Last week’s release of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s report found just 8.8 % of organisations have put in place internal targets to lift the number of women around the boardroom table. In business, what gets measured gets done. Organisations without internal diversity business measures are giving lip service to the diversity and inclusion agenda.
It is hardly surprising that without internal measures, WEGA’s ground breaking report found that 33.5 % of Australian employers had no women in key management positions, and 31.3 per cent of organisations had no other executives or general managers who were women.
“Organisations are not taking a strategic approach to gender equality. We are finding those that are trying have disconnected initiatives that are often ad hoc and are not going to lead to sustained change,” noted WGEA’s Helen Conway.
In my role as Diversity Recruitment Leader for a global firm, I introduced a key measurement across the growth market countries; to set internal targets for diversity at a granular level including graduate hires to executive hires. This structural measure enabled greater clarity on where gender inequity occurs throughout the organisation.
Previously, the firm had internal targets on gender equality for more than a decade but just focused on executive ranks. The CEO – also a Male Champion of Change foundation member – championed the diversity and inclusion agenda by declaring women’s leadership representation and advancement as instrumental in achieving business success through constant communication and alignment with business strategy for continued business’ growth and productivity.
A significant strategic move was his decision to change the responsibility of the Diversity Council to the executive team to ensure diversity issues are given equal treatment to other business objectives, thus integrating and measuring diversity targets and objectives as part of overall business performance indicators. The executive management team developed the slogan ’50/50-if not why not’ to challenge perceptions on gender inequity throughout the organisation.
“Taking a strategic approach needs to come from the top. The leaders need to be driving the change for it to last and we’re not seeing that happen” says Conway.
Diversity and inclusion is not only the right thing to do, it’s also the smart thing to do. Clear communication starting from the top on why diversity and inclusiveness is critical to the business leading to better decisions and greater shareholder value. Whilst initiatives around unconscious bias and mentoring and changing women’s ‘unconfident’ behaviours focus on cultural change, there is significantly more work to be done to strategically and structurally change non-meritocratic business processes.
Does your organisation measure internal targets on gender diversity. If not, why not?