Increasing gender diversity and inclusion within workforces is a popular area of focus in recent times. Many organisations, regardless of sector, are seeking to improve opportunities and training for talented women, helping them thrive and forge new career paths.
Over the past few months, the Council for Business with Britain (CBB) Sri Lanka has held a series of webinars exploring this topic. Led by its President Roshanie Jayasundera-Moraes, the CBB facilitates and promotes two-way trade between Sri Lanka and the UK and enables a mutually beneficial business relationship between the two countries.
Recognising the importance of promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace, the CBB have launched efforts to help organisations implement this as part of their business strategy. This has been through webinars delivered with the support of several corporate leaders and experts who have shared insights and examples of strategies, policies and initiatives in their organisations as they strive towards reducing the gender gap.
The first webinar in this series was with Lord Mervyn Davies of Abersoch, the UK Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy for Sri Lanka, alongside Director at PeopleLink, Bani Chandrasena. Their conversation explored the role of leaders in spearheading and championing gender diversity and inclusion. The second webinar picked up from where Lord Davies left off and focused on ways organisations can “Make it Happen”, by sharing examples of policies and initiatives that could help improve gender diversity and inclusion. Subsequently, the third webinar focused on gender-related strategies that can be used to achieve benefits in the corporate world. A common thread across all the webinars was discussions on tackling cultural and social challenges, including unconscious bias.
Making it happen
The panel for the second webinar consisted of the Head of Shared Services Centre, LSEG Technology, Arjuna Nanayakkara, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank Sri Lanka, Bingumal Thewarathnathri, and CEO of MAS Kreeda, Sarinda Unamboowe, with Bani Chandrasena as the moderator.
In the past few years, many studies have shown the benefits of having women as part of an organisation’s leadership and workforce, each resulting in statistics that show an increase in profits, productivity and innovation. According to the “Women on Boards – Research Study in Lebanon” conducted by the World Bank Group and released in March 2019, improving gender parity by 25% would increase GDP (gross domestic product) by USD 5.3 trillion and companies with female board members outperformed all-male board member companies and exhibited double the ROE (return on equity).
“I have found that having an equitable mix of women in leadership had made a huge difference in our teams. It’s also up to us as leaders to support them and create the opportunities for them to reach their full potential.” – Sarinda Unamboowe
During the discussion, it was mentioned that quota systems or key performance indicators (KPIs) that are put in place for recruitment processes can make the difference in hiring talented female workers into an organisation. The recruitment process of an organisation with predominantly male staff (particularly at the senior level) will be biased towards male applicants. Setting clear guidelines for recruitment, having gender blind recruitment processes, recruitment panels consisting of both men and women, and having an equal number of men and women shortlisted are some changes organisations can make to remove this unconscious bias.
Taking measures to retain female workers is just as important as hiring new female workers. Most women who do join the workforce often leave before reaching leadership roles. It was discussed how this can be due to lack of opportunity, gender bias and various other factors.
“As a leader, you need to influence the system. Include diversity and inclusion as a natural part of it so that everybody benefits and you unleash the true potential of the talent within the organisation.” – Arjuna Nanayakkara
During the discussion, Arjuna shared his experience while working in a previously male-dominant company. He made the decision to send a woman to represent the company despite it rarely if ever being done. Despite the resistance, eventually, she was chosen and subsequently received an opportunity to further her career. Converting the workplace culture to allow women to feel comfortable and giving them opportunities to showcase their talents regardless of the senior management’s gender will help retain female workers.
It was also mentioned that while some companies state that they have a gender-balanced or majority female workforce, the management is often majority male. Arjuna said that developing and upskilling women in middle management to take up higher positions is just as important as recruiting new female talent. Having both men and women in higher leadership positions helps organisations have varied points of view during decision making, leading to more productive and well-thought plans.
“It’s very important to have diversity and inclusion as an integral element of any corporate culture.” – Bingumal Thewarathanthri
Creating a D&I culture in a new company is a much simpler task compared to changing the gender balance of an existing organisation. Starting as early as possible could simplify the process and create a work culture that is both beneficial and inclusive. The panelists spoke about how they held workshops and other activities for their employees to raise awareness and promote a D&I work culture as employees’ unconscious bias and Sri Lankan cultural views on the role of women are two factors that affect how employees treat their female colleagues.
Within the Sri Lankan culture, there is a huge expectation for women to go home and play the role of mother, wife, daughter and more. According to Sarinda, when the time and effort they need to put into their professional careers increase, women struggle to balance these other expectations without support from their families. This in turn leads to them resigning in order to fully take on the role of a caregiver. He also mentioned how many female workers struggle to work from home as they’re now expected to completely dedicate their time to these roles in addition to working.
