What is Dunelm doing for women in tech?

How does that look in practice? It involves quarterly catch-ups, and networking whereby participating employees play “coffee roulette”, being paired with a different person to discuss different job roles in tech and other career experiences.

Coffee roulette is a monthly event all about making connections to build knowledge and confidence regarding different areas of technology and working life.

Priti Verma, senior business analyst at Dunelm and STEM ambassador, says: “It’s a monthly as-long-as-you-want session where you get paired up with people who you don’t know in tech.

“It’s a way of networking in an age when people are working from home, and it gives you that benefit of meeting someone and understanding their story,” she says. “And if you need some info you have a connection – and you’re making friends at the same time.

“It’s the heartbeat event that happens every single month without fail,” says Verma. “Every month, the tech team are hearing about what women in tech are doing. It wouldn’t necessarily happen organically.”

The plan is to push more people to sign up next year. In general, this work is to help raise awareness of women in technology, create more opportunities for career progression, and give women confidence to apply for jobs they might not otherwise apply for within the tech function of the organisation.

Key to getting women to take on more roles in tech is “representation”, according to Verma, who says imposter syndrome is real – particularly for women who are returning from parental leave or if they’ve taken a sabbatical.

“We need to ensure people are confident and happy to apply for roles – and even if they don’t get the job, that they get the right feedback to help them the next time they apply,” she says.

Underlining her credentials as the designated leader of the women in tech movement at Dunelm, Kalnavarna says she is a “big risk taker”.

“We want to build a feeling of, ‘You have the confidence, you just need to go for it’ – I want to show that attitude,” she says.

“We’re running all these events to show what you can do; just go for it, don’t be afraid, and don’t shy away from it. We’re trying to build a community at Dunelm to show anything is possible here, at least, and one day, you’ll see the wider change in society.”