Company culture key to boosting gender diversity

Promoting existing female talent is better for diversity than recruiting more women, leading to calls to promote ‘corporate culture’ in the UK.

The study by the Boston Consulting Group found that while senior managers favoured a focus on recruiting more women, schemes aimed at supporting retention and promoting women already in the company had a greater overall impact. Female employees also admitted that retention and advancement in their roles were more important obstacles to tackle than the number of women within a firm.

While 97% believed their organisations were committed to gender diversity, just around a quarter of women claimed that additional schemes and initiatives had actually benefitted them personally. Rather than bringing in more women, HR and diversity consultant the Clear Company are urging companies to focus on the employees they already have and make them feel like part of the team by improving and promoting long term company culture.

“There is no use focusing on initiatives to get women through the doors if the culture is not conducive to the subsequent retention and promotion of this talent,” said Clear Company director Kate Headley, who warns that bringing in waves of women to improve representation can actually be more damaging to diversity levels long-term.

“While companies often splash large amounts of money in a ‘scattergun approach’ to addressing this challenge, firms should focus on ensuring that recruitment processes are truly inclusive and that existing employees are thoroughly engaged, if they are to organically strengthen female talent pipelines in a sustainable way.”