How to use content to tackle the Gender Diversity challenge

There is no debate. A gender diverse workforce leads to better business results.

A McKinsey analysis in 2015 showed that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 15% more likely to financially outperform those companies in the bottom quartile for gender diversity.

Inspired by International Women's Day, I wanted to provide inspiration for how content – the medium of the digital age – can be used to attract great female candidates to your company.

What follows is a "creative juice-box' that I hope will inspire you to create your own great content program to attract women to work at your organisation. The majority of the examples shown are using LinkedIn Sponsored Updates to push powerful gender messages right into the personal, professional feeds of the women that matter to each organisation.

Idea one: Encourage your leaders to share their opinion

The Gender Diversity imperative requires leadership. What better way to signal your full intentions than coming from the pen of your leaders.

David Thodey, former CEO of Telstra, addressed the gender diversity challenge front on with a long form post on LinkedIn.

Mike Smith, former CEO of the ANZ Bank, wrote a number of opinion pieces on LinkedIn, after he signed up for the "Male Champions of Change" initiative.

Now, the two examples I have shown you are both male CEOs. This is because, amongst the top 200 corporations in Australia, only six currently have a female CEO.

Here, ANZ have promoted the opinions of a female leader – Amanda Gome, Head of Digital & Social Media.

Fidelity Investments are bringing their female leaders to the fore in a series around the theme of “Powerful Women”.

Idea two: Create employee Spotlights

Highlight the careers and activities of your star female employees.

In general, people can relate to and better trust people who are "just like themselves".

Placing the spotlight on your female employees may create just the right impression to encourage women to consider joining your organisation.

ANZ highlights the job passion of three of their female Agribusiness bankers. 

ABB describes the role of a female engineer on their solar airplane team.

IBM puts the spotlight on 31 year old Lisa DeLuca – “IBM’s most prolific female inventor”.

Comcast spotlights a day in the life of a female software engineer.

Idea Three: Highlight company culture & initiatives

If you have a great, inclusive culture and inspiring initiatives, then highlight them.

Intel highlight their paid parental leave policy.

MOL Group, a Hungarian Oil & Gas company, highlight how their Growww graduate program can help young females forge a successful career in Oil & Gas.

Idea Four: Join the debate - talk about Women's career challenges

Show that you care by having an active voice in the issues that matter.

Walmart eCommerce is highlighting their participation and sponsorship of the Grace Hopper, women in tech conference. This post also highlights the trend towards near real-time content: this is likely an iPhone snap and post from the conference.

EY have joined the debate on International Women’s Day with some well thought through infographics and articles.

Arrow Group, a recruitment agency, chose to publicly celebrate International Women’s Day.

Idea Five: Share achievements & awards

Shout about your successes.

Zendesk is shouting about making a list of the tech companies with the highest percentage of female employees.

Stryker is celebrating being named a Top 50 employer by Women Engineer magazine.

Idea Six: Get your energy behind a #hashtag

Jump on board with a hashtag that already has momentum.

Atkins, an engineering firm based out of the UK, leveraged the popular #notjustforboys. The hashtag had many companies and individuals using the hashtag on Twitter, Instagram and elsewhere.

EY got on board with the International Women’s Day #pledgeforparity.

Idea Seven: Make Videos

Video has for some time had engagement supremacy on the web: people love to watch videos and when they do, the level of engagement with the content is generally far greater than other mediums.

IBM have created a video showing “A Day in the Life” of an IT Program Manager.

Expedia created a this video showcasing their female leaders to provide inspiration.

Idea Eight: Encourage & inspire your employees to share content

Make it easy for your employees to share by providing them with the links, suggested comments and instructions.

Here an EY employee is proudly sharing her company’s gender diversity campaign content.

Here the regional HRD at CBRE property group shares an image from an event to mark International Women’s Day.

I would love to hear other great ideas for using LinkedIn Sponsored Updates to progress your companies gender diversity goals. Please share in the comments below.

I'm a "Talent Brand Consultant" with LinkedIn, based in Sydney, Australia.  I post articles covering LinkedIn Strategies, Employer Branding, Content Marketing and Social Media. Follow me by clicking on the 'Follow' button at the top of this post if you would like to receive my articles right in your news feed as they are published. You can follow me on Twitter @drwsanders.