As part of our commitment to gender equity and talent empowerment, CGI partners with The A Effect (L’effet A in French), an initiative that aims to foster women’s talent within organizations. CGI has chosen to implement The A Effect programs in Canada and France to nurture the leadership potential of women in managerial and senior roles and to enable them to expand their professional network.
Based on a unique methodology that brings together different learning strategies, The A Effect programs enable women to advance their careers through activities that focus on both inspiration and action.
One of these initiatives, the Ambition Challenge, focuses on helping participants define and communicate their ambitions to take their place and seize opportunities. With support from recognized female business leaders and ambitious women from all over the world, they build their self-confidence to avoid the Imposter Syndrome, learn to take risks, improve their negotiation skills, and develop their network and their ability to influence.
“For my part,” says Lorraine Joyes who works for CGI in France, “I took up the challenge of talking openly about my salary ambitions with my manager, and I was fully supported by my fellow Ambition Challenge participants. They shared their personal experiences with me, gave me advice, and motivated me. Shortly after my participation in The Ambition Challenge, I was appointed vice president, and I interviewed for the role with strong confidence.”
CGI began to collaborate with The A Effect in Canada in 2017. Two years later, it extended the program to our operations in France.
“CGI offered me the opportunity to participate in the Ambition Challenge, which demonstrates their commitment to advancing female leaders," says Catherine Lessard who works in Canada. “Giving me this opportunity was great acknowledgement of their appreciation for me and their confidence in my development. It also shows that CGI is aware that there is still work to be done to help women to reach the same level of responsibility as men in the IT sector. Moments of reflection helped me to identify and write down my career ambitions and the steps I needed to take to achieve them,” Catherine adds. “Even today, I still refer to my learnings from the program as I continue to assess my development.”
The A Effect is part of a wide range of initiatives across the globe focused on helping to promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace. CGI invests in these initiatives to help underrepresented groups in the IT sector overcome professional barriers and build successful IT careers.
