Keys to Accelerating the Pace of Gender Parity in the Future Healthcare Workforce: GPC Summer Solutions Summit Recap

In late July, members of the Gender Parity Collaborative (GPC) gathered virtually for the Summer Solutions Summit, focused on tackling the second half of the think tank’s prioritized topics for 2023: eradicating systemic barriers to the advancement of women in the workplace through talent-optimized solutions. Sessions were designed to educate, provoke thought and inspire leaders to activate change in their respective companies.?

The? Summit featured prominent industry experts and focused on three accelerators as solutions to optimize talent:

What Allyship Really Means: Susan Childs, MBA , Principal Managing Partner of LCA Enterprises, engaged in a deeply reflective and powerful fireside chat with Conrod Kelly , Managing Director of 默克 , Sharpe & Dohme in Chile, about what allyship really means. Some key thought accelerators from this intensive discussion:??

• To drive real change, we need allies who are willing to risk their own comfort, safety, and status to ensure that someone else experiences equity.??
• True allyship is a spectrum, and the best allies learn to play different roles at different times.??
• One of the most important roles as an ally is getting people to believe in themselves. The environments we work in often create self-doubt, which makes it hard to believe in yourself — which then makes it hard for others to believe in you.??

Exposing Biased Language in Performance Reviews is a Talent Game-changer: Jackye Clayton ? ,? VP of Talent and DEIB and Kieran Snyder , Co-Founder and CEO of Textio highlighted how the language?used in performance reviews reveals bias, with serious implications for talent retention and business results.??

Textio is an innovative software company that helps companies hire and retain diverse teams, using language data to highlight biased language in job listings, performance reviews, and more. According to the company’s 2022 Language Bias in Performance Feedback survey, compared to men, women are seven times more likely to report being described as “opinionated,” and 11 times more likely to report being described as “abrasive.” And Black and Latinx people receive 2.4 times more feedback that’s not actionable compared to white and Asian people. Key accelerator: Inclusive language leads to more diverse teams, which leads to improved retention and better business outcomes.??

• Data-Driven DEI: The Personal Case for DEI Matters as Much as the Organizational Business Case: Dr. Randal Pinkett , Co-founder, Chairman and CEO of BCT Partners , and author of Data-Driven DEI, facilitated a personal and corporate conversation about data-driven DEI and how to unlock the power of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workforce, workplace, and our industry community by prioritizing data that will also optimize talent. “Organizations don’t change, people do,” he asserted. For all the talk about the business case for DEI, we also need to focus on our “personal case” — the value of DEI to each of us. Learn more about the data-driven DEI model here.??

The major announcement for this Summit was that the GPC recently selected BCT Partners as the think tank’s new data partner. This partnership will aggregate the data from all member companies for benchmarking purposes to measure progress of the member companies towards accelerating gender parity in leadership at all levels through data. The GPC will compile and report on the collective progress and will produce valuable insights and thought-leadership to spur change in the industry for gender parity.?

The Collaborative’s annual strategic Global Council Meeting will be 27 September, 2023 and the final gathering for the GPC will be during HBA’s Annual Conference in Chicago, 6-8 November 2023. Learn more about the Collaborative, and email [email protected] to talk about becoming a member of this transformative think tank that is impacting the healthcare ecosystem. ?