Almost 18 months into the COVID-19 crisis, we are seeing numerous reports on the negative impact of the pandemic on Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) across Australian businesses. However, progress as a whole had been slow even before the pandemic arise.
McKinsey recently reported that the pandemic has set women in the workplace back a decade. Why and how this is still happening? Another example is a study by Harvard Business Review (HBR) which showed that 78% of employees indicated they work at organisations that lack diversity in leadership positions. 78% – is anyone else shocked by this?
It gets frustrating repeating ourselves on the business benefits of D&I. Numerous studies have shown the benefits of a diverse, equitable workplace for business performance, innovation, customer loyalty, and employee trust. Diverse teams better represent the customers they serve, make decisions with fewer blind spots, and bring more varied and innovative thinking to problem-solving.
Despite the lack of diversity in leadership roles across the board, encouragingly we are seeing some positive results from the organisations who are prioritising D&I. For example, companies with a higher representation of women in C-suite level positions resulted in 34% greater returns to shareholders.
Likewise, organisations with above-average gender diversity and levels of employee engagement outperform companies with below-average diversity and engagement by 46% to 58%.
This is why we started the TechDiversity Awards. We know that there are some great initiatives and programs that are making huge strides in this space. We want to recognise them, celebrate them and most importantly, share their learnings with our tech community.
12 July we opened the nominations for the 2021 Awards and after a year of absence, we cannot wait to see what initiatives have been happening. So if you know an individual or group that has demonstrated leadership, embraced inclusion and raised awareness on diversity initiatives and programs, please nominate them now. We want to hear about their efforts.
We will be celebrating, saluting and shining a light on these individuals and groups at the Gala Dinner being held in Melbourne on 2nd December. To join us and our tech community, please register for a ticket now.
For more information, head to this page.
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