HEY PEOPLE! is a project seeking to battle the gender stereotypes that negatively influence young people’s professional careers.
This project is rooted in data, in particular the fact that 85% of the jobs for those who are now in college are still yet to be invented. This means that with the right guidance, young people have the chance to envision new professions and shape a world free from gender stereotypes.
Recognising that the future workplace is largely an unknown, we wanted to build a digital experience that would encourage young people to see this as an opportunity they can take full advantage of.
It can be a daunting challenge for a young person to find where they fit into the job market, let alone consider that they have the right to define it. We aimed to help them engage with this idea by designing an experience that mirrored the format of social media stories, and used a familiar visual language and tone of voice.
Personalised cover letter
The journey consists of ten simple questions, which ask about participants’ key information, but also their upbringing, interests, and professional expectations. This helps to place them within ongoing debates and changes in the workforce.
Depending on their response they receive a bitesize information pill, for example a man who wants to work in education will be informed that he will be working mostly with women, yet they are still proportionally underrepresented in senior positions.
At the end the user receives a personalised cover letter addressed to their future manager, that insists on the changes they want to see based on their answers. The cover letter provides a sort of personal manifesto, but it is the process that is most important as it opens debates around the kind of world we want to live and work in moving forward.
Action guide
To extend the impact of this project, there's a cheat sheet that's free to download and packed full of useful data on gender stereotypes in the workplace. This can be used to guide daily actions that encourage equality, and challenge established perspectives and behaviours.
Dear future manager
Have you witnessed gender stereotyping in your place of work or study?
Number of answers:
