the rep.

Inspiration

Women represent half of the world’s population and thus also make up half of the world’s potential. Unfortunately, gender inequality is well alive and stagnates progress. Gender equality is necessary for a sustainable and prosperous world. The Rep acknowledges that women empowerment is essential and has incorporated technological measures to ensure organizations recognize the value of applying a gender lens to their corporate agenda.

What it does

Through the rating of companies: The Rep, aligned with the values evident in the UN Women Empowerment Principles, establishes an unbiased and non-retaliatory policy allowing women to comment or complain about their treatment in the workplace. We see such methods as significant to measure and monitor progress toward gender equality and thus, report results publicly. The Rep also encourages and identifies organizations with gender-sensitive policies. The Rep highlights corporate culture that advances equality and inclusion. Through the publicizing of rating and reporting methods, The Rep promotes pay equity, advocates for workplace policies and practices that are free from gender-based discrimination, and encourages the implementation of gender-sensitive recruitment practices. Furthermore, The Rep aims to establish a zero-tolerance policy towards all forms of violence at work, including verbal and/or physical abuse and sexual harassment.

One can simply look up a company and its profile. The profile depicts a company's position in comparison to other competitors on the basis of multiple rating assessments. The assessments of companies are fair, validated, and foster transparency with clients.

Through the submission of reports: The ability to file a report provides individuals with a means to report potential violations of a company's Code of Conduct, related policies, and/or applicable law. This platform is a key component of conducting business ethically and with integrity. We value the privacy of our clients and acknowledge the importance of consent. At The Rep, we strive to mitigate risks of data breaches by employing clear policies on handling, storage, and use of personal data. By utilizing cutting-edge encryption technology, we enhance security and privacy while complying with Data Privacy Laws. We believe in delivering our promises to the best of our ability, creating positive client experiences, and most importantly, increasing transparency with our clients. Trust fuels results. The Rep also employs a business model and provides companies with a competitive edge. We aspire to use the integration of advanced technology for benchmarking to discover what is the best performance being achieved to identify gaps in an organization’s processes. Client satisfaction is driven by critical-to-quality measures. Thus, an organization can use its profile created by The Rep to address existing gaps and achieve a competitive advantage. Adapting based on customer needs is pivotal for long-term improvement. Furthermore, The Rep leverages influence on organizations to foster workplace environments that exemplify gender equality. The Rep motivates organizations to lead by example and showcase their commitment to women empowerment.

Finally, The Rep provides equal opportunities for networking and mentoring. Through our networking and mentorship programs, we invest in women from all walks of life and connect them to various networks. Networking and mentorship allows one to seek advice and gain insight into confronting certain situations. Overall, we are invested in changing the status quo for women in the workplace through empowerment.

How we built it

We incorporated several software programs as well as coding and design features. We used GitHub, AngularJS, and Firebase. In addition, we communicated in person and through Slack to ensure work was distributed equally and was done in a timely manner. For UX/UI and related design, we utilized Canva and Angular Material. We also seeked advice from mentors and used workshops to assist with the overall development of our product.

Challenges we ran into

There are several social issues that currently exist so an initial challenge we had was pinpointing a specific issue that needed to be addressed. We had brainstormed multiple ideas but creating a product for one particular issue was problematic. However, we soon found common ground and incorporated ideas into a single product; that is how The Rep was born.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We had a diverse team so distributing work and having the freedom to be creative was helpful. We brainstormed, finished our designated portions, and offered feedback to each other in a timely manner. We accepted our failures (minor roadblocks while designing the product) and transformed them into successes.

What we learned

All in all, we learned that each team member is unique and has something different to bring to the table. Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. In addition, it is always best to distribute work so that there is no issue of some team members becoming a burden on the rest of the team.

What's next for SOAM

We envision developing an app to further expand The Rep and its mission. Furthermore, we can imagine pitching this idea to key stakeholders and gaining funds to make the prototype a reality.