Gender diversity is crucial for any workplace and can benefit your business in a vast number of ways. Yet the percentage of female leaders in the workplace, across both the US and Europe, still needs improvement to enable organisations to operate at their full potential.
A recent report showed that during 2021, 41 women led Fortune 500 companies in the US – which is just 8.2% This is an improvement from the 33 companies in 2019 and 24 in 2018, but still an incredibly low percentage. If we turn our attention to the UK, in 2020 only 5% of FTSE 100 companies were steered by women, and the FTSE 250 is even further behind with just 5 female CEOs. On top of this, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report, it will still be 170 years until women achieve economic parity on a global scale.
On a positive note, the gender imbalance across UK businesses is on the British government’s agenda – in 2019 it stated that FTSE 100 executive-level appointments needed to achieve a target of 33% female representation, a goal that was met in February 2020.
Tackling gender diversity in the workplace can bring many benefits to an organisation’s operations. First, diversity provides a wider talent pool which means different viewpoints, ideas and insights, all of which can provide a huge difference to productivity. This can also help to increase innovation and creativity, while helping businesses attract and retain talented and skilled women. In a report by McKinsey & Company, greater gender diversity throughout the UK on the senior executive team corresponded to the highest performance uplift in their data set. As well as this, a 2015 study found that if women were as integrated into the economy as men, it would add up to 26% to annual global GDP by 2025.
Along with the benefits it creates from a business standpoint, gender diversity can also help employees in the workplace. Studies have shown that having a gender diverse policy can increase productivity, improve communication, and produce better results as employees feel greater equality and subsequent job satisfaction.
Looking at the world today, although some strides have been made to improve gender equality while closing the gender wage gap, there is still a fundamental lack of women in leadership roles. As a result of COVID-19 the workplace has changed drastically, and under the challenging circumstances presented by this pandemic, the increase of females in leadership positions has stagnated. There is a clear underrepresentation of women leaders in all sectors across the globe – and that is a problem.
What needs to change?
Now, if you get anything out of this post, I hope it’s that the business world needs to change. Companies need to not only focus on creating gender diversity in the workplace, but also making their working environment inclusive to all. It requires total commitment from everyone in an organisation, and leaders need to create a culture where employees feel accepted and like they belong. If you are going to ‘talk the talk’, you need to ‘walk the walk’. According to McKinsey and Company, in order for businesses to truly benefit, they must make room for everyone and empower them to speak up. Here at Mantell Associates we are proud to do just that, and have both males and females in leadership positions across our organisation. We wouldn’t want it any other way.
As a manager of a team, it is of the utmost importance that you make gender diversity a key priority in your team. You must be persistent and publicise these efforts, both internally and externally, to keep female underrepresentation at the forefront of workforce issues, and work to build a team that is not only aware of the commitment to workplace diversity but also celebrates it!
Mantell Associates is a rapidly growing organisation, but at the very core of what we do is the people who work for us. Should you be looking for your next opportunity and you think joining the Mantell Associates team could be the right move for you, it is important for you to know that you will be trained, rewarded and valued from the very first day you join.
We are also looking forward to partnering with new clients and candidates as we continue to grow and expand, and as we continue to successfully provide staffing solutions across the Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences industry, in particular to the CDMO/CMO and Preclinical CRO & Medical Devices sectors
If you are looking for your next opportunity, or if we can help with your headhunting needs, please reach out to Klajdi Bega on +44 (0)20 3778 0990 or ewan.rennison@mantellassociates.com.