Diversity & Inclusion: Advancing gender equality in the workplace

08 Mar 2021

Despite the robust business case for gender equality, the World Economic Forum (WEF) predicts that most of us won’t live to see it achieved; according to its 2020  report which set the milestone at 100 years away. Earlier this week, we celebrated International Women’s Day 2021 which provided a timely reminder that we need to think how we can fast-track progress, so this prediction does not become our reality.

In this article, we explore why we believe it is everyone’s responsibility, not only women, to advance gender equality in the workplace, what we have been doing at Generali Asia and suggestions on ways to create a more equitable workforce. 

The gender disparity is far greater in some countries than others, at home and at work. Yet the workplace provides a platform where we can achieve equal pay, position, and power, which is why it is such an important focus. But we continue to see reports, such as this one by McKinsey, that reveal how women’s careers are being held back due to difficult workplace cultures, biases, and gaps in perception of inequality by men and women. In addition, the rankings from the WEF report also reveal how Asia-Pacific is one of the poorest performing regions.

At Generali Asia, we are committed to fighting the bias that exists and improving the representation of women in leadership and managerial positions across our markets in the region; this means constantly thinking about how we can fast-track progress.  

While we have made strides in our D&I strategy, we are aware that we have a long way to go to achieve gender equality in our workplace. Some initiatives we have implemented include establishing a D&I Employee Resource Group which has supported HR to implement gender equality initiatives such as:

  • Increasing parental leave for both men and women.
  • Debiasing our hiring process through developing neutral job descriptions and including a more balanced recruitment pool.
  • Sharing our official gender ratio metrics with all employees.
  • Organising several panel discussions on gender equality with internal and external stakeholders.
  • Launching an internal D&I newsletter to raise awareness on gender inequality.
  • Ensuring we have a program to nurture male and female talents.

We also believe that men’s voices can help accelerate change in the workplace and part of the equation is also at home: taking ownership of parts of domestic life so women feel supported in their professional lives.

In addition to our initiatives above, last year Generali Asia joined the  Male Allies Hong Kong network, promoted by The Women’s Foundation in Hong Kong. This allows us to work with other business leaders to leverage our collective influence and personal engagement to advance gender equality, within our organisation and across the local business community. The aim is to normalise the conversation around gender by creating a safe space for dialogue, as well as conducting research, sharing insights and best practices. This also means our five colleagues Pierre Martelly, head of commercial lines, Asia P&C, Bin Liu, regional lead, health service and project, Catherine Liu, finance manager, Jason Law, regional lead, IT security & infrastructure and Rob Leonardi, regional officer for Asia, have volunteered to be our Male Allies to lead and impact change within our workplace. 

In Asia, we want to become an example to the Group and our local markets. This is important to us because it is our differences that make the difference; it is an enabler of our ambition to become a Lifetime Partner to our customers. We are committed to leveraging this diversity to create long-term value, to be innovative, sustainable, to make the difference for our people, our clients, our partners as well as our communities.

If you represent an organisation that is looking to fast-track gender equality in their workplace, we have come up with seven tips, you may consider.  

  1. Provide regular training on gender bias to ensure colleagues understand what is and what is not adequate.
  2. Encourage female employees to stand out and voice their opinions as individuals by:
    • Ensuring you have a good representation of men and women speaking up in meetings; and
    • Listening and encouraging female colleagues to share their views.
  1. Encourage a culture of communication and dialogue where people feel comfortable to raise issues and challenges with Human Resources or other employee groups.
  2. Make sure the recruitment process includes a fair representation of men and women, as well as consider hiring women who are returning to the workforce.
  3. Call out individuals who are unconsciously abusing their position or specific social privilege in a non-accusatory manner. Consideration needs to be given to your company’s policy on whistleblowing and the availability of platforms where they can confront other colleagues anonymously.
  4. Nurture female talent: support the career development of employees and/or provide executive presence training.
  5. Create a work environment that supports work life balance and implement a SMART working policy that provides employees with flexibility to manage their work and home duties.