Non-profit and independent with green digital ambitions

Center Denmark is a non-profit and independent company that provides digital infrastructure that supports players in the energy sector to develop new data-driven solutions that take advantage of opportunities in sector coupling and accelerate the green transition.

The company has established the incubator (an innovative office community) Digital Energy Hub to stimulate companies and organizations in the ecosystem across energy supply types to develop new data-driven business models and products.

The Digital Energy Hub ensures that the results of new research are made available and brought into play in the energy industry through the digital infrastructure.

Background

Center Denmark is an independent nonprofit organization founded in 2019, with 13 full-time employees. The annual turnover is 6.8 million DKK. The purpose of Center Denmark is to accelerate the green transition by collecting and linking detailed energy data that can be made available for research and commercial innovation. Center Denmark is characterized by operating in a domain with significant complexity, where the majority of the job functions require highly specialized knowledge in the energy sector, software development, and data science. These are all areas where there is a clear overrepresentation of men nationally and internationally. Center Denmark aims to have a diverse workforce, starting from the principle that talent, expertise, and cultural fit are independent of gender, race, skin color, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, or sexuality. Additionally, there are no job descriptions in Center Denmark that are entirely identical, but most have overlaps with other job descriptions in the organization. This makes it difficult to compare salary levels among the company's employees.

Compared to larger organizations such as universities, municipalities, regions, and large corporations, it is challenging to conduct statistical analyses on salary levels and gender distribution due to relatively large uncertainties. The resources allocated to work on the gender equality plan are correspondingly limited. However, this should not prevent Center Denmark from actively promoting gender equality. Therefore, at Center Denmark, we have chosen to set a few overarching goals for our gender equality efforts that we believe are suitable for the current situation Center Denmark is in. New objectives can be identified during the annual follow-up. The following goals have been established for Center Denmark:

1. Center Denmark actively works to remove bias from job postings and job application processes.

2. Center Denmark strives to achieve a gender distribution where the proportion of women at minimum matches the proportion of active women in the domains Center Denmark operates in.

Objective 1: Remove Bias from Job Postings and Application Processes

Center Denmark actively works to remove bias from job postings and application processes and has implemented the following initiatives:

• All job postings at Center Denmark encourage everyone to apply, regardless of their gender or background.
• Qualified candidates of all genders are invited to apply for open job positions to reduce underrepresentation in gender distribution.
• Management with hiring responsibilities in each team must consider whether gender imbalance is an issue in their teams and whether new hires can contribute to solving this problem.
• Management seeks guidance from an external HR partner to avoid hidden biases in job postings and hiring processes.

This is measured by creating statistics on the gender distribution of applicants applying for jobs at Center Denmark.

Objective 2: Gender distribution in the domains Center Denmark operates in

Center Denmark aims to achieve a gender distribution where the proportion of women at minimum matches the proportion of active women in the domains Center Denmark operates in.

According to the IT industry, only about 1 out of 5 IT specialists are women [1]. There are no immediately verifiable data on gender distribution in the Energy sector in Denmark. There is a clear majority of men among enrolled candidates in higher education programs within the data domain, ranging from approximately a 60/40 ratio in some study directions to 85/15 in others. In other words, there is a clear majority of men among potential candidates for most job positions at Center Denmark. The current gender distribution at Center Denmark, where women are underrepresented across the entire organization, is shown in the table below.

[1] https://itb.dk/maerkesager/digitale-kompetencer/kun-hver-5-it-specialist-er-kvinde-og-fremtiden-ser-ikke-lysere-ud/

Center Denmark has skilled and qualified employees that it aims to retain. Therefore, achieving a different gender distribution primarily needs to be accomplished through new hires. Measures in this area have already been outlined under objective 1. Additionally, Center Denmark is aware that diversity should be understood more broadly than just a narrow focus on gender. The company exhibits greater diversity in other areas, such as age and background.

Specific time-bound objectives for the development of gender distribution are not established, as the company's continued growth depends on generating sufficient revenue to sustain an increase in the workforce.

Measurement involves creating statistics on the gender distribution among employees at Center Denmark, as shown in Table 1.

Mandatory requirements for the Gender Equality Plan

The current gender equality plan complies with the requirements set by the EU for Gender Equality Plans in the Horizon Europe program. These requirements include:

• • The gender equality plan is accessible on Center Denmark's website.
  • Resources are allocated for the follow-up and development of the gender equality plan.
  • Data on gender forms the basis of the Gender Equality Plan..
  • It is approved by Søren Skov Bording, Director at Center Denmark.
  • It is distributed via email and is available on Center Denmark's intranet.
  • It is updated annually.

Resources

Center Denmark has allocated resources from the management to execute the current gender equality plan and to follow up on the plan. For future focus areas, decisions will be made on whether additional resources need to be allocated. The objectives are actively integrated into Center Denmark's relevant activities.

Timeline

The objectives are reviewed annually for follow-up.