Pavlo, you are CTO of ProSiebenSat.1 Digital. What exactly is ProSiebenSat.1 Digital doing?
ProSiebenSat.1 Digital is responsible for consumer products and provides the digital footprint of ProSiebenSat.1 (e.g. TV channel websites, mobile apps, Smart TV, HbbTV, etc.) addressing a global consumer base. At the same time, ProSiebenSat.1 Digital is a reliable partner for content ingestion, transcoding and video assets enrichment for live streaming channels, supporting internal and external partners.
In your opinion, how do you define diversity and why is it important in the workplace and in tech especially?
Diversity is a very broad term, it encompasses different social and economic backgrounds, inclusion, sexual orientation and a multitude of different aspects and that's what makes it so important. It brings and encourages creativity. At ProSiebenSat.1 we work on products that evolve quickly, our consumer products never stagnate, and we need to improve them every day. We can't lock ourselves into a predictable box where we produce a predictable consumer product – we must be open to new ideas and always think outside the box. To do that, it's very important to have a diverse group of people with many different backgrounds coming together and working as one.
What problems does diversity pose in the workplace?
The challenge is to create an enabling environment in the workplace. The key is inclusion, which can be challenging because you have to constantly define new boundaries. For example, if you look at a German-speaking market, the majority of employees will likely speak German, and therefore you set certain boundaries for hiring.
How do you define diversity in a company?
We need to accept people from all kinds of different backgrounds and social groups in the world. An important question to ask is how you speak to your employees and colleagues; certain jokes should just be generally unacceptable. And it is also a question of culture, by tolerating certain things you are in a way of setting a certain culture – because the culture in a company happens to be what you tolerate.