There is a clear gender gap between the number of men and women who remain in the workplace over time—and from a people perspective, it is absurd. Companies that aspire to open their arms to a wide range of talent on the one hand, often operate in ways that discourage half of their potential talent pool on the other. The business consequences range from loss of productivity and profits to increased recruitment hassles and decreased satisfaction in the workplace.
Enough is enough. HR Magazine looks at why tackling this gender gap head on is so beneficial for business—and what organisations need to do to make it happen.
Bigger bucks, stronger skills
Aside from moral considerations, is it worth it for businesses to invest their time and money into preventing the loss of female talent?
Absolutely—there are three major business benefits to be gained. Firstly, organisations that hold on to female talent spend less on recruitment. As post-maternity retention at Citi rose from 84% to 97%, the company saved the equivalent of around HKD 20 million in HR costs. Similarly, by improving post-maternity retention from 80% to 94%, EY was able to save an eye-watering HKD 182 million.
But incorporating a greater number of women at middle and higher levels does more than save costs. In the context of a growing skills shortage, the benefit of retaining experienced and highly skilled individuals cannot be overstated. Sally Raj, Managing Director, Robert Walters Malaysia elaborated, “Returning women often have vast experience and bring with them a certain maturity about their role. This talent pool can serve as a viable solution to the skills gap prevalent in the workplace today.” The stronger skillset of firms which bring back working mothers goes some way to explain why companies with better representation of women are more profitable.
In addition, HR should consider a growing body of research which suggests that including more women throughout an organisation creates more constructive team dynamics.
As Seth De Grow, Associate Director, Deloitte observed, “Diversity and Inclusion is really about two things, creating equality of access and harnessing the power of a diversity of thought—cognitive diversity that includes a breadth of perspectives and ways of thinking.”
Gender diversity in particular has a strong positive effect on diversity of thought. In fact, a recent study by Deloitte found that gender balanced teams were much better at facilitating conversational turn-taking, creating healthier environments for sharing ideas and bringing together different perspectives.
When teams have a wider range of personalities, problems can be approached from multiple angles—breeding innovation. Furthermore, everyone has unconscious biases such as blind spots, and by uniting people who see the world differently, organisations can limit the risk caused by individuals’ narrow thinking or by group think.
Given the advantages that arise when the gender gap is reduced, observers might find it puzzling that so many businesses struggle to retain women as they move through the pipeline. But the well-known truth of the matter is that closing the gender gap is incredibly difficult.
For the most powerful impact, three steps are required: strategy, execution and follow-through. De Grow boiled it down, “Any organisation that wants to act on the gender difference in leadership has to have more than a plan on a wall. There has to be a clear aim and there has to be ownership in terms of execution—e.g. what role will HR play, does any change have the full support of senior leadership and will performance management and hiring feed into promoting diversity? A lot of companies have great ideas, but the ones who top that up with follow-through and self-reflection tend to be the most successful.”
I. Start with strategy
Organisations should begin by examining their current gender strategy and thinking about how they can build on what they’ve got.
All businesses should—hopefully—be starting from a position of legal compliance, with zero-tolerance gender discrimination policies. From there, a roadmap can be created for further development. De Grow advised, “Businesses should take stock of where they are now and think about how they should build on that. Is your organisation focused on compliance, building awareness or is moving more toward being led by leadership? Making progress takes commitment, but if it’s a change for the better it’s worth doing.” Goals should be balanced but bold, as well as time-sensitive.
HR teams should design their strategy by first seeking out quantitative and qualitative diversity data, which can be used to identify specific areas for improvement, for example, reviewing the representation of women at different levels and by function, turnover rates, whether there are gender-related pay gaps, etc. Fern Ngai, CEO, Community Business recommended, “After gaining an understanding of the current diversity of the organisation and where there are gaps or issues, companies need to think about what it is that they want to change and link those changes to business outcomes.” A company that discovers women tend to drop out after having a child will require a different strategy compared to one where employees feel that women can’t speak up or are denied advancement opportunities.
