Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. (Konica Minolta) is proud to announce it has been recognized by NJBIZ as an organization committed to supporting and elevating female employees in New Jersey. NJBIZ is the state’s leading business journal, providing 24/7 business news coverage and hosting events that honor top professionals.
In its second year, the “Empowering Women – Companies Leading the Way” awards program recognizes a wide variety of New Jersey-based organizations for their significant efforts to advance and honor women in the workplace and community. Konica Minolta was among the more than 40 organizations honored at NJBIZ’s award ceremony on Thursday, November 14 in Somerset, New Jersey.
Award recipients are selected based on the following criteria:
- A commitment to establishing a track record of recruiting, hiring and promoting women
- Offering a mentoring program for women
- Working toward systemic change in society to combat inequality
- Advancing the cause of women through contributions to outside philanthropic or community endeavors
Konica Minolta takes a multi-pronged approach to diversifying its talent pipelines to attract and retain female employees. This includes training on inclusive hiring practices, partnering with third-party talent programs to amplify open roles in diverse communities and showcasing successful Konica Minolta women internally and externally. The company also provides world-class learning and developmental programming and a succession-planning process that ensures leaders view promotions in fair and unbiased ways.
Additionally, Konica Minolta enhances equity and provides environments for women to thrive on a global stage. For instance, the company hosts a global leadership development program called Women2Lead to enhance the leadership capabilities of its best and brightest female leaders. In partnership with the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), the program brings together women from all over the world to work on their personal and professional development via assessments, personalized coaching, a team project and meaningful reflection.
“This is such exciting, wonderful news. I am so proud that our company has been recognized by NJBIZ for leading the way in support of women,” said Vicky Ringwood, Senior Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer, Konica Minolta. “We’ve made great progress through our strong contributions to creating an environment for women to excel at every level. By continuing to connect and embed efforts to recruit, develop and support women with our benefits and decision-making, we continually create opportunities for even more impact.”
Other initiatives to elevate women include Konica Minolta’s Step Forward program. Launched in 2015, the employee resource group for women offers learning opportunities and builds community through networking, peer-to-peer mentoring and more to increase female representation and equity in achieving professional excellence. The company is continually acknowledged for supporting women through a variety of industry awards. Laura Blackmer, President, Dealer Sales, has been recognized twice as an Inclusive Channel Leader by CRN®, a brand of The Channel Company, and numerous female Konica Minolta employees have been named to The Cannata Report’s annual Women Influencers list. Konica Minolta’s leadership team also reflects its commitment to the advancement of women. Five of its twelve executive leadership positions are held by women, and two women sit on its five-person board of directors.