Retail Week’s Be Inspired campaign has stressed that the debate around women in retail needs to be elevated beyond just quotas and encouraging more female leaders and instead needs to be about exploring the career potential of women by providing inspiration and networking opportunities.
But what practical steps can be taken to ensure that the career potential of women is at its maximum in the world of retail?
Consultancy firm Mercer’s recent When Women Thrive, Businesses Thrive report suggests that breaking through inertia and advancing women in the workplace requires serious attention at both an individual and organisational level. Mercer has therefore come up with an effective gender strategy for both business and individuals focusing on six Ps that can easily be applied.
Individual
Passion – Individuals need to have passion to drive diversity or else changes will never be made. Women thrive most when leaders at all levels are passionately engaged. However, it isn’t enough for leaders to just order change and instead they must personally drive change through communication and exemplary behaviour.
Personal – Individuals therefore should make it a personal priority and ensure they are focusing on diversity.
Perseverance – In most instances change won’t happen overnight and so you must show perseverance over time and persist. Eventually it will pay off. Organisations should pay careful attention to building the pipeline of female talent that will sustain gender equality in the long term.
Organisational
Proof – Businesses should look at proof before jumping to any conclusions and try to ascertain what is helping and what is hurting gender equality in their workplace. For example, leave and flexibility programmes can either hurt or help gender diversity deeding on who uses them and how well they are managed.
Process – Women can thrive in workplaces when there is specific processes in place to help with gender equality, for example, equal pay and performance management processes.
Programmes – Female representation tends to increase when organisations understand and support women’s unique health needs as well as their unique financial needs. According to Mercer, less than 10% of organisations offer retirement programmes customised for the behaviours and needs of different genders.
Although these six steps are not a complete solution to helping women advance in the workplace, putting these six Ps in place could make a real difference in the long term.
To find out more about Retail Week’s Be Inspired campaign you can read the full report here: Retail-week.com/beinspired
No comments yet