Category: Articles

Author: Simona Scarpaleggia

Board Member, EDGE Strategy

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Encouraging greater equity in the workplace is an ambition that all would agree is a desirable outcome. A more balanced and equitable workforce is proven to contribute to a better performing and more creative business.

Achieving that balance, however, often tends to focus on what steps women can take to advance their careers, when in fact the debate should be focused also on what men could be doing to support their female colleagues. 

Men have traditionally been resistant to change. Externally, they may declare an intention to drive change, but may not be aware of the simple steps they can take to turn an intent into reality. So why is this?

Men have traditionally been resistant to change. Externally, they may declare an intention to drive change, but may not be aware of the simple steps they can take to turn an intent into reality. So why is this?

Firstly, there is a real fear in men that in promoting women, they lose their own status in their company, their department, and even in their family. “Masculinity,” writes Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist, “is hard to win but easy to lose.” I can recall a time at IKEA more than 15 years ago when the CEO declared an intent to promote more women in the business, only to find that the top 200 positions in the group were taken by men – and nearly all were white, 40-year-old men from Sweden!

For three days, these 200 leaders, alongside 50 women identified as having high potential, debated how to remove gender bias and promote more women in the business. We met again later for another three days, after which we formulated our first Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) strategy. During these conversations, I well remember one of the men speaking passionately against the idea of positively promoting women saying that now, as a man, he had no career. The CEO was swift in his response: his colleague did have a career, but now there was more competition. The opportunity to be promoted on merit had not disappeared; it was simply that now there was a greater pool of talent to choose from.

Removing the barriers

The belief that men have a greater right to promotion and a career is certainly one barrier that needs to be removed. Another is the belief that men cannot be carers, and that those who do take time out to spend with their children are stigmatized for doing so.

Raising a family is considered ‘women’s work’, and they are discriminated against in the workplace because of it. Men who take parental leave, on the other hand, fear being seen as lazy or otherwise not committed to the business, and so refrain from taking leave to which they are entitled. Many men would actively welcome the opportunity of spending more time with their families and children but are afraid that their absence from the business will disrupt their future career progression, and how they are viewed by their peers. Removing that stigma against men will serve to advance the position of women, because there would be no need to discriminate against them.

Men can also take practical steps in everyday scenarios to support their female colleagues. They can be more proactive in including co-workers in conversations in social settings, finding topics of common interest, and not just talking about football or beer.

Leaders can be more helpful in giving women a voice in meetings, where statistics prove that men speak for longer than women, and women who do speak are often ignored. This is contrary to the now well-publicized comments from Yoshiro Mori, the former president of the Tokyo Olympics committee, who famously said that women should not be on committees because they talk too much! His comments, reported in the Financial Times and elsewhere, were not only sexist but also factually incorrect.

A review conducted by Deborah Tannen, a Professor of Linguistics, of 56 studies of speaking patterns in meetings found only two where women talked more than men. The phenomenon of ‘Manterrupting’, however, is not always intended to offend. Adam Grant wrote in the Washington Post last year that men sometimes see interruptions as a sign of engagement, ‘whereas women take them as a show of disrespect’.

The belief that men have a greater right to promotion and a career is certainly one barrier that needs to be removed.

Changing behaviours

Men can change how they see and react to women who have a point of view that they wish to express, and how they interpret what they say. If a man is assertive, he is seen as having drive and being initiative, and in control. A woman who is assertive is seen as being aggressive, and a threat to a fragile male ego. This was the point made by Tanvi Akhauri in a recent article in Shethepeople. A man who shows assertive traits ‘is hailed as a powerhouse of leadership, a man with a plan, a man who will take his team along’. Assertive women, on the other hand, are ‘loud, rude and bitchy’.

In many companies, the more prosaic tasks are nearly always given to women. At meetings, it is the women who are expected to make the coffee, or take the minutes, re-enforcing a prejudice that they are somehow less important than their male counterparts. Mentoring of new starters or interns is also usually given to women, and although they are of course up to the task, it is still taking them away from their day job and sending out the wrong message that their job does not carry the same weight as a man’s.

Key to the advancement of women in the workplace is measurement, hiring and promoting women where they are under-represented, and understanding the importance of a balanced team. But it is also about freeing men from the impression that women are somehow the enemy to their own career progression. They are not.

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Author: Aniela Unguresan

Founder of EDGE Strategy and Founder of the EDGE Certified Foundation

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Gender and age are two of the most frequently used characteristics to identify individuals because they are universal and trackable, regardless of country or industry.

But just as we talk about understanding the role of gender at work, so we also need to consider the intersection of age and gender, as neither operates in isolation and both are relevant when we talk about collaboration in the workplace.

The author George Orwell once famously remarked: ‘Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.’ The same is true today.

Growing generational spans

Even to the casual observer, careers have grown longer in span. When my parents were of working age, no more than two or three generations were present in the workforce. Now, the EDGE Certification process regularly shows as many as five generations present within a workforce at the same time, a change that brings new complexities along with a new set of dynamics.

However, some things never change. The author George Orwell once famously remarked: “Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.” The same is true today. As in previous times, there’s a recognition that the younger generations are upset with those older than them. In the present day there are two key reasons often stated – the environment and climate change, and deficits in pension systems that will play out when the young retire in decades to come.

But despite the differences in generational perspectives, both inhabit the same workplace. This makes it important for organizations to measure and understand where different generations converge and where they diverge in their values, goals and expectations.

Fundamentally, organizations that take time to understand the intergenerational dynamics, can develop a robust plan for passing the baton from one generation to another seamlessly, without losing all the knowledge, wisdom and experience that has been accumulated over the years.

