvonment is safe enough to "dance like no one is watching" i.e. bring your whole self to work and be accepted and embraced for who you are. 
We know we need to start to make some more courageous choices at dunnhumby to start to shift the dial from a focus on diversity to belonging.&nbsp;
<img title="dun_2.jpg" src="https://assets.jobsforher.com/uploads/admin/blogs/blobid1657698522568.jpg" alt="" width="205" height="90" />
Catalyst: Inclusive Sponsorship
In 2020, we ran a pilot Inclusive Sponsorship programme called Catalyst. 
A 12-month programme connecting our diverse top talent with senior leaders for career sponsorship and is a demonstration of our committed, proactive action towards both our talent and inclusion agendas. 
Our career sponsorship programme helps us achieve this in the following two ways: 
1) creates structured internal advocacy for diverse and talented individuals to facilitate their career progression 
2) Helps us to challenge the unconscious bias of our leaders, and expand our succession and talent pipelines.
&nbsp;<img title="dun3.jpg" src="https://assets.jobsforher.com/uploads/admin/blogs/blobid1657698562897.jpg" alt="" width="157" height="113" />
Our hard work has paid off, and our inclusive behaviour learning experience belonging@dh is here!
The purpose of this experience is to clarify the expectations for all dunnhumbians on how to work inclusively, and to reduce belonging uncertainty, which contributes heavily to our overall D&amp;I strategy to cultivate a culture of belonging.
Employee Network Group? 
Employee Network Groups are a way of bringing employees with a shared characteristic (such as gender, race, sexual orientation etc.).
Our employee network groups play a crucial role in supporting our culture of belonging at dunnhumby by bringing employees together in a safe space within the work environment.
Our network groups go beyond social activities, to also include developmental opportunities, a chance to build a professional network and combine efforts to take action to inspire change around inclusion.&nbsp;
<img title="dun4.jpg" src="https://assets.jobsforher.com/uploads/admin/blogs/blobid1657698616949.jpg" alt="" width="221" height="144" />
dhGEN Mission and Purpose: 
Helping all dunnhumbians fulfil their career potential, regardless of gender.
dhGEN, formerly known as dh Women's Network, launched in January 2018. We are a grassroots team of passionate individuals, working to improve gender perceptions, reduce unconscious bias, advocate and ally with fellow D&amp;I networks so that all dunnhumbians can bring their full selves to work.
<img title="dun5.jpg" src="https://assets.jobsforher.com/uploads/admin/blogs/blobid1657698651684.jpg" alt="" width="238" height="99" />
dhThrive Mission and Purpose: 
One in four of us has suffered or will suffer from mental ill-health at some point in our lifetime, yet many are reluctant to talk about it.
At dunnhumby, we want to encourage a culture where people feel comfortable to speak out and to provide practical means of support. We also run a network of Mental Health First Aiders for additional support&nbsp;
<img title="dun6.jpg" src="https://assets.jobsforher.com/uploads/admin/blogs/blobid1657698689334.jpg" alt="" width="184" height="163" />
dhFamily Mission and Purpose:
dhFamily, formerly known as dh Parents &amp; Carers Network, launched in 2019. Our aim is to support our colleagues at dunnhumby to balance a successful career with their commitments outside of work.
Our Vision: Enabling our people to be at their best by balancing the interdependent demands of family, work and community Launched in 2019&nbsp;
<img title="dun7.jpg" src="https://assets.jobsforher.com/uploads/admin/blogs/blobid1657698726126.jpg" alt="" width="239" height="107" />
dhOne Mission and Purpose:
We want to expand on this so we reflect the diversity of our employees internally and bring our unique perspectives to problem-solving.
dhOne is open to ALL and aims to open and encourage inclusive conversations across the business to effect real cultural and behavioural change. 
Launched in October 2019&nbsp;
<img title="dun8.jpg" src="https://assets.jobsforher.com/uploads/admin/blogs/blobid1657698819994.jpg" alt="" width="219" height="97" />
dh Proud Mission and Purpose:
Our purpose is primarily focused on advocating for LGBTQ+ issues within the business, whilst following the guiding principle of inclusion.
dhProud isn't about creating a point of differentiation between people, and we encourage everyone across the business to attend talks, social events, or join the organising team.
It's only through the engagement of allies (non-LGBTQ+ people) that we can affect real change.&nbsp;

Dunnhumby

dunnhumby

Flexible and Blended working &ndash; Work according to your schedule. Yes, we bring an amalgamation of hybrid model for our employee:
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li>Blended Working:&nbsp;A blended approach to the working week based on the needs of the role, team, function or market.&nbsp;We see Blended Working as at least 60% of working time in an office.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Flexible Working:&nbsp;Flexible working options are available and warmly welcomed, including part-time working. &nbsp;dunnhumby believes that you will do your best at work if you have a work/life balance&nbsp;so&nbsp;dunnhumby requests you include these preferences in your application if they are important to you, along with any reasonable adjustments required.</li>
</ul>

A full-fledged maternity policy with insurance coverage and Incumbent is entitled to 26 weeks of leave

Employee Assistance - Access to wellness programs such the Employee Assistance Program.
Creche facility &ndash; Subsidized creche allowances are offered
POSH policy - The policy applies to all full time, part time and contractual employees of dunnhumby India, either on probation period or serving as permanent employees or non-employees
Work from home kit &ndash; We have learnt to adapt to our new working environment and dunnhumby provide a WFH kit for all employee
Health Insurance &ndash; This consists of Medical, Personal Accident and term life Coverage for our employees
Health care assistance &ndash; We have partnered with India Health Organisation to make&nbsp;high quality healthcare services more affordable through its vHealth's provider network.
dh wellbeing hub &ndash; A platform for all employees to connect and explore mental, emotion well being
Benefit Policy &ndash; We have various perks and benefit like Addition to Family, Birthday leave, further education, Early finish Friday, group medical Insurance, Group Personal Accident cover, Group term Insurance, Internet allowance, leave entitlement, Long service Awards, referral scheme, retirement benefits and subsidized food

Other

To ensure a safe and comfortable travel we have introduced cab/fuel reimbursement plan.

Khushbu Karkare

Vibhor Singh

Neha Malhotra

Aditi Sharma

Maninder Kaur

Shaveta Kapoor

The Product Manager will work closely with the Senior Product Manager and cross-functional teams to drive product delivery aligned to our strategic roadmap.Key Responsibilities• Create and own the sprint backlog, and lead user story creation and estimation sessions.• Discuss requirements with engineering teams, providing clear business context, making feature and design trade-offs, and performing test and sprint reviews — escalating where necessary to the Senior Product Manager.• Work with the Senior Product Manager or Product Director to prioritise the detailed product backlog, ensuring sprint-level releases align with the strategic product roadmap.• Manage the rollout of the product within the business, including system/process updates, communications, and training across relevant teams.• Support the Learning team in producing training and education materials for internal and external upskilling where required.• Collaborate closely with engineering and design teams on a day-to-day basis to resolve challenges and ensure high-quality product delivery while championing agile best practices.• Conduct research with existing users and support the Senior Product Manager in gathering feedback from client and account teams to inform product improvements and track success.Key Skills & Competencies• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with high attention to detail.• Experience working in agile product development environments.• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.• Ability to balance business context with technical constraints.• Alignment with our core values: Passion, Curiosity, Collaboration, and Courage.

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