Flow Communications is a progressive company and unique in its industry in many ways. One of the things that makes Flow unusual is the mutual respect that permeates the staff. Regardless of the stage of their career or which demographic they fall into, each person is recognised as worthy and valuable. This includes women, who have historically been overlooked or disregarded in the business world.
Flow CEO Tara Turkington says: “We take the empowerment of women very seriously. We have a long way to go in terms of empowerment for women in South Africa, and in the world for that matter. We, at Flow, do everything we can to support and grow women at work and at home. I think we walk the talk.”
For example, Flow Communications supports a large number of female interns, and seeks to employ women at all levels. Flow is 70% owned by women, and there is an unusually high percentage of women in the company, especially in management, where typically men outnumber women. Three of the four directors at Flow are women, and females make up 60% of the total number of staff. We also enjoy working with clients who support women.
One such client is the Dominican Convent School. It has an outreach programme called the Kgosi Neighbourhood Foundation (KNF), which offers pre-school education for those who cannot afford it. One of the children of Flow’s cleaner, Ntombininge (Ntombi) Ngwenya, attends the programme, and as a parent, she took a cleaning course through KNF. When there was enough work at Flow for a full-time cleaner, the Dominican Convent School and KNF were able to recommend Ntombi, who beat out four other excellent candidates for the job. Flow chose to create the job for her rather than to hire a cleaning service, which may have been less expensive.
Ntombi says that Flow, on the whole, understands that she has responsibilities that most men don’t have, such as looking after her children on her own, and says she enjoys working at Flow.
Another woman who has grown within Flow is Khanyisile Shabalala, who started with Flow as a bit of a Jill-of-all-trades. She cleaned, ironed, cooked and also helped with babysitting. She was introduced to Flow’s CEO Tara Turkington when she visited her mother, who works for Tara, for the holidays. Tara asked her to help out with some cleaning in the Flow office – which was then a converted garage – and, says Khanyi, “I got the job just like that because I was doing a good job.” She is now the receptionist, as well as an invaluable part of the support staff, and is working towards completing her secondary education.
Flow offers women everything it can to help them grow, and even offered to pay for Khanyi’s education. However, being one of the fiercely independent and strong-natured women that Flow likes to employ, she declined the offer, because she wanted to do it on her own. She says of Flow: “Yes, they support me as a woman because they know that I’m important and they respect me as a woman. I see myself growing in this company because I respect them and they do the same to me. I’m very happy to be what I am now,” says Khanyi.
And it’s not only women starting out in their careers that Flow likes to work with. We are lucky enough to have highly experienced women on board such as top designer and design team manager Tina Brown, who has won two Silver Awards from the prestigious international design journal Graphis, and Melanie Feris, a multiple award-winning environmental journalist who joined Flow after being managing editor at the prestigious City Press newspaper.
Stuart Dickinson, who works in the women-dominated writing studio, can’t help being a little tongue-in-cheek when he says: “The women at Flow are very good at bossing the men around. Everyone knows we’re the real muscle behind the operation. And when you’re outnumbered in a studio like I am, it’s hard to get a word in! But seriously, it’s great working with the ladies of Flow. They have a keen eye for detail, and can be a calming influence in stressful times.”
One department where men outnumber women is in the programming team, where Alex Cowling and Zintle Mtyeku represent the female gender. But, says Alex, “I don’t encounter much difficulty working in our male-dominated programming studio at Flow. However, it does require effort. I think the biggest challenges for women in male-dominated teams is finding a balance between maintaining a respected reputation (working on exciting projects based on achievement and not manipulation) and equal opportunity (making sure you’re considered for the exciting projects just the same as every other team mate). My role model in this area is [comedian] Tina Fey. Her book Bossypants gives great career advice, especially for women in male-dominated industries (such as comedy).”
Flow is not a company where men are overlooked or unwelcome as women once were in the workplace. Tara says, “We strive to keep a balance. It’s people that are going to make the world a better place; men and women.” This outlook means that balance and diversity in the company are highly valued.
“Diversity of gender, age, ethnicity and personalities are all important,” concludes Tara. “It’s when you put it all together that you get magic.”