Views of today and tomorrow

Earlier this year, the St. Gallen Symposium alongside the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions published a global study in its ‘Voices of the Leaders of Tomorrow’ series entitled ‘Passing on the Baton’¹. It detailed the results of a survey, run in February 2022, that sought views from 683 leaders of tomorrow and 300 leaders of today on decision-making, priorities, and collaboration across generations. Of the many findings, the gender split was especially remarkable.

Gender split of top and upper management of organizations

© Nuremburg Institute for Market Decisions & St. Gallen Symposium: Voices of the Leaders of Tomorrow 2022

In overview, of the leaders of today occupying the top and upper management of organizations, 30% were female, and 70% were male; this reflects the unbalanced gender composition of top management teams in corporations today. But of the leaders of tomorrow, the demographic was different: 44% were female, 54% were male, and 2% classed themselves as non-binary or preferred not to answer.

This is interesting. Not only does the finding offer commentary on how gender composition at the top of the organization needs to evolve for organizations to remain current, but it also illustrates how definitions of gender have evolved between generations.

Managing generational complexities effectively means, in essence, defining a path for the sharing of knowledge and transitioning of power and decisionmaking from the older to the younger generations.

But therein lies the challenge – the older generation feel that they are at their peak and have little desire to share what they have until they need to.

‘Passing on the Baton’ studied this problem. It sought to find out where the views of leaders of today and leaders of tomorrow converge and diverge; it also wanted to uncover the issues that companies are facing when managing a multi-generational workforce.

There were several noteworthy findings. One that the leaders of today and tomorrow both agreed upon, was the social polarization of our societies which makes it difficult for people with different views to hold constructive conversations. In essence, our views have become more entrenched, and we are less capable of accepting opposing points of view; it’s now much harder to work and collaborate with somebody holding a different opinion. And social media is often behind this.

Worryingly, both generations of leaders believed that the other generation is demanding too much while complaining of unjustified demands placed on them. It’s not unsurprising that the leaders of tomorrow were unhappy about being told to wait to take up senior management roles.

Leaders of tomorrow and today disagree on the willingness
of the younger generation to take real responsibility,
revealing a major gap in perception

What is your opinion on the following items about transfer of decision-making and responsibility?

n = 683 Leaders of Tomorrow; n = 300 Leaders of Today © Nuremburg Institute for Market Decisions & St. Gallen Symposium: Voices of the Leaders of Tomorrow 2022

But beyond this is a pervading and skeptical view held by the leaders of today that the younger generation are unwilling to take on more responsibility – both in business and in politics. In contrast, the leaders of tomorrow responded that they want responsibility but are held back because the leaders of today don’t want to relinquish authority.

Another key finding made by the survey was that the leaders of tomorrow were extremely concerned about pension systems while leaders of today were less worried. Certain European countries serve to illustrate the future pension challenge. Fifteen years ago, the average Austrian would live in retirement for eight years. Now that figure is more like 22 years – a near tripling of the time they are entitled to make use of the pension system.

Value of quota systems

Both groups of leaders agreed that quotas are crucial instruments to ensure participation, whether in terms of politics or in relation to business decision-making.

But in seeking an imposed and non-negotiable quota system, should we be concerned? Have we lost faith that market-based mechanisms and voluntary systems work? Or we are saying that market-based instruments and voluntary systems are needed, but they nevertheless require a prescriptive framework to enable them to function properly?

Technology, and artificial intelligence especially, was another point of contention. The leaders of today worry that technology can no longer be controlled. In contrast, the leaders of tomorrow are more relaxed about the concept. Who is right and who is wrong is a game that will play out between digital immigrants – the leaders of today – who struggle with new technologies, and digital natives – the leaders of tomorrow – who are fully on board and trusting.

Working together

So, how do we enable and empower different views to be expressed, understood, and exchanged? And how can we move from divergent positions to that of collaboration, innovation and problem solving?

The first step is to acknowledge the tendency of older generations to attribute negative traits to those beneath them – a stereotype that some have labelled as the ‘kids-these-days effect’. The same can be said to be true for views held by the young of the older generation.

Next, we need to counter ageism that is very much alive and prevalent in youth-centric western societies. Often leaders of today are accused of having rigid views and personalities, of cognitive impairment, and are said to be digitally ignorant and unwilling to learn. This is not necessarily so.

Age-related complexity exists and it’s all around us – in the workplace, at home, in society, and in decisionmaking bodies. Ageism will persist, and the only thing we can do is manage it proactively. Intergenerational differences and complexities can be both harmful and wonderful. They should, however, be understood and leveraged for the benefit of all.

¹https://symposium.org/voices-of-the-leaders-of-tomorrow-2022/

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Author: Aniela Unguresan

Founder of EDGE Strategy and Founder of the EDGE Certified Foundation

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Workplace gender equality is one of the keys to prosperous societies. It’s also central to sustainable business success, inclusive economic growth, and importantly, the health of the social fabric of an organization as well as a larger community. And yet, time and again, we underestimate its power to unlock hidden value and values.

The EDGE Certified Foundation, however, has formulated a theory of change of the ripple effects of workplace gender equality. We firmly believe that when change happens in the workplace, ripple effects follow and the efforts to build gender equal workplaces spill into the wider business practises of organizations. They filter though to how organizations work with business partners, how they invest, and how they build their supply chains.

Looking beyond the workplace, change can also spill over into the lives of people in general. We have seen how workplace gender equality can cascade down from a business community into the lives of employees.

It has become easier to advocate for workplace gender equality now than it was more than a decade ago when the EDGE Certified Foundation was founded. But this debate is often led by business cases and talks about the benefits for an organization and its business practises. However, the focus should also be on the benefits that gender equal workplaces bring to the lives of women in the workplace.

