More than twenty reports over a decade resoundingly support the case for greater gender diversity.  McKinsey & Co, Catalyst, Diversity Inc, Corporate Women Directors International (CWDI), GE, Pepperdine University, even Reibey Institute in Australia, all show the same result. Those companies that have a higher proportion of women in senior management and executive positions (than their industry counterparts) had significantly higher returns on assets, investments, share values and more intense financial oversight, plus a host of other benefits that drive business success.

Australia is facing a lowering in our standard of living. We must dramatically raise productivity if we are to meet the challenges of an ageing population, as reported in the third Australian intergenerational report, tabled in January 2010. 

 

The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report on Gender Parity ranks Australia 23rd – well behind Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden and New Zealand who’ve held their top five positions for the last two years. Five years ago we were ranked 16th.  The study benchmarks national gender gaps on economic, political, education and health-based criteria. Additionally of key concern is Australia’s gender pay gap of around 17%, i.e. the average Australian full-time male earns 17% more than the average Australian full-time female worker.

With 45% of Australian employers having difficulty filling key positions in their organisations, and with little movement in those figures in the last five years, Australia ranks fourth in the world in talent shortages, well above the global average.

The Goldman Sachs JB Were’s  (GSJBW) 2009 Research Report on Australia’s Hidden Resource: The Economic Case for Increasing Female Participation concluded that women are still under-utilised in our workforce. (link to this report in our Resource section) If Australia could close the gap between male and female employment rates it would boost GDP by 11%.  Imagine boosting your productivity and profits by 11%?  

In October 2010 the Australian Government’s Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) released their 2010 Census Key Findings of positions women hold in Australia’s Top 200 Publicly Listed Companies:

Women make up over 55% of university graduate positions, and nearly 50% of the workforce and the population. Do you think it’s acceptable that women don’t have the opportunity to participate in the decisions that affect the organisation they work for and the communities they live in?.

In January 2011, the Australian Securities Exchange’s Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations on Gender Diversity came into effect, requiring organisations to report in their annual reports from July 2012 onwards their: policy concerning diversity, their objectives and measures for achieving gender diversity within their organisations. These recommendations were influenced by a Goldman Sachs JB Were report and Catalystreports on the business benefits of gender diversity.

Their strong recommendations present an unprecedented opportunity for organisations to harness their talent management strategies for their female workforce. This goes well beyond complying, rather it’s about setting up one’s organisation for success. It’s an important distinction.

Six of Australia’s Top 10 companies (by earnings) have declared their gender diversity intentions. This will flow on to other large organisations, multinationals and SMEs in order for them to be competitive in attracting and retaining high-calibre female executives and operators. 

 

Despite individual corporate initiatives and guidelines for the ASX Top 200 companies, the federal government has decided not enough is being done – and not enough is being achieved – in terms of advancement of women in the Australian workforce. Note the emphasis on results, not programs in place.

Since the millennium, businesses with more than 100 employees have been required to report to EOWA on the status of women within their companies. Approximiately 2500 organisations comply. However there are more than 6,000 businesses in Australia employing more than 200 employees. The government is doubling its funding to promote best practices and address non-compliance.

And it will only spend its $42 billion annual budget with companies that can demonstrate they have gender equitable workplaces. 

 

While ASX Boards have risen to the challenge of appointing more women to their boards to take advantage of the benefits of diversity (30% of all 2011 ASX board appointments were women, resulting in women holding 12.7 per cent of directorships in Australia's top 200 companies – a record high) – the question of whether quotas should be applied to business is not off the table.  The sense being that for too long an overly dominant male culture has been detrimental to Australian organisations and the economy.

The Honorable Kate Ellis MP, Minister for the Status of Women, announced in 2010 that the federal government will be appointing 40 per cent women and at least 40 per cent men on all government boards. Kate said the government needs the corporate sector to follow suit and actually start lifting these (their) figures.

One of the reasons why it is important for organisations to attract and retain female staff is that increasingly their customers are female. Women account for 64% of the $18.4 trillion spent annually on consumer goods around the world. In the US that figures is 83%.  Likewise, in Australia, women spend the lion’s share of every household dollar and here 40% of professionals are women.

The organisations that will be most successful over the next few decades will be the ones that understand how to market to women, understand what women value, and indeed employ women at strategic levels within their organisations in order to emulate their audience and market that to the world.

The war for talent especially the war for female talent has escalated in recent months with ASX gender guidelines having a significant impact across all industries including those that once were the sole domain of men. Yes, mining, manufacturing, transport and logistics and more.

Switched-on organisations recognise the importance of the employee brand value proposition and “get” how to market to women as buyers of employment. 

By addressing gender diversity as their first diversity focus, organisations have the opportunity to significantly impact the largest minority group within their workplaces – that of women.

Importantly, many of the attributes that women are seeking in their jobs are high on the list of things Gen Y workers are looking for.  By nailing one key area you set yourself up to maximise opportunities with this emerging sector of the workforce. Several companies operating in rural Australia are combining gender diversity initiatives with indigenous ones with corporate social responsibility, bringing Aboriginal women into their workforce with strong results.

With the extension of the retirement age, elderly workers will be a value feature of our employment landscape and with increased migration, Australia is set to be even more multicultural. 50% of Australians are born overseas, or have an overseas-born parent. And one in five Australians speak another language other than English at home.  Diversity underpins our country and diversity-savvy organisations