“If we are going to make the change that [we’re] talking about, it’s as much within the company as well as talking about outside the company. And raising self-awareness, unconscious bias because the culture comes from the community.” – Bani Chandrasena
The panelists also spoke about how some leaders may fear facing backlash if they create policies to close the gender gap. When asked if they’ve faced any backlash, the panelists said that although they haven’t faced any discrimination, they have faced resistance in their journey to create a diverse and inclusive workforce. It was also discussed that some organisations simply do not know where to begin their conversion, to which Arjuna replied, “If we start somewhere we can get somewhere.”
Learning Strategies to Achieve Benefits in the Corporate World
The third webinar panelists included the Program Manager at Women in Work Sri Lanka, Sarah Twigg, Country HR Director at Unilever Sri Lanka, Ananya Sabharwal, Assistant Manager – Employer Branding, Diversity and Inclusion at DIMO, Suwatthi Kandiah, with General Manager, Women’s Empowerment, Advocacy and Code of Conduct at MAS, Thanuja Jayawardene, as the moderator.
The discussion explored how when shown a path to have greater benefits and profits, companies will be more inclined to accommodate the policy changes necessary to set foot on said path. This would mean that equity can be achieved in an organic way where additional policies and efforts are not needed. When Thanuja questioned as to why it is not so, Sarah mentioned that disproportionate household and care responsibilities, the legal barriers in Sri Lanka preventing women from working at certain times, restrictions on certain industries and jobs, challenges in accessing safe and reliable transport, workplace harassment, disrespectful behaviour towards women, social norms and unconscious bias are some reasons as to why we must make a conscious effort.
“And then underpinning all of that we have social norms and unconscious bias. And this affects the way that we all think about women’s and men’s roles in the household, in the community as well as in the workplace.” – Sarah Twigg
Despite the high literacy and education level of the female populace in Sri Lanka, only around 35% of the labour force consists of women. Further, less than one out of ten board directors of listed companies are female. The lack of females in workplaces means a large talent pool is left untouched. Sarah highlighted that closing the gender gap in workplaces can increase Sri Lanka’s GDP. During this session, the panelists discussed how they have implemented strategies for recruiting, retaining and training female workers to bridge the gender gap and reap more benefits.
“[Unilever] believes in balance states. So when you’re recruiting we are not saying that you have to hire a woman. It’s that you have to have a balanced shortlist. So if you have ten people shortlisted, five should be women and five should be men and then may the best person win.” – Ananya Sabharwal
It was mentioned that addressing childcare responsibilities, ample maternity/paternity leave, career break options, flexible work hours, family-friendly policies and practices, encouraging men to take a more active role in household and childcare responsibilities will give more opportunities for women to continue their careers. To get the best potential you need to make a progressive environment where employees feel comfortable and want to give their best.
Sarah also mentioned that due to cultural and social norms there are often gaps in terms of women’s ability to speak up and make themselves heard. Giving women-specific training to help build those skills is a fundamental part of addressing the lack of women in leadership roles. Having clear policies against discrimination and bias when giving promotions is also important.
There are also certain industries such as automobile, IT and such which are considered male dominant. Training women with the skills required for these unconventional career paths and introducing them into these jobs with the necessary support is a step towards gender equity. Suwatthi mentioned how DIMO has partnered with universities and various educational organisations to build a pipeline of women with the necessary skills to recruit them into male-dominant industries. She also said that carrying out training for the existing employees to help normalize women working alongside them, having strong harassment and retaliation policies to protect employees from internal and third-party harassment and encouraging leaders to advocate equality has helped integrate female workers into these industries.
“We wanted to reiterate the fact that one cannot determine or judge another individual’s interests, skills or competence based on their gender.” – Suwatthi Kandiah
The panellists also spoke about the unconscious bias we all have regarding women and their role in the workplace and at home. Providing training and workshops to help employees change this mindset will help support women in pursuing their careers and retain female workers. Ananya also mentioned that setting goals, having discussions with those who do not understand the importance of gender equity and having everyone on board are vital to succeeding in this journey. She also mentioned how she believes that by putting policies and targets in place organisations can create a culture where regardless of gender people are able to be who they are.
Keep an eye out for more insightful diversity and inclusion related discussions that the CBB hopes to deliver in the next few months. Visit www.cbbsl.com for more information on the CBB and how to join. Follow the CBB on Facebook and LinkedIn to receive updates for future events.