The aim is to design a tailored approach which takes into account as wide a range of business considerations as possible. Multi-national organisations in particular need to think broadly and be mindful of cultural differences when building a global diversity strategy. Ngai explained, “In Asia especially, a ‘one size fits all’ approach from a global head office is risky. A global agenda may not resonate with business priorities and issues on the ground. Businesses need to take into account local regulations and laws, as well as local dynamics such as cultural sensitivities and adjust their approaches accordingly. Getting local buy-in is important, so examining the local perspective and engaging with in-country stakeholders is vital.”
To engage stakeholders, creating a narrative is a powerful tool. Ngai explained, “A narrative is a stated commitment. It’s what matters to the company and how they see diversity and inclusion, including gender parity, being important to their business strategy. It forms the backbone of why and what changes are needed, and what are the aspirations or goals the company aims to achieve.”
II. Execute efficiently
After a strategy is clarified and the objectives are set, the next step is to think about execution—how those objectives are going to be achieved.
Modern maternity
For an overwhelming number of businesses, execution needs to address the leakiest part of the female talent pipeline—right when women start having children.
Offering considerate parental leave policies is an obvious place to start. While many businesses cite a reluctance to increase costs as the reason for more tight-fisted maternity leave policies, such thinking is ultimately short-sighted. Data suggests that companies that offer more generous maternity leave are much better at retaining female workers—which means they are also better at holding on to skills and talent, as well as reducing recruitment costs.
Vodafone, for example, recently extended their maternity leave policy to 16 weeks on full-time pay, followed by six months where mothers can flexibly work 30 hours a week on a full salary. The result? Vodafone calculated that it saves USD 19 billion a year globally on recruitment now that more staff choose to stay with the company after having children. Similarly, when Google raised its paid maternity leave from 12 to 18 weeks the number of new mothers dropping out of their workforce declined by 50% and Google reaped the rewards.
Parental leave does not simply mean ramping up the leave available to mothers. Paradoxically, giving mothers additional time off for maternity can have an adverse effect on the chance that they’ll return to work. When parental leave policies are lop-sided and fathers are given less leave, childcare usually falls to mothers—a pattern which tends to continue once parental leave ends. This is one reason why Netflix recently revamped its policies to allow unlimited parental leave for both mothers and fathers.
A generous approach to parental leave can also make organisations more attractive to job-seekers. While the International Labour Organisation recommends 14 weeks of paid maternity leave, the average mother in APAC receives just 12.7, falling slightly short of global standards. And paternal leave across APAC is particularly short—statutory paternal leave in Hong Kong is a pathetic three days. Having attractive parental leave policies is a good opportunity for employers to stand out from the crowd and enhance their EVP.
All onboard!
Following up with new parents after they’ve returned to the office is a key next step. Coming back from six months of parental leave is quite a bit different from returning from a six-day holiday.
It’s not uncommon for new parents to feel alienated from their work when they return. After months out of the workplace, it can be incredibly difficult to get back up to speed with one’s team, projects or even office dynamics, and these barriers tacitly push new parents—particularly women—towards dropping out of the workforce entirely.
Onboarding after parental leave is low-hanging fruit for companies who are trying to fix their leaking pipelines. A brief period of training, just like that offered to new hires, can make the process much easier. It’s cheap too—most business already have a process for on-boarding, and simply enrolling mothers in the existing process with a few slight modifications requires little extra effort on the part of HR.
When employees have children, organisations should also remember to be mindful of their emotional needs. A process that doesn’t adequately address the stresses of becoming a parent can fall flat and fail to retain talent. HR should offer transparent timelines and information about the support available. Flexibility regarding the needs of expectant parents is always well received—a human approach is essential.
Pump for joy
Even BigLaw firms, notorious for poor work-life balance, are getting on board with ‘Mother’s Rooms’, providing clean and comfortable environments for mothers to pump breast milk. Consider that the cost to firms is negligible—around HKD 8000 for a medical grade pumping machine and maintaining a small room in the office—which pales compared to the cost of replacing skilled female lawyers.
