Workplace gender equality
HAVING a diverse workplace contributes to the success of a business, says International Finance Corporation East Asia Pacific gender specialist Amy Lunistra.
While speaking at the 2019 BSP Fiji Human Resources Institute Convention in Nadi, she explained the importance on ensuring gender equality in the workplace.
“If you are ignoring half the population, you will not have half the potential of the talent,” she said.
“A number of studies have looked at how gender diverse work teams including gender diverse leadership teams and even at the board level has shown impacts the bottom line of companies.
“They constantly show positive financial gains for companies that have gender diverse teams.”
She said the IFC carried out a study in the Asia Pacific on the difference it makes to have women as board of directors.
“Boards where more than 30 per cent of members were women reported an average return on assets of 3.8 per cent compared with 2.4 per cent for those without female representatives.
“The return on equity for companies with more than 30 per cent female board representation was 6.4 per cent beating the 4.5 per cent rate seen at those with all-male boards.
“So generally boards with gender diversity outperformed an all-male board.”
She said it was extremely important for the human resources practitioners to ensure that their human capital was gender diverse.
“Not only is there more work done, decisions are made with a lot of research and a lot discussion.”