Ten tips on promoting gender parity in the workplace

Hopscotch.work is a business I'm proud to say I co-founded with my wife Helen. Our goal is and has always been to promote gender diversity in the workplace and to create flexible and full time working opportunities for women, at any stage of the career cycle.

Hopscotch.work is a business that people get incredibly excited about, but in all honesty, it has also been hard to monetise with many brands loving what we're setting out to achieve, but unable to support us by spending on diversity and inclusion products and services. The tide is slowly changing for sure.

The recently released 'Women in the Workplace 2017' study in the USA shows that women remain underrepresented at every level in corporate America, despite earning more college degrees than men for thirty years and counting. There is a pressing need to do more, and most organizations realise this: company commitment to gender diversity is at an all-time high for the third year in a row but we still feel there is lots to do and is yet to translate into action and spend.

Helen and I recently moved to APAC to continue our mission and to drive the growth of the business across APAC. With the pending launch of our first Hopscotch.work office in Singapore, I wanted to share some thoughts inspired by an article I read in 'Ad Age' written by Kerry Beutel, a working mother running her own business. Helen, Kerry and I come from the creative industry and I think these top ten tips work across all industry verticals.

1. Create a clear, unbiased, non-retaliatory discrimination policy that ensures employees have a proper way to comment or report on inappropriate treatment in the workplace. Make sure everyone knows and understands the policy.

2. Business leadership must establish core values that promote diversity and inclusion, and set a standard for what's acceptable and unacceptable - behavior.

3. Educate staff on subconscious bias, sexual harassment and discrimination. The first step to stopping it is recognising it.

4. Openly discuss diversity, discrimination and gender bias as a team. Get people comfortable talking about the uncomfortable. Try forming a diversity group that helps lead the conversation.

5. Institute hiring and promotion practices that have clear review criteria, so evaluation is less subjective and less likely to be affected by subconscious bias.

6. Frequently review salaries for parity between genders, races and other diverse categories. Track voluntary turnover by these categories as well.

7. If you're a hiring manager, strive to hire someone on your team who doesn't look like you. If you're a resource manager, consciously work to assign teams that have a diverse group of people represented. Collectively, you will have unique and valuable POVs to solve problems better together.

8. Make your workplace friendly for working mothers. Implement flex schedules, maternity leave, wellness room, teleworking options or other flexible policies.

9. Promote a culture of meritocracy, where great ideas can and should come from all levels, genders, races, etc., and all voices are welcome and respected around the table.

10. Review your agency's work to ensure you are accurately and fairly representing gender and diversity in your clients' advertising. Be proud of the message this sends to society.