We believe that the workplace gender equality equation has three main components – the organization, the women working with that organization, and the men in the same workplace. For change to happen workplace gender equality needs to mean something concrete for each of the three components. This means that organizations on a gender equality journey need to have clear answers and be able to detail what are the specific benefits for each involved. In overview, organizations need to highlight and articulate why they are investing in gender equality, what the benefits are, and how workplace experiences, career paths and lives will in general improve.

As Robin Ely, Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, so eloquently wrote in her 2020 article, ‘Getting Serious About Diversity: Enough Already with the Business Case’: “Why should anyone need an economic rationale for affirming the agency and dignity of any group of human beings? We should make the necessary investment because doing so honours our own and others’ humanity and gives our lives meaning.”

There are several tangible benefits for women and men that follow from organizations making prioritized, intentional, and measured efforts towards gender equality. And they revolve around markers such as increased income, improved working conditions, redistribution of care responsibilities, greater sense of self-worth and well-being, and in general, a shift to an equalized bargaining power within their households and within their communities.

Whenever we talk about the spill over effects it is true to say that some are more complex to measure than others. However, they are easy to quantify and the causal links easy to establish.

EDGE Certified organizations commit to provide assistance with childcare. They also make sure that in helping with childcare they make it equally available not just for women but for men as well.

Rising incomes

When organizations close gender pay gaps a number of employees, most often women, see their income increasing. This results in greater financial stability not just in the present, but in the long run as their investment and retirement capital potential increases. Such short-term and long-term financial stability can be directly attributed to closing the gender pay gap precisely because it makes available more disposable income for spending, investment and retirement.

This is a phenomenal positive effect of the pursuit for workplace gender equality.

With women globally earning around 37% less¹ than men in similar roles, the differences between what a woman can buy and invest compared to a man are not only very consequential but also unfair.

Better access to childcare

A second benefit is equally significant – greater access to childcare and a redistribution of care responsibilities.

This is because such responsibilities directly affect a woman’s career trajectory and income; women are less likely to put in long hours and are more likely to take leave to care for children or sick family members. They are also much more likely to take career breaks.

Organizations pursuing gender equity know that supporting a redistribution of care responsibility is key for women’s career prospects and income.

EDGE Certified organizations commit to provide assistance with childcare. They also make sure that in helping with childcare they make it equally available not just for women but for men as well.

So, next time when you apply for a job, ask what the organization is doing to achieve workplace gender equality.

Redefined gender roles

Such organizations also provide for equal, if not very comparable, lengths of paid paternity and maternity leave – a third benefit. But they go further and ensure that fathers are actively encouraged to take the full length of paid paternity leave available to them.

This not only allows women to have smoother career trajectories, but it also allows men to have the same type of ‘stop and go’ careers as women, helping to level the playing field. Plus, from the outset, this sends signals that parental leave is not a gender issue, it is a parental issue.

And this is how beneficial paternity leave can be. Fathers that took leave after birth believe this was directly responsible for their greater involvement in the ongoing care of their child compared to those that didn’t. They also believe that paternity leave led to improvements in the quality of family life².

But let’s not forget that women with children who work are termed ‘working mothers’. Men in the same situation are not, however, called ‘working fathers’. Instead, they are called ‘professional men’. By not allowing fathers to be termed ‘working’ they risk losing their entitlement to take parental leave.

The solution lies in creating support groups for working fathers where senior management discuss the role of the working father; doing this equalizes the concept of working men with that of a working mother.

And so, with more women in positions of power and authority, more men will be in support roles, or working part time, more equally shared care responsibilities, and we will all learn to rip off the straitjacket of traditional gender roles from work and the home.

So, next time when you apply for a job, ask what the organization is doing to achieve workplace gender equality. Your career development prospects, whether you are a man or a woman, will be very different depending on what the answer is. Next time you decide to invest in a company, or buy products and services from a company, ask what they do to ensure women and men thrive in the workplace. The prosperity of our economy and well-being of our society depends on it.

¹Global Gender Gap Report 2021 – World Economic Forum
²Ellison et al., 2009. 56% of British fathers who took Paternity Leave believe this was directly responsible for their greater involvement in the care of their children in the longer term; and 69% said it led to improvements in the quality of family life.

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Author: Aniela Unguresan

Founder of EDGE Strategy and Founder of the EDGE Certified Foundation

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Technology is everywhere, from playrooms to boardrooms. But people – individuals – are the hands, hearts, and minds of an organization. Every person is unique and has a distinct identity with defined characteristics. As result, workplace life is not homogenous, but beautifully and richly heterogenous. It is certainly rarely, if ever, binary, where choices can be said to be either one way or its direct opposite.

Years ago, conversations tended to revolve solely around workplace gender equality. The aim of EDGE Certified Foundation then, as it is now, was to make workplaces more gender equal. But times and perspectives have moved on and we need to no longer think of the workplace as being staffed by homogenous groups of ‘men’ and homogenous groups of ‘women’ with those in either grouping being identical in every way.

It is logical that for practical reasons organizations consider and categorize people by their sex at birth – their gender. HR systems in organizations are set to manage this binary view and people can be lawfully tracked accordingly, regardless of geographical location or industrial sector. It’s fair to say that statistical analysis by gender is universal.

But the realization is dawning on organizations that the terms ‘male’ and ‘female’ oversimplify matters, and that those within these two groups have very diverse cognitive identities, behaviours and expectations.

Put simply, in addition to physical gender, each one of us possesses individual identifiers based on, for example, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnic background and origin, age, abilities and disabilities, as well as nationality. Each of these traits makes it a nonsense to consider a workforce as being homogenous precisely because the identity of each one of us is wonderfully complex and clearly differentiated.

