Why Meron is a gender-balanced workplace
29/03/2021
A healthy work environment is composed of people who put their passion, resources and skills together in order to achieve a performant and reliable business. We have always been an inclusive business. We promote diversity and gender equality in the workplace. We attract and support both female and male colleagues for our departments in order to reach full potential.
Gender-Balanced Workplace: Recruiting on the basis of competence
Since 2015, we developed our teams keeping in mind one thing: competence. Today, we have an equitable distribution of gender roles in our teams. We are a gender-balanced workplace. The benefits of having this kind of balance in the company allows us to appreciate people in their diversity and their unique skills.
“When we open a position in our team, we never have in mind that ‘this role would be perfect for a woman or a man’. We hire for competence, character and potential to grow. Skills are more easily acquirable. Of course, when working with women you can fairly appreciate their collaborative approach, their capacity to organize teams or their attention to details. Also, I’ve noticed that they are very persevering and resilient. On the other hand, men are grounded, good negotiators, focused, yet less organized.”
Bogdan Ciocian, CEO Meron
Baristas, managers and people in our offices, the national business representation is 48% women, 52% men.
Gender-Balanced Workplace: Equal Opportunities
The World Barista Championship the championship has been happening for 19 years. The World Barista Championship was dominated in its early years by Scandinavian baristas. The Championship was held in Europe or the United States from its inception until 2007, when it was hosted in Tokyo, Japan. In 2018 Agnieszka Rojewska became the first woman to win the World Barista Championship, followed by Jooyeon Jeon from South Korea in 2019. The nerd inside whispers: 10.5% female winners of WBC.
The dynamics of our team are different. Before the pandemic had put the national and international competitions on hold, 2019 was the year when 14 of our barista colleagues, 6 women and 8 men have participated in National Coffee Competitions: Barista Championship, Brewer’s Cup, Latte Art Championship and Aeropress Championship.
2019 is also the year when our Head Roaster & Head Barista, Delia, became the 2019 Romanian Barista Champion and successfully represented Romania at World Barista Championship in Boston. We were so proud of her accomplishment, as a result of hard work and constant development as a professional in the coffee industry.
The pandemic made us nostalgic about the time when our colleagues would hit the stages of National and International Competitions. That is why in 2020 we decided to organize an internal competition, Meron Coffee Masters. The proportion of competitors was half women and half men and the podium was occupied by a woman and two men.
Gender-Balanced Workplace: Coffee for all the communities
We attend or organize events dedicated to all the communities we have around us. Here are some of our last years’ initiatives to empower and support the people around us:
- Organizing workshops dedicated to our coffee lovers: How to brew your coffee at home;
- Coming up with campaigns addressed to our female customers and employees: celebrating International Women’s Day both in our coffee shops and in our company, Coffee Date with your mom;
- Encouraging social responsibility: Your Vote, Our Espresso;
- Supporting events dedicated to female empowerment: The Woman Leadership Conference;
- Supporting events dedicated to baristas and coffee lovers: Slow Coffee Festival, Aeropress National Championship
- Supporting social initiatives: Coffee for a Good Cause for Magda Săvuică’s project Dragoste desculță, Coffee for a Good Cause to support Dominic Stanca Clinic Cluj-Napoca, Magic Partners;
