Organisations that are able to capitalise on the roles women play as economic actors will most likely have a competitive advantage as the world pulls out of the global recession. Deloitte in its recently released report on ‘Gender Dividend’ is making a case for investing in Women as they strongly believe that women may well be the dominant source of economic growth in the near future.
Taking cognizance of this fact, Deloitte aims to integrate women into both the workplace and the marketplace, under its new initiative called retention and Advancement of Women (WIN). Such integration leads to Gender Dividend - a steady benefit that is earned by making wise, balanced investments in developing women as workers and potential leaders as well as understanding women as consumers and their impact on the economy and the bottom line. It also reflects in increased sales, expanded markets, and improved recruitment and retention of a key talent segment.
Says Latha Ramanathan, Senior Director, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Private Limited, “As of June 2010, 29 countries had reached or exceeded the 30 percent mark in women’s representation in parliament; of these 29 countries, at least 24 had used quotas. India with a population of 500 million women does not figure in that list.
“World over, organisations and governments are working at policies and enabling institutional arrangements to bring more and more women into the workforce. These include affirmative actions in the areas of recruitment, retention and board level appointments of publicly listed companies, to flexible working arrangements and child care policies. It is time, we in India, looked at similar actions to encourage more women to both study and move into the workforce to leverage their earning potential as also ensuring their continuity in workforce by creating a conducive and supportive work environment at our farms, construction sites, offices etc.”
Deloitte emphasis on this positive change that leads to double-digit difference in productivity between those organisations with more women as leaders compared to those with less. Women’s earning power is growing even faster in developing countries, where their earned income grew at a rate of 8.1 percent, compared to the 5.8 percent rate for men. In short, women constitute the largest emerging market the world has ever seen. Source: The Female Economy. Having said that, in BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) labor force participation rates for women lag those for men, and even when women are working, turnover is higher for women than men or women fail to advance. In other words, leaders continue to overlook and underutilise women as a source of talent. (www.catalyst.org)
What may be missing in many of these instances is the hard, cold fact that not capitalising on women as workers and consumers has real impact on the bottom line and overall success of an organisation. To bring home this reality, investing in women must be taken out of the realm of ideology and into the executive suite, or better yet, the balance sheet. Promoting women needs to be viewed as any other business decision—and that involves building a solid business case.
Investing in women should be no different. But the business case is only the beginning. Programs and initiatives will need to follow that promote and support women and a proactive push must be made to include women at every level of an organisation. Ultimately, women must become a seamless part of management—not just a novelty to serve what is erroneously perceived as a niche market. Only by embedding gender diversity into the core decision-making processes of a company can the true Gender Dividend be reaped.
For an organisation to grow, it needs to develop all of its resources, men and women alike. Having both men and women in decision-making roles gives organisations the perspective they need and helps in solving complex problems or innovating.