Consider everything

It important to acknowledge all components of an individual’s identity as each can shape a contribution to the workplace just as much it can shape an employee’s experience of the workplace. By removing homogeneity and looking at an individual’s own and unique traits – known conceptually as ‘intersectional equity’ – we can expressly recognize the differences that determine how a person experiences their time in, and contribution to, the workplace.

But in recognizing individual uniqueness, we should not be restricted to looking at each one of us through one defined prism at a time (e.g., age, sex, skin colour and nationality for example) either. Rather, we should consider all of our traits in their dynamic interaction.

So, how do we consider what makes up our amazingly complex and phenomenally rich identities?

When EDGE Certified Foundation launched EDGEplus in 2020, we found it interesting that gender at birth is usually disclosed by default, but that other elements that make up an individual’s identity are not. The rationale is that it might be considered an imposition to ask an individual, in the context of a professional environment, about elements of their identity that may be perceived as being very intimate and private to them.

It makes sense that there are many areas of a person’s life that they may wish to keep private – their socio-economic background and religion, for example, as well as those previously highlighted as our individual ‘identifiers’.

But beyond the desire to maintain privacy is the very real concern held by people that the more an employer knows about such aspects of our identity, the higher the risk of a potential discrimination to occur. And in some cases – still too many, and still too often – this is exactly what happens.

However, that doesn’t have to be so, and change can and shall happen.

It’s essential to recognize that while aspects of diversity may be important, they do differ according to operational geography, specificities of the available talent pool, and business focus

A personalized experience

We have now moved away from the worry of workplace discrimination to a belief in information being used to create a more personalized workplace experience. The UK Government, for example, has moved from the stance of not seeking to have organizations measure gaps in pay relating to gender, race, and ethnicity to the exact opposite – a legally prescribed requirement to measure and disclose.

The beauty of this concept – this intersectionality – is that it considers people holistically and has the power to change the moral contract that individuals maintain with their employer. They see that disclosure of this information can lead to the customization of careers and more personalized workplace experiences. Rather than holding them back, it is something that can support their advancement and development in a highly personalized way.

So, armed with an understanding of how important intersectionality is in the workplace, we now invite organizations to add additional layers, based on diversity, to the analysis of their workplaces. This adds depth and completes the binary view based on gender – which is, as we have said, universal and can be measured in the same way across the globe.

It’s essential to recognize that while aspects of diversity may be important, they do differ according to operational geography, specificities of the available talent pool, and business focus. By extension, some personality traits may be perceived as more pressing to organizations than others, but for best results, the whole spectrum of traits should be analyzed.

Ask for views

Practically speaking, the starting point for determining intersectional equity is to ask employees across the whole diversity spectrum for their opinions about their experience of the workplace. But it should be done in such a way as to be anonymous so that all can participate freely. Organizations may find it interesting to see who engages and who shares both their frustrations and positive thoughts.

Organizations will find it highly relevant on which topics the views or experiences of different groups converge and where they diverge. And, needless to say, organizations will need to customize their questions according to geographical location and to account for local specificities as responses will differ across the world. The results have the potential to be very illuminating.

Consider gender identity. There are unique layers of complexity in relation to gender identity and non-binary gender identity in the Silicon Valley compared to that found in the rest of the US, or elsewhere in the world for example. This makes it critically important to make the discovery process very personal. Success very much depends on choosing the identity categories that matter and examining the results for similarities and differences. Organizations armed with such knowledge, can review their policies and practices to craft a highly tailored and highly inclusive approach.

Obviously, employees need to be assured that this disclosed information about their identities is protected so that, for example, personal self-disclosed aspects of their identity are only accessible by a Chief Diversity Officer, CHRO, and maybe one other person.

Indeed, it is fundamental that employees feel that those who make day-to-day decisions on matters such as salary, promotions, and on leadership trajectories, cannot access this sensitive information and that it is only used to define their experience in the workplace and for no other purpose.

A brand-new world

EDGE Certification is now in a very different place to where it was previously. Clients once chose EDGEplus analysis to look at gender and race/ethnicity only.

Now the vast majority of EDGEplus Certified organizations – some 90% – run a full diversity spectrum employee survey.

We are confident that a full diversity spectrum policies and practices review and full diversity spectrum statistics will follow and organizations will adopt the same rigour and discipline in tackling intersectional equity as they do for gender.

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Trusaic’s industry-leading pay equity compliance software joins forces in the US with EDGE Strategy’s proven holistic solution to foster more inclusive workplaces.

Los Angeles and Zug, Switzerland – September 14, 2022 – Trusaic and EDGE Strategy (EDGE) announced a partnership today that will empower organizations in the US to achieve and sustain equitable workplaces. With their cutting edge technological solutions, EDGE and Trusaic can help create visible, credible change in workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

Trusaic’s PayParity^SM pay equity software enables organizations to identify, monitor and eliminate pay disparities at the intersections of gender, race/ethnicity, age, and disability, and comply with evolving US and international pay equity regulations. EDGE Empower is the leading software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution to help organizations certify for gender and intersectional equity in the workplace, wherever they are on their DE&I journey.

The combined technology resources, knowledge, and expertise of Trusaic and EDGE will enable organizations to identify and deliver their DEI agenda and substantiate progress to internal and external stakeholders. Organizations that work with Trusaic and EDGE may also become eligible for EDGE Certification, the leading global assessment methodology and business certification standard for gender and intersectional equity.

“Today’s labor market is tight, and companies need all the help they can get to attract and retain employees, which ultimately fosters a better culture and is better for their bottom line. This partnership with Trusaic will accelerate US companies’ DEI visions into action,” said Aniela Unguresan, CEO of EDGE Strategy. “EDGE’s state-of-the-art technology can holistically assess gender and intersectional equity gaps, and design a roadmap to close the gaps. Together, EDGE and Trusaic enable companies to make meaningful and sustainable progress on workplace DEI.”

