CEOs in Davos: How They're Driving Women in the Workplace

Women – Among the hottest topics at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos.

A whopping 10,000 tweets on gender parity.

And powerful leaders getting behind women for many reasons.

Coke CEO Muhtar Kent: “We need the three Ws: women, water, and well-being.”

Sadly, the poor turnout of women in Davos – only 18% of delegates  – underscores why our When Women Thrive breakfast panel with top CEOs was so important.

There was, as usual in Davos, a lot of talk about equality and fairness – certainly something I’ve advocated for since my days as Founder and CEO of Women’s Financial Network in Silicon Valley – but there’s more.

Look, if you’re a leader – CEO, HR, D&I, business executive, you name it  – you’re looking for your company – or your boss  – to be successful (to grow, progress, expand reach, etc). And one of the biggest answers to growth is – you guessed it – women.

Let’s face it: if we’re ever going to change the numbers, we need to change how we’re engaging decision makers.

As we share in the When Women Thrive, Businesses Thrive report (available here), only 57% of leaders are engaged in diversity efforts. Worse, only 38% of men are engaged, down a full 10 percentage points from 49% from 2014.

But these efforts are key to women ever rising to the top where, as our data shows, only 20% of executive roles are held by women globally.

“It's very difficult to rise to the CEO level and raise two kids,” said Hanzade Dogan Boyner, who runs among the largest Internet companies in Europe. “So we need to change the culture.”

Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson agreed: "How do we make sure these women can become GMs (general managers) and, ultimately, executives of the hotel?”

Here are some innovative moves these leaders are making to set an example:

• Demanding Change – Savvy CEOs aren’t afraid to demand real change. J?rg Zeltner, CEO of UBS Wealth Management, was perhaps the most adamant, saying “There’s no more excuses” and doesn’t want to go into a board room without women.   He’s directly holding his business managers accountable for more women, saying their jobs will be on the line.

• Transparency on Pay – Sharing data on compensation exposes all sorts of risks, as you can imagine. But the ones who really care aren’t afraid to do it.

Three years ago, eBay decided to start publishing its pay equity data to help identify gaps – and that’s led others to take on a greater sense of accountability. “The only thing worse than avoiding the issue is talking about it and not doing anything about it.”

• Critical Benefits for Women – We’re all familiar with maternity leave and flexible programs. But there are many other points of intervention that are simply ignored, partly because leaders simply aren’t sensitive to the needs. Health care is one – aging parents is another.

eBay’s Wenig surprised the audience by saying that elder care, sorely needed by women as they juggle kids and aging parents and the job in the middle, is deserving of at least equal attention to maternity/paternity leave programs.

“Men have a unique opportunity in this as we still make up 80% of the executive ranks and even more than that at the CEO level,” said Julio A. Portalatin, Mercer President & CEO. “We have a unique obligation to be out in front on growing women in the workforce. It’s not a ‘women’s’ issue. This is a workforce issue.”

And as part of an effort to engage CEOs, managers, and companies, Mercer’s When Women Thrive challenged everyone to take the When Women Thrive 2020, a survey (here) of innovations and best practices that companies are

implementing to drive their growth through women.

Would you take the challenge today and stay abreast of best practices?

Or tell us, what else do YOU think companies could be doing to advance women - and their growth?

Please follow me on Twitter - @jopenshaw - and help drive the conversation.

We can all take just one small step after the World Economic Forum to help close the gender gap and propel women – and job-producing companies – as a result.

# # #

This post is part of the #WomenAndDavos series, curated by Mercer

When Women Thrive’s Jennifer Openshaw is a nationally known financial expert, author and commentator. She founded and later sold Women’s Financial Network, has advised  Microsoft among others, and appears regularly on CNBC, CNN and many other programs.