Achieving gender equality and diversity in the workplace might seem like a simple 50-50 exercise. But it’s more nuanced than that. Diversity needs to be achieved across the board, so that women – and men – are equally represented not just in numbers, but also across departments, roles and tiers.

If anyone is up for the job, it’s Cecilia Eriksson, Tre Sverige’s HR Manager. Featured on the front cover of the latest issue of Chefstidningen magazine, Cecilia was commissioned by CEO Haval van Drumpt to make the male-dominated Tre Sverige equal. And she’s got three years.

Speaking on the task ahead at Tre, Cecilia believes there’s a lot of bias within the technology and sales departments, “where they will have to make an extra effort to achieve gender equality.” She goes on to say, “The goal is that by 2025, half of all managers will be women.” And on a departmental basis, she wants to see at least a 40-60 ratio within each team in the same year.

Cecilia takes a holistic and common-sense approach to recruiting. She wants to address gender equality as a business issue and steer clear of making it political. Instead she asks questions, “Why is it good for us, for our problem-solving ability, for our profitability, to work with gender equality and diversity in general?” At the top of her list is a desire to foster an environment where everyone feels that they are allowed to speak and no one feels excluded. “We should attract and recruit people from very different backgrounds, to have different perspectives when we make decisions and come up with ideas. I think that makes us even more competitive.”

“Companies that have achieved greater equality are more profitable and can handle change better,” she adds. She also emphasizes the importance not only of recruiting more women, but also making an effort to find more men for the HR department, for example.

You can read the full article in Swedish here.