“Trusaic helps organizations achieve pay equity and comply with increasing reporting regulations. EDGE tackles representation, strong organizational equity infrastructure and inclusiveness of the culture and provides a gender and intersectionality certification standard,” said Robert Sheen, CEO, Trusaic. “Together, we help employers identify and rectify the internal structures that breed inequality in order to accelerate change.”

More than two-thirds of organizations are failing to meet their own DEI commitments, according to a Trusaic-sponsored survey conducted in partnership with Harvard Business Review Analytic Services and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Numerous studies demonstrate the many business benefits of a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace, including increased innovation, productivity, customer satisfaction and revenue. For employers competing for talent in a tight labor market, a fair workplace helps attract top talent, improves retention, reduces turnover costs, and fosters a better culture.

About EDGE Strategy

EDGE Strategy is a global leader in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). It was founded in 2013 to provide organizations with the tools, latest technology, experience, and expert knowledge so they can better identify and productively work to achieve their DEI goals. EDGE Strategy provides its clients with practical action plans to address DEI in the workplace, enabling them to effectively foster and manage a diverse workforce and become a high performance organization. 

About EDGE Empower

EDGE Empower is the service product of EDGE Strategy. It is an integrated SaaS-based Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) solution that brings the latest technology, expert knowledge and experience, independent verification, and certification into a single solution. EDGE Empower consists of four specific components and services to support its clients. These components include the use of detailed analytics based on quantitative and qualitative data, expert support based on real world experience, peer group connections, and an independent third-party audit to add credibility inside and outside the organization. EDGE Empower is the best tool organizations can use and change in their organizations to be more diverse, equitable and inclusive, in order to make meaningful change in the workplace, and change business and society for the better.

About Trusaic

Trusaic is a leading global enterprise workplace equity software provider focused on advancing social good in the workplace by solving HR’s most complex challenges across people, data, and compliance. Our mission is to create a better working world by helping organizations achieve pay equity, foster a more diverse and inclusive workforce, assist economically disadvantaged individuals with finding work, and ensure employee access to affordable healthcare. Trusaic currently works with more than 1,000 organizations across a wide range of industries.

About PayParity

PayParity offers a powerful, data-driven approach to achieving pay equity in the workplace, combining human expertise with comprehensive tracking and analytics software, and “always-on” monitoring. Pay Parity provides pay equity auditing and ongoing pay disparity monitoring at the intersections of gender, race/ethnicity, age, disability and other critical factors. The solution includes risk identification, pay disparity tracking and trending, remediation strategy, analysis of compensation policies, cost/planning simulations, and identification of employee risk clusters. The groundbreaking Equal Pay Estimator, integrated within the software, prevents pay equity issues from ever starting by giving you the tools to make a fair offer at time of ensuring a fair offer is made hire and during the annual compensation cycle. PayParity helps organizations address issues through improved transparency and concrete action plans crucial to creating authentic change.

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We asked Geeta Narayan, UNICEF’s Principal Adviser on Organizational Culture, and Lauren Rumble, UNICEF’s Associate Director for Gender Equality, to share the constant evolution the organization experienced on gender balance, diversity, and inclusion, and which role those elements have had in their broader sustainable agenda. Read more on how the EDGE certification journey contributed to bringing more credibility to the change inside the organization.

The conversation around gender parity and gender equality has continued to evolve at UNICEF. After a very active period where we released new policies and frameworks to combat gender-based harassment and sexual harassment in the workplace following the #MeToo and #AidToo movements, we are now making every effort we can to adopt a more intersectional approach, analyzing patterns of exclusion and inclusion in our workforce based on gender but also on differences in race/ethnicity, age, disability or nationality. As an organization, we also began to look much more closely at issues of racism, including anti-black racism. We have also examined the impact of Covid in workplace satisfaction and attrition rates by gender. Building on the previous EDGE Action Plan, by late 2020 we had released a system to capture data from exit interviews. So we could pinpoint some of the issues that were being reported upon separation, in a moment when many families didn’t have access to childcare support and when travel restrictions abounded. This helped us work further on workplace flexibility, for example.

How did the business case for gender balance and DEI evolve over the last 18 months?

Ms. Geeta Narayan: “The conversation around gender parity and gender equality has continued to evolve at UNICEF. After a very active period where we released new policies and frameworks to combat gender-based harassment and sexual harassment in the workplace following the #MeToo and #AidToo movements, we are now making every effort we can to adopt a more intersectional approach, analyzing patterns of exclusion and inclusion in our workforce based on gender but also on differences in race/ethnicity, age, disability or nationality. As an organization, we also began to look much more closely at issues of racism, including anti-black racism. We have also examined the impact of Covid in workplace satisfaction and attrition rates by gender. Building on the previous EDGE Action Plan, by late 2020 we had released a system to capture data from exit interviews. So we could pinpoint some of the issues that were being reported upon separation, in a moment when many families didn’t have access to childcare support and when travel restrictions abounded. This helped us work further on workplace flexibility, for example.”

EDGE Certification brings visibility and credibility to the change happening inside the organization. At the same time, it creates the premises for diverse talent to thrive at work. Tell us some stories about how your employees benefit from the EDGE Certification journey of your organization.

Ms. Geeta Narayan: “One of the most important aspects of the previous EDGE Action Plan was the push to achieve gender parity at senior levels. Following the previous EDGE Certification, we developed what we call ‘Temporary Special Measures’ to achieve gender parity at the P5 (‘Chief’) level, widely considered the first senior management level at the UN. We implemented these Measures during 2021 and part of 2022 with astonishingly good results, moving from 42% to 48% women at that level, for the first time.”

