Written by: Katie Scott, business reporter Brainz Magazine
Ford Motor Co, Hewlett Packard, Danske Bank and Nestle SA are amongst the giants of business who have been included in an index for which their gender diversity policies were scrutinised.
The 2023 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index includes 484 companies. They provided data on their leadership & talent pipeline; how they are closing the gender pay gap; details of their inclusive culture; anti-harassment policies; and external brand. The latter category takes in how a company is perceived by stakeholders; how women are portrayed in advertising and external support for women in the community.
The Index, which has been published each year since 2015, had an 11 percent increase in participants in 2023 from the previous year.
“This year, GEI members’ disclosure for exploratory questions averaged at 92 percent, demonstrating collective interest in extending beyond gender inclusion metrics,” said Patricia Torres, Global Head of Bloomberg Sustainable Finance Solutions at Bloomberg. “The GEI continues to identify areas of impact for companies, helping to facilitate meaningful change that, ultimately, will contribute to more innovation, creativity, and higher performance.”
Data analysis revealed that companies in the Index led by women have higher representation of women at all levels. “GEI Member companies with greater than 30 percent women representation on the board have, on average, 27 percent of women executives within the corporation, as compared to 20 percent of women executives in firms with less than 30 percent of women on the board”, states Bloomberg.
In 2023, 64 percent of GEI members have implemented diversity and inclusion goals for managers in performance reviews, and this, says Bloomberg, is an eight-point increase from last year. It continues that 86 percent of members offer unconscious bias training, with 74 percent of those companies tracking manager completion.
“We cannot underscore the importance of leadership enough when looking to improve gender equality in the workplace,” added Torres. “Change can only be driven when diversity and inclusion are part of executive performance metrics.”
