Today, on International Women’s Day, I challenge you to question whether your business is doing enough to bridge the equality gap, and not just for women, and ask yourselves: Are we bold enough to take a stand?
I strongly believe that inequality, in all its forms — gender, LGBTQ, racial or otherwise — is an issue every company must address for the benefit of its own business and for the betterment of Australian society. I am also a proud believer that through purposeful collaboration, we can help women advance and unleash the limitless potential offered to economies the world over.
This year’s IWD theme is #beboldforchange and for some companies it can be seen as too risky to be bold, to take a stand on equality. Too often companies shy away from taking action for fear of taking a hit to the bottom line, profit over people as it were. At Salesforce, we think differently.
We’re not alone on this either. Research published by McKinsey and Company clearly highlighted the dividends of diversity. Companies that are more gender diverse are 15 per cent more likely to outperform others; for those that are ethnically diverse, it jumps to 35 per cent.
The groundswell of change has already begun, from people powered movements like the Women’s March in January and the consistently outstanding work of NGOs like UN Women to corporate champions like Telstra and KPMG. How do we light a fire that burns across all Australian businesses? We embed equality as a core value and we learn from each other.
While every organisation needs to forge their own path, we must collaborate and share experiences of enacting real change initiatives that has provided real outcomes. For example, in August last year, we audited the pay of 17,000 employees globally, based on objective factors that determine pay, such as job function, level and location. If there were unexplained differences, salary adjustments were made, which resulted in an additional $3 million to bring pay equality to 6 per cent of our male and female employees.
Unconscious bias training and the work of UN Women on #heforshe
Crucial to changing the entrenched issues in business, especially in the technology industry, is eliminating unconscious bias and improving diversity in hiring and teams. Recent research from the The Australian Computer Society and Deloitte found women make up only 27 per cent of the Australian technology and communications workforce.
Training, of men in particular, is vital to bringing biases to light and removing them from the decision making process. It’s encouraging to see companies like ThoughtWorks and Google institute initiatives like this to change the way they hire and interact with people at work.
The United Nations Women’s National Committee for Australia and its HeforShe program is another example of business and equality groups partnering to ensure actionable change. We’ve pitched in to co-develop corporate principles to help companies develop a gender equality strategy and take affirmative action to drive change. With more companies joining us, we’re more likely to deliver effective and lasting change.
LGBTQ rights in the United States and Australia
The importance of business activism was made evident in the movement against proposed legislation in Indiana and Georgia which sought to discriminate against the LGBTQ community. Organisations including Apple, Walmart and Salesforce supported LGBTQ rights groups by withdrawing business initiatives and operations while lobbying publicly for change.
We’re seeing a similar movement here in Australia, with the Marriage Equality Alliance’s push for change, where we’ve joined over 1,200 businesses, big and small, to ensure all adult Australians can marry. We’re entering an age where business is realising its potential to create change and is finding its voice.
I encourage you to reflect upon your own organisation and ask yourself what you can do to contribute to creating a culture of inclusivity and openness. The business case is sound and the moral imperative is compelling. Talk to your co-workers, talk to your boss, organise empowered teams and don’t be afraid to be bold.
Wendy Johnstone is Equality Sponsor and Salesforce Vice President of Marketing, Asia Pacific.
Reader comments on this site are moderated before publication to promote lively and civil debate. We encourage your comments but submitting one does not guarantee publication. We publish hundreds of comments daily, and if a comment is rejected it is likely because it does not meet with our comment guidelines, which you can read here. No correspondence will be entered into if a comment is declined.