What do you think workplace gender balance, diversity and inclusion mean to the next generation?

Ms. Geeta Narayan: “UNICEF is a large organization, working in 190 countries and territories. Issues of gender and diversity are very much embedded into countries’ social fabrics and local cultures, and to achieve progress we have to consider local dynamics and histories carefully. While UNICEF’s top leadership is committed to gender equality and DEI in general, we need to ‘trickle down’ that commitment into daily behaviors everywhere. This is one next step. In addition to this, our youngest members of the workforce and the new generations in the labor market expect more work flexibility and a higher level of harmony between their work and their personal lives than ever before, regardless of gender. This is something we’ll need to work on in the future, for example by making sure that staff deployed in humanitarian emergencies, often without their families, are given the chance to rotate to family duty stations. We also know that younger generations of the workforce are looking for more values-based leadership, for organizations that ‘walk the talk’ when it comes to DEI. So this inspires us to keep up the momentum in this work so that we continue to attract and retain the best talent for UNICEF.”

Gender equality at the workplace represents who we are and what we stand for as UNICEF. Because of its unique mandate and leading role among international organizations to fulfill the rights of children and families, UNICEF is especially well placed to role model what change looks like in our everyday workplace practices and policies. The EDGE Certification is part of what we call an ‘Institutional Transformation for Gender Equality: UNICEF believes that gender equality and the empowerment of all girls and women are at the heart of everything we do, and fundamental to a more inclusive, peaceful, and sustainable future for all. Therefore, our culture and how we work, including our processes, policies, and internal management practices, must exemplify those principles.

What’s the place of gender balance, diversity and inclusion in your broader sustainability agenda?

Ms. Lauren Rumble: “Gender equality at the workplace represents who we are and what we stand for as UNICEF. Because of its unique mandate and leading role among international organizations to fulfill the rights of children and families, UNICEF is especially well placed to role model what change looks like in our everyday workplace practices and policies. The EDGE Certification is part of what we call an ‘Institutional Transformation for Gender Equality: UNICEF believes that gender equality and the empowerment of all girls and women are at the heart of everything we do, and fundamental to a more inclusive, peaceful, and sustainable future for all. Therefore, our culture and how we work, including our processes, policies, and internal management practices, must exemplify those principles.”

What are your personal commitments to advance gender balance, diversity, and inclusion inside and outside your organization?

Ms. Lauren Rumble: “As a feminist leader of people and teams, I believe in inclusive decision-making and nurturing teams that are purposeful and powerful. In everything I do, I try to create a positive working environment where everyone’s views are equally respected, where there is trust, where individuals are supported to be their best, and where there is mutual accountability –to each other and to those whom we serve. That means working hard to not only achieve our very best programmatic results but also support each other to do so in respectful and empowering ways. I am proud that our global network of regional and global Gender Advisors is diverse –geographically and culturally– and that we regularly share ideas, debate, laugh, and make decisions together, as a team. I am committed to growing our network of gender professionals across the organization; supporting programmes and leaders to live up to the bold promises we have made in our Gender Policy and Action Plan. We still have so much to do; women and girls continue to confront a myriad of complex and seemingly insurmountable challenges. But my team and I will continue to fight for change, and never give up.”

What do you consider the most important business benefit of your organization being EDGE Certified?

Ms. Lauren Rumble: “EDGE signifies a renewed commitment to gender equality internally. Our new Strategic Plan articulates several ambitious programmatic and workplace targets for gender equality, and to achieve these we must be unwavering and relentless. One thing we have learned going through the Covid crisis is the importance of gender intentional actions in every new policy or initiative. These actions must be measurable, costed and aim at tackling underlying barriers for sustainable change -or what we’d call moving from ‘gender blind’ to ‘gender transformative approaches. UNICEF, with its global footprint, is not immune to unequal gender social norms and must always aim to promote gender-equitable policies and services in the countries we operate. But at the same time, we can’t support gender transformative practices if we’re not ‘walking the talk’ internally. EDGE helps us bridge that gap by providing us with an independent assessment, widely recognized, that sets high standards for gender equality in our workplace.”

Author: Simona Scarpaleggia

Board Member, EDGE Strategy

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Switzerland has always been a benchmark country. When it comes to innovation, competitiveness, democracy, wealth and happiness, Switzerland leads where others follow. This is true also in terms of new cultural and economic imperatives, showing leadership in the critical areas of sustainability and digitalization.

Where Switzerland has previously lagged behind, however, is in the area of Gender Equality. For a country that only gave women the vote in 1971, perhaps that’s not surprising, and progress since then has been painfully slow. But in recent years, this has been changing, and Switzerland is potentially on the cusp of greatness.

But can Switzerland go further? Can it, in fact, become the benchmark country not only in Europe but also the world when it comes to gender equality?

Government initiatives

The infamous women’s strike of 2019 moved the conscience of authority and led to a series of Government initiatives to advance Gender Equality and improve the position of women based around four key pillars: health; education; political participation; and economic participation. In the first three of these pillars, the Swiss authorities have managed to move the needle on the dial significantly.

The facts speak for themselves: when I first came here 12 years ago as CEO of IKEA Switzerland, the country was ranked 27th in the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap report. By 2019, it had climbed to 18th. Today it is in the top ten, a remarkable achievement in such a short space of time – and progress of which the Swiss authorities can be justifiably proud. But can Switzerland go further? Can it, in fact, become the benchmark country not only in Europe but also the world when it comes to Gender Equality?

