Equality unlocks potential
Such a culture can define strategies to close the gender gap in career advancement and pay, writes Meera Murugesan
CREATING a culture of equality unlocks women’s potential and uncovers the key drivers of a workplace culture in which everyone can advance and thrive. These were among the key findings in Accenture Malaysia’s “Getting to Equal 2018” research. The research identified 40 factors that can foster a culture of equality, and help leaders of businesses and organisations define and implement strategies to close the gender gap in career advancement and pay
It was based on a survey of more than 22,000 working men and women in 34 countries — over 700 in Malaysia — to measure their perception of factors that contribute to their workplace cultures.
The survey was supplemented with in-depth interviews and a detailed analysis of published data on a range of workforce issues.
“The benefits of an equal culture workplace has been shown to benefit both men and women, but the fact remains that women stand to gain more. If all Malaysian working environments incorporated the 40 factors that influence advancement, we could see 73 female managers for every 100 male managers as compared to just 26 now”, says Nicole Lee, director of technology service delivery lead and inclusion & diversity lead for Accenture in Malaysia. (See chart below)
“Furthermore, as we applied our survey model to global labour data, we found that such environments would narrow the current pay gap to where women could earn US$79 (RM321) for every US$100 men earn.”
The research, which builds on Accenture’s 2017 research on how digital fluency and technology can close the gender gap in the workplace, grouped the 40 factors proven to influence advancement into three categories of bold leadership, comprehensive action and an empowering environment.
We as employers need to create that environment for equality. But to make a real impact, we need bold leadership, one that will go out and declare inclusion and diversity goals, says Azwan Baharuddin, country managing director of Accenture in Malaysia.
“One of our commitments in this space is to reach a gender 50-50 workforce globally by 2025. In Malaysia, we are nearly there with women making up 46.5 per cent of our team here. They are also strong in our leadership, holding 41 per cent of our executive positions,” he adds
In an age of innovation, diversity is a major source of innovation and creativity, increasing the competitive advantage for any organisation. It’s critical that companies create a truly human environment where people can be successful, both professionally and personally.