Moderated by Ashima Taneja (Head of Asia-Pacific Upstream, Wood Mackenzie), the