The ambition is perhaps not as fanciful as it seems. When you look at other countries, and explore the conditions required to achieve world-leading Gender Equality (resources, infrastructure and demographics) Switzerland is very well placed. In financial terms, and in terms of people’s competence and skills at all levels, Switzerland has the human capital to accelerate progress. It has equally well-educated men and women; indeed, there are now more women with degrees than men. In terms of infrastructure, Switzerland is very well connected globally, and can boast many world-leading, innovative businesses, especially across pharma and digital. And when it comes to demographics, Switzerland is at the point of significant demographic change.

Over the course of this decade, 1.1 million of the baby boomer generation will reach retirement age, resulting in more than 800,000 leaving employment. At the same time, the number of 20 to 25-year-olds joining the labour market will fall over the course of the next 10 years, presenting a huge opportunity for a well-educated female workforce.

In financial terms, and in terms of people’s competence and skills at all levels, Switzerland has the human capital to accelerate progress.

Overcoming challenges

But while the conditions to reach Gender Equality are positive, there are still a number of challenges to be overcome, not least culturally. Men are still conditioned by role models that require them to work full time and leave the ‘softer’ more ‘caring’ role in the family to their partners. Women, on the other hand, are similarly conditioned to be modest and not over-ambitious, and to fulfil their role as the principal carers, homemakers and mothers.

Organizations, the Government and the local Cantons, perhaps unintentionally, perpetuate this thinking: companies tend to have very rigid working rules and practices, and there are laws relating to families and properties that are arguably obsolete. In the tax system for example, the lower-earning member of a married couple – typically the woman – is taxed at the same rate as the higher-earning member. This outdated model effectively removes the incentive for women to work more than part-time hours – and the economic advantage that comes from maintaining their careers. It also means they have even less money to contribute to essentials, such as paying for childcare, effectively creating a vicious cycle from which there appears no escape.

So what needs to change? Creating greater work flexibility and more parent-friendly policies would certainly help. Childcare, for example, is notoriously expensive, and a cheaper childcare system could make a significant difference. Re-examining the school system, and school hours especially, would also enable women to take on permanent rather than temporary work – something that is not practical today without creating childcare issues.

Introducing more generous parental leave for fathers, to allow them to take a greater role in family life and the day-to-day care of their children would also help, as would a change to the tax system so that working mothers are not unfairly penalized for having a career (indeed, how much higher would the country’s tax receipts be if the percentage of working mothers increased?).

Cultural change

But the biggest change required is cultural. Whereas there are undoubtedly some parts of the country that recognize the value of a more equal society – especially in the larger cities of Zurich, Geneva and Berne – others are yet to be convinced. There are still pockets of resistance to change, and that is reflected in the most recent figures from the Federal Office for Statistics (March 2022) showing that women earn on average 11% less than men for doing the same job in Switzerland. While the gender gap is narrowing, it is still stubbornly more pronounced in the higher earning strata of the workforce where female managers earn 16.8% less than their male counterparts.

Other countries of (respectfully) far less standing in the world are already further ahead in their gender equality thinking and progress than Switzerland: Nicaragua and Ruanda, for example, warrant special mention and yet have few of the advantages that Switzerland currently enjoys. Which is why I am so optimistic that Switzerland can be the benchmark country for Gender Equality in the future, and why I am equally passionate about giving organizations the tools, the measurement, and the action plan through EDGE certification that they need to jump the final hurdle. Because there are no short-cuts to achieving Gender Equality and everyone must contribute: governments, organizations, and individuals.

Switzerland has the conditions required to be a world leader.

Growing momentum

Momentum is growing and this is being supported by influential sections of our society. Ringier’s EqualVoice and Equalvoice United initiatives, for example, which are bringing together the Swiss media to tackle representation of women, as well as major Swiss companies who have this year committed to promote equality and inclusion within their own workforce, establish modern working practices and communicate the benefits to other businesses and wider society.

But there also needs to be policy change. Rules that are currently there for guidance need to become mandatory, and laws – some of which have been in place since 1996 – need to be fully implemented. Whereas it is mandatory for private businesses with more than 100 employees to report on salary levels every four years, this needs to be extended to a wider tranche of businesses and more frequent reporting, and faster progress needs to be made in public sector organizations. The Swiss Government’s National Strategy for Gender Equality seeks to achieve Gender Equality by 2030; I believe we can get there more quickly.

A more gender equal society, one that gives equal voice to men and women, delivers an improved distribution of wealth, reduces social tensions, and unleashes the potential of women, thus taking further steps towards excellence. Switzerland has the conditions required to be a world leader, and I have every confidence it will get there.

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Author: Simona Scarpaleggia

Board Member, EDGE Strategy

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Leaders need to consider the three ‘D’s’ in adapting to the workplace of the future: Digitalization; De-structuring; and perhaps the most important of all, Diversity.

Digitalization and globalization were already changing the world of work when the pandemic struck and accelerated the rate of transformation. People’s personal and working lives pivoted as organizations digitalized their operations. Disruptive technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and nanotechnology, are having a massive impact and will continue to do so at pace.

There are plenty of examples that serve to illustrate the point. Industrial robots are now commonplace in replacing routine manufacturing tasks. Cyber courts with AI-enabled judges are reducing the time spent on cases by up to 60%, while cognitive agents such as Amelia provide services such as tech support, customer care, and procurement processing.

Historically technological revolutions deliver significant economic growth and new employment opportunities. But they also bring the upheaval of social and demographic change and greater labour mobility. The future of work will look very different. Every company must decide how best to embrace the future and remain competitive and attractive in the new digital world. They need to choose between allowing machines to lead the development of their human workforce or using machines to leverage and enhance people’s skills and talent.

3D transformation

It is possible to plan for the transformation that is happening by considering the three ‘D’s’: Digitalization; De-structuring; and Diversity – and examining where the three elements intertwine. Let us take each ‘D’ in turn.

3D transformation: Digitalization

Digital transformation is symbolized by the mobile phone. It is more powerful today than all the NASA computers that helped to land a man on the moon. As digitalization rapidly becomes integrated into companies’ business models, processes and working methods, it will bring endless opportunities. But it is not all good news. Data security, automation of human jobs, loss of personal privacy, long-term security and personal fulfilment are just some of the emerging threats. The momentous changes to come urgently need channelling towards a positive outcome.

Before the pandemic, companies were cautiously testing remote working technology, assessing the benefits, costs, and risks. With the pandemic and lockdowns, remote homeworking became the new normal within a few days. The technology was easy to install and easy to use. But the impact on leadership and human psychology was grossly underestimated. Leaders had to develop greater empathy, learn to listen, understand more and foster trust through a computer screen.

Similarly, e-commerce retail and supply chains were rapidly transformed. One of the last things I witnessed at IKEA was the installation of external locker spaces for customers to collect their online purchases during the pandemic. It led to inner-city stores being opened for the first time in the company’s history.

Retail will always be there. Not all retailers will. Innovators who blend humans and machines to make shopping easy and create a relationship with the customer will flourish. But whether launching products, delivering to customers, or creating fun, educational and in-store experiences to attract footfall, the key is innovating and implementing at speed.

3D transformation: D-structured

To become more agile, companies need to de-structure and remove old pyramid hierarchies and traditional conventions which are no longer suited to a rapidly changing workplace. As Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

To respond quickly to continuous change requires creativity and autonomy. Stockpiling resources, people, materials and information stifles flexibility. Using what is needed, when it’s needed most, is what’s required. Task forces, or departments, will no longer be rigidly bound. People and ideas will ebb and flow more easily across organizations, with teams forming and reforming where and when they are needed. Start-ups, tech companies, and entertainment (media) companies are already leading the change.

3D transformation: Diversity

Connected by digital technology, teams are increasingly global, potentially creating more diverse workforces. Diversity is a kaleidoscope of differences in people’s values, competencies, and perspectives from all walks of life. Together they make a cognitively diverse workforce of talent and solution finders.

The pandemic offered us new and more positive horizons for humanity, economically, socially and politically. It has given us a chance to reset the workplace agenda and strive for global prosperity. Gender equality is central to that change. Among men and women alone, multiple dimensions of age, race, sexual orientation, disability status, educational background, and more, ‘intersect’. If organizations can identify that level of diversity and ‘intersectionality’, they can learn how to build more progressive work environments with equal opportunities for all, wherever they are in the world. It will have a broad and remarkable impact in many fields.

As technology evolves, leaders can choose to simply cast people aside who do not have the digital skills. It’s happened with previous technological changes. But this will merely postpone and amplify the shortage of tech-enabled employees. Instead, leaders should choose to help men and women upskill or reskill.

In a world concerned with any organization’s social impact, today’s leaders are morally obliged to consider how job losses or organizational change will affect their employees, their families and society as a whole. Some companies are already taking positive action.

Bosch is spending €2bn on reskilling workers from legacy to new car technologies, while staff in non-auto departments can learn AI or software skills. Unilever’s ‘future-fit’ programme allows any employee to develop a retraining programme and use Unilever’s skills platform for a new career of their choice. Other companies teach new agile ways of working. Such initiatives help create a skilled, more diverse, transformed workforce which is resilient to constant change.

Measuring that transformation is vital to identify gaps, promote investment and follow up on results. Companies are increasingly measuring and reporting on their environmental, social and governance (ESG) KPIs. Mercer reported that 81% of companies claim to measure and improve DE&I, and 50% have formal DE&I targets. But only 36% include gender as a measure of the employees they hire or who leave as part of their KPIs. Most companies need a deeper analysis to create a workforce suited for the future of work.

Creating Purposeful transformation

Companies can choose their response to the digital transformation of work. Those choices will be seen by consumers, impacting the company’s reputation and its commercial value for better or worse. But if they wish to thrive, leaders will need to think beyond just business benefits. They will need to align the cultural transformation to their purpose because adapting to the complexities of cultural and psychological change is more challenging than adapting to new technology.

Psychologically people need to lead meaningful lives through having purpose, values and building relationships with others. People want to work for companies they believe in. They want to understand the contribution they make and how it benefits someone or something larger than themselves.

People believe in a company if they share its values, believe in its mission, and see evidence in the organization’s behaviour. Today’s markets are defined by societal needs, not just business needs, so this is now the work of leaders. And they need to recognize that waiting and planning often cost more than doing and improvising in a constantly changing workplace. Speed and simplicity will deliver change.

In purposeful transformations, there are three imperatives:

1. Transforming business processes is a must
   But vigilance is needed in the rush to automate processes and deliver greater efficiency. The functions that should and should never be replaced by robotic technology must be chosen carefully. People may make mistakes, which can lead to creativity or elements of uniqueness. Automate to replace mundane tasks and create jobs employees value.
2. Putting people first means a holistic approach to developing co-workers
   Companies can proactively identify employees’ potential and their current skill sets and understand and support people’s ability to unlearn and relearn for the future. The workforce will become more resilient, and so too will the company and society.
3. Living and breathing the new way of work.
   A new digitally connected world of work will require a new kind of working culture, an inclusive, innovative, generous, and courageous working culture. Break down internal silos and create small, diverse interdisciplinary teams with the autonomy and agility to innovate on projects and the freedom to move into new roles.

Leaders should be aware of their roles and responsibilities toward every member of the organization. Their behaviour should show they take their responsibility to heart. And with a commitment to inclusion and gender equality, what will emerge is a whole new culture in which people will work effectively alongside machines. This is transformational leadership.

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