New standards for equal opportunities could pave way for a better working future
Firms across the world have been attempting to codify their efforts on equal opportunities, and a new set of global standards may do just that. Christiane Bisanzio writes why her firm has signed up.
Last week, the World Economic Forum released its eagerly awaited report into the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on gender pay. It showed that women around the world will have to wait up to 135.6 years – up from 99.5 years in 2020 – to achieve overall pay parity with men.
Many column inches have been written about the gender pay gap, and rightly so. In February, a report by Hampton Alexander showed that the number of women on FTSE 350 Boards has slowly crept up from 21.9 per cent in 2015 to 34.9 per cent, while recent research from Fox & Partners showed that companies are still not appointing women to the better paid leadership positions. This issue won’t go away any time soon.
But while the eyes of the world are fixed on the injustice of the gender pay gap, there is another that we in the corporate world need to address: equal opportunities.
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Until now, equal opportunities have never been audited or certified in large corporations like the company I work for.
Companies have been Equal Pay Certified, like we have at JTI’s global headquarters, but to date no one has ever been audited or certified for achieving a Global Equality Standard. The good news is that is about to change.
At last, a new Global Equality Standard has arrived, which requires companies to meet 35 different dimensions before they can justifiably call themselves an equal opportunities employer. This means for example companies having policies on equal family leave, inclusive international mobility, Employee Resource Groups for LGBT+ and Race, mental health support, as well as a clear understanding by the leadership team of the link between Diversity & Inclusion and the successful performance of the business.
As an agent of change, we are working towards enabling JTI to meet the Global Equality Standard in 2021, and I would urge every other company who aspires to be an equal opportunity employer to do the same. Not only is this the right thing to do for our employees, but it is also the right thing to do for society.
Companies, particularly those which are consumer facing, have shown how they can be agents of change across the world. We have seen how Google, Microsoft, Danone, and P&G are taking a stand on LGBT+ rights by introducing company policies in direct defiance of government policies in the countries where they operate; be it Russia, India, the Middle East, or Africa. This stubborn progressivism by corporations is changing attitudes, and its permeating throughout the societies in those countries.
The pressure to become more diverse and inclusive has been driven by our employees and financial institutions – many refusing to work for, or invest in, a company that lacks proper diversity on their EXCOM or Supervisory Board.
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According to UK Government statistics, companies in the top 25 per cent for gender diversity on their executive team are 21 per cent more likely to experience above-average profitability than those in the bottom 25 per cent. For ethnic diversity, top-quartile companies are 33 per cent more likely to outperform on profitability.
In essence, Diversity & Inclusion has become business critical through pressure from the bottom-up. But, for that progress to continue, it is important that the places we work be held accountable, not only on the pressing issue of equal pay, but also on the wider and often forgotten issue of equal opportunities.
A crucial step we must all take on our corporate journeys towards driving Diversity & Inclusion and gender equality is to open ourselves up to having our equal opportunities policies and procedures audited on a regular basis, and to put in the work to close not just the pay gap, but every other dimension of diversity & inclusion.
Only once we embrace this new imperative will we begin to make a real difference.