For this interview, Julia Khalyavko (She/Her), Sponsorship and Media Relations Manager at WeSTEM+, sat down withLucile Oger, Principal HCM Consultant at Oracle Luxembourg to talk about her career in HR technology, the role of DEI in digital transformation, and why advancing women in tech matters to both her and her organisation.

Lucile studied Sociology of Work and Human Resources Management, and during her final semester, discovered a passion for the Information Systems side of HR – specifically the potential of data to improve how people are managed. This interest led her to begin a career in HRIS consulting, where she has since worked as a consultant and project manager across various SaaS solutions, including one of Oracle’s bestselling products, Oracle Human Capital Management. Her role allows her to combine everything she excels at: analysing HR and Talent Management processes to design effective solutions, applying her sociology background to guide change management, and translating these insights into scalable, future-proof systems that evolve with the pace of SaaS innovation.

WeSTEM+: Your journey from studying Sociology of Work and HR Management to becoming an HRIS consultant is inspiring. You mentioned using your “sociology lens” to embed change management into your projects – could you give us real life examples of how it can work in technology-driven projects, especially when it comes to inclusive and equitable HR solutions?

Lucile: When designing a new solution for HR activities, I interact with teams who are rarely at the center of IT projects, simply because the HR function gets budget for a transformation less often than other functions.

This means that the people in charge of designing the new processes are often very knowledgeable about their current ways of doing things and not necessarily at ease with the way a cloud solution should be implemented, leveraging the new capabilities they will get.

It is my job to provide this perspective in every decision, advising them on the sustainability of the solution we are discussing and building together, with regards to the way cloud releases work and perpetually grows with features. And since HR teams who have an extensive experience of the company will bring a lot of information on what will work, what will not, and will significantly improve their processes (for them and for the employees they support every day), it is incredibly important to give them a chance to fully understand the ins and out of a decision they are making in the design to make sure we build the best possible solution for them. And of course, while designing and implementing these solutions, we bring ready-made features that aggregate data into insights and have been developed to impact positively inclusivity and equitability.

WeSTEM+: You’ve worked with a variety of organisations on HR transformations. Have you seen differences in how companies across sectors or regions approach women’s advancement in tech and leadership roles? Is there the talk, and if there is – do they walk it?

Lucile: Most companies organise a yearly spotlight on their executive women, but having worked mainly in France and Luxembourg, unfortunately I cannot say I have seen meaningful changes beside a lot of communication. I still find that CHROs and IT positions are often occupied by men, and if in IT there is a gender gap starting at school, in HR I can assure you it is the opposite. Above all I find that, in general, the leadership values that play in career advancement are still rather masculine. Anyone who has read “Nice girls don’t get the corner office” would know what I mean (I did not manage to finish that book).

WeSTEM+: You mentioned that one aspect of the IS in HR is aggregating HR data to manage people better. What role do you think data and analytics can play in identifying and addressing gaps in diversity, equity, and inclusion within an organisation?

Lucile: Data and analytics come today as standard or easy to build reports and dashboards that can be used for general monitoring of the company, such as the distribution of gender in the hierarchy and in the organisation, but also as powerful features to manage strategic processes such as compensation or succession planning, bringing a spotlight on potential biases. Salary gaps and frustrations are also easier to anticipate, because with the right data structure you can easily visualise compa-ratios from the moment you draft an offer to a candidate, and later analyse and manage the employee’s advancement in relation with their performance and their learning opportunities, for instance.

Anything that makes sense today to keep an employee motivated can be monitored as long as it is conceived as data. And with the emergence of predictive analytics, having strong data is going to be key to have access to a whole range of unforeseen insights on managing people.

WeSTEM+: If you had the power to implement one major change in how tech companies approach DEI, what would it be and why?

Lucile: I wish they would shift culturally to a more inclusive leadership model, valuing the complementarity of skills that emerges from work parity. Redefining success metrics to value collaboration over competitive traits would be a key.

WeSTEM+: Finally, what does it mean to you personally to work for Oracle – the company that actively supports DEI initiatives and supports organisations like WeSTEM+?

Lucile: On a personal level, I am happier working at Oracle than I have been anywhere else, because the company has a long experience of hiring women in tech for the better, and this creates a healthy environment for us, with equitable opportunities. I find it important to promote DEI initiatives to reflect this back on the job market and set an example, because I know from my own experience that it can still be tough nowadays for women to find their place in tech.