By Melissa Ries.
On 8 March the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women across the world were recognised and celebrated.
Despite the many successes of women in the workplace and the leaps we have taken to earn our place as equals on business leadership teams, there is still work to be done.
The benefits of increasing the number of women in leadership positions have been well documented: organisations with strong female leadership have higher return on equity than those without, as well as a superior price-to-book ratio.
Most organisations employ many capable women who aren’t making it into leadership roles, which is even more surprising when research suggests that up to 72 per cent of CEOs are concerned about the lack of critical leadership skills in their organisations.
How can these organisations afford not to use a significant percentage of their workforce?
The answer is to build up the pipeline of talent to ensure that organisations realise the full potential of their female workforce.
Inequality in the workplace is historically an issue that stems from outdated views about female job commitment and roles within the workplace.
Work is a part of life for both women and men — and organisations need to respect this and it is in the interests of organisations to provide women with well-defined development opportunities to help them grow professionally and advance their careers.
Building a more equal and fair workplace
There are numerous benefits to promoting women to leadership roles.
Here are some steps to help build a more equal and fair workplace.
Equal pay
While it may seem obvious, boosting the pay of women where needed is an efficient way of immediately addressing the gender pay gap; calculate your organisation’s gender pay gap and raise female employee salaries accordingly.
Unconscious bias
Hiring managers often make decisions based on underlying assumptions.
These assumptions are often not based on facts, but they affect decisions.
Unconscious bias training for those involved in the pay and promotions processes is integral to equal opportunities for women.
Once organisations identify underlying assumptions, they can be tested to evaluate whether they are useful and accurate or whether they should be reframed.
Gendered assumptions need to be uncovered, tested and reframed.
Those in the manager’s seat need to be aware of the benefits of diversity and ensure they are not just awarding promotions or pay rises to those who shout loudest.
Succession planning
A recent Skillsoft whitepaper noted that 92 per cent of women feel that there is a lack of female leaders.
It’s critical to identify talented women and look for the best career paths to accelerate their growth and impact.
Many organisations convince themselves that they are making gender-diversity progress by creating succession-planning lists that include only a few female candidates.
Instead, when there is no woman to fill a gap, organisations need to ask why and hold someone accountable for addressing it.
If you can see that men dominate your leadership team, a robust succession planning strategy can help ensure that, in years to come, your boardroom is the picture of gender equality.
Corporate movements
Late last year, the Paradigm for Parity coalition was launched by a group of CEOs and business leaders committed to establishing a new norm in corporate leadership; one where women and men have equal power, status and opportunity.
Organisations such as Coca-Cola, Bloomberg and Skillsoft have signed the pledge to more efficiently increase the number of women of all backgrounds in leadership positions.
In Australia, Male Champions of Change, for example, are refusing to speak at functions if there are not equal numbers of women speakers.
Overall, creating true gender diversity requires a long-term strategy and change will come by ensuring more women are at the top, meaning a more inclusive and equitable culture.
It’s essential women feel empowered to get to the top their way — if women can get there with authenticity and integrity, they will quickly demonstrate the benefits of gender diversity.
* Melissa Ries is Vice-President and General Manager Asia Pacific at educational technology company Skillsoft.
This article first appeared at www.afr.com.