Last year, US firm Latham & Watkins went a step further and offered a free breast milk shipping service for mothers who needed to travel for work, enabling working women to express, refrigerate and hygienically send their breast milk back to their children. The programme has been so successful that other law firms have quickly picked up the practice. Free shipping of breast milk has also become popular outside of the legal sphere, with companies like Twitter, Johnson & Johnson and EY providing similar services for their employees.
Less face time, more FaceTime
Naturally, new parents want to spend more time with their families. HR needs to provide flexibility, which should form the backbone of support offered to parents returning to work.
A highly successfully career doesn’t need to be incompatible with a life outside of work. As more work becomes digitalised and more employees express a desire to work flexibly, there is an opportunity for HR to directly address the needs of all employees; the business case is not just limited to women. With 84% of workers regardless of gender planning to take a break from their careers at some point, organisations that are flexible enough to hold on to their talent while attracting others hold the advantage.
Telecommuting offers parents on parental leave the chance to work from home so that they don’t have to choose between family and office. This a good option for employees who are concerned that working less—whether because of leave or part-time work—will hinder their career. Telecommuting and time in the office can also be blended. For example, a parent of a young child might choose to go to work in the morning when their child is at school, before leaving the office to pick up their child and continuing work at home. Organisations also benefit from offering these choices—getting employees back to work sooner means that less needs to be spent on cover, and skills are put to best use as soon as they can.
Offering flexible working hours is also a great way to give mothers a balance between home and work. For example, Lego allows its staff to choose their own working hours within a set window. In addition to flexible hours, GE has gone as far as to offer options for reduced hours, a compressed workweek—where standard weekly hours are worked within fewer days—as well as job sharing.
III. Making change in a way that sticks
Coming up with women-friendly policies is still easy compared to making sure employees stick to the programme—and that the execution addresses the intended business need. Organisations should follow through on their strategy and execution by thinking of ways to motivate employees and build momentum, while reflecting and adapting their approaches to be more effective over time.
For this, accountability is vital, and should start at the top. Firms like Chubb and P&G have already implemented management practices that tie diversity outcomes directly to performance metrics. P&G, which has consistently ranked highly for gender parity, has even gone a step further and directly pegged part of executive compensation—around 10%—to diversity goals.
It is also particularly important to engage middle management because they are usually the ones most directly involved in execution. De Grow remarked, “When it comes to middle management businesses need to communicate and co-create. Give them a say on the strategies that are implemented, and be open and honest when it comes to addressing their concerns or execution may run the risk of having leaders on the fence or supportive but seeing goal achievement as someone else's job.”
Although buy-in from leaders is important, corporations shouldn’t forget that the real aim is to get buy-in from everyone. Each company is different and has different employee needs, so organisations should keep their ears to the ground. Forming employee resource groups (ERGs) which focus on including a broad range of people in the journey to gender parity can help to develop a culture of accountability. ERGs provide forums for feedback and suggestions so that if execution is lacking, or the chosen way of tackling a problem is ineffective or disruptive, employees have a platform to express their concerns. It’s vital that policies that aim to include don’t inadvertently alienate sections of the workforce.
In addition, participating in a benchmarking exercise like the Community Business Gender Diversity Benchmark for Asia can provide organisations with a view of how they compare with other businesses. This is an opportunity to regularly reflect on their practices and think about how to develop them further.
Start sooner
In the end, it’s important to remember that closing the gender gap takes time—Women Matter 2016 by McKinsey found that companies that initiated diversity programmes earlier had far greater levels of gender parity compared to their counterparts further behind the curve. HR and business leaders should bear this in mind and aim to act sooner rather than later. The earlier HR can lay out a plan with strong strategy, execution and follow-through, the sooner the company can realise the financial and cognitive benefits of having a workplace with gender parity.
