We celebrated Women’s Day a couple of days ago. While it’s a good thing to have a day dedicated to the women for every man to indulge in deep thoughts and appreciate the contribution women have made including giving them birth.
‘Every day is women’s day ‘ is the proposition I like the world to embrace and live by.
This column being dedicated to business, let’s ask this question coinciding with the world’s women’s day; could greater gender diversity in the workplace be the secret weapon in your company’s quest to elevate performance? Could greater gender equality be the untapped power play upon which you build your company’s success?
My experience is that business teams with an equal gender mix perform significantly better than male-dominated teams when it comes to both brands, sales and profits. Despite this fact, many organisations fail to devote time and attention to creating a more balanced workforce, particularly for higher-level positions.
It’s still fairly common to see fewer women than men in C-level positions, or on work teams that have traditionally been male-dominated, such as in oil and gas, manufacturing, construction and engineering. Likewise, it’s equally uncommon to find men in traditionally female jobs, such as elementary education and nursing.
Gender diversity doesn’t mean your company needs a 50/50 mix of males and females in every job in the company. It does mean, however, that all roles – at every level in the company – should have a fair representation of both sexes. It also means that every hiring manager should strive to hire the best person available for the open position, without assumptions or prejudices about it being a man’s or woman’s job.
In Sri Lanka, among people aged 25 to 54, the gender gap in labour force participation stood at 29.2 percentage points in 2022, with female participation at 61.4 percent and male participation at 90.6 percent. This large difference cannot be explained solely by women’s greater difficulty in finding jobs. The country has a long way to go with women being more actively pursuing jobs moving away from traditional thinking.
Women promote creativity
Making your workforce more balanced between genders isn’t merely a nice-to-have thing – rather, it’s a real driver of superior performance that all business leaders desire. The thinking is that gender-biased firms do not fully use all the talent available to them, so they lose out to rivals that provide opportunities equally to men and women.
Females make up approximately 51 percent of the population in the developed world. By recruiting, retaining and promoting more women at all levels of the company, you help your workforce better understand the concerns, stressors and motivators of the total population your company serves. Without diverse talent, it makes it harder for your company to keep up with the increasingly diverse customer base that exists today.
It’s now generally accepted that diverse teams are more creative and better at problem-solving. That’s simply because different types of people bring different perspectives and life experiences to the table. Like-mined people often have very similar ideas. So, if you have got an under-performing team, take a look at whether that team is all female or all male – or even majority male or female. If it is, you may be able to improve results by mixing things up, gender-wise.
To be most effective, gender parity shouldn’t be limited to senior-level positions. In order to build a bench of talented, diverse team members, your company needs to cultivate gender diversity across the board in senior, mid- and lower-level positions.
This helps the company because, when potential recruits interview with you, they see people who look like them in the positions where they’ll be working. This can help your company come across as more welcoming to job candidates because it quietly signals that everyone’s work is valued and rewarded. With a tight labour market in Sri Lanka, your company needs every advantage it can get, and a commitment to workplace diversity can help you find and keep the best candidates.
Recruitment ease-off
To make your company as attractive as possible to a broader range of people, you must work to erase pay inequality between men and women in the same positions. One way to do this is to stop asking about a candidate’s previous salary and offer the same pay range to every potential employee, regardless of what they made in an earlier position.
Considering that asking candidates about their salary history is already prohibited in some states, this is good practice anyway. When it comes to benefits, studies also show that women in particular value robust, family-oriented perks when seeking a new job. This means you should be as generous as possible with family leave, health insurance, remote work and flexible hours.
Gender diversity is just one piece of the puzzle when building your workforce. Learn how to cultivate a diverse team with the skills and abilities to propel your organisation to greatness. A variety of perspectives can spark creativity and innovation, and help organisations spot and seize new opportunities.
It can also encourage organisations to challenge gender stereotypes. Having an inclusive culture in your workplace boosts morale and opportunity. Inclusive workplaces tend to have lower employee churn rates – which represents big savings in terms of time and money spent on recruitment. Customers come from all walks of life. The more the make-up of your organisation reflects your customers, the more likely it is that you’ll communicate effectively with them.
In summary, gender diversity in the workplace is not only morally imperative but also a smart business move. By promoting equality and inclusivity, companies can benefit from a wider talent pool, different perspectives, enhanced collaboration, improved staff retention, a better reflection of their customers, improved recruitment and reputation, and greater profitability.
