Gender Diversity: The State of Affairs

8th March is round the corner and most organizations have a frenzy of activities lined up to celebrate their women under the much touted ‘International Women’s Day’. A self-defense class, nutrition classes, a lecture by an accomplished women leader and the list goes on. Most of the acoustics are to showcase the brand, how much they care and embrace diversity. In the Indian context diversity usually comes down to gender diversity.

There are several examples where organizations have created the right eco-system and are well on their journey’s to emerge as Inclusive workplaces. This post isn’t about such organizations; it is about those who have meandered on their path.

Some interesting aspects on how companies fail to translate their diversity aspiration into reality:

1) One large organization while interviewing a candidate to lead the Diversity role, asked the individual ‘how many children do you have? She was single with no children… – How was this question relevant to the job and was it even appropriate?

2) One large organization spent lakhs monthly on the safety of women employees and women who left work post 8pm had security guards escorting them back home. Sadly the same organization would put up women employees who were on work travel, in company guesthouses which were shared by male colleagues, in some instances – these guest houses were shared with men from different companies! Where was the focus on safety when women employees were made to live in the same house with virtually strange men?

3) Another notable brand established a diversity council – the catch there were no women on the diversity council. On being questioned they said there were no women leaders in their C-Suite. Why couldn’t they extend the role to the next level?

4) A Business Leader in order to celebrate a successful client visit invited his direct reports(DR) for drinks and dinner post work which was roughly around 9:30pm. The men were excited about the celebrations and the lone decline came from the only woman DR, she stated she was uncomfortable going for late drinks and dinner with a group of 15men. Why couldn’t the celebration have moved to breakfast or lunch?

One may ponder over why such anomalies exit and the answer lies in the detailing. Most organizations focus on a one-dimensional view and activities are drawn up. There is no linkage to processes and practices are not created. Initiatives are not embedded into the DNA of the organizations and this defeats the very purpose of the agenda.

Ask yourself the following questions:

1)     Is your diversity agenda HR driven or owned by the CEO’s office? Or this is one of the tasks relegated to HR, somewhere a Manager will be identified and this remains one of the nice to dos.

2)     Your organization may have a brilliant maternity plan – yet this is only a hygiene factor. Do you have a plan for what happens to the women who rejoin? Do they move into the same or better skillsets or gradually phase out of the organization?

3)     When you hire, do you ask the same set of questions to men and women candidates? A woman is asked about when will she get married, have children, and is this really required by the job? Do you solicit personal and irrelevant information from women candidates? Do you especially at manager above levels have equal number of women and men candidates?

4)     Ditto for your Internal Job Posting Process, do you have provisions to ensure both women and men apply and are short-listed? Do you have women who are part of your talent pool or do you say 'we don't have qualified women'

5)     Do women and men get the same opportunities for on-site assignment and stretch roles? Do you assume that the women will decline and hence answer on their behalf?

6)     Do you have women in business roles or are they confined to support functions?

7)     Does your diversity agenda focus only on the women? Are men being trained/ coached on their significant role in this change?

8)     There are several men who strive towards creating a balanced workplace? Do you have male employees identified as champions and change agents?

The business case for diversity has long been established. Every day of meandering is a business opportunity lost. This year internalize the commitment and change the video!

*The above are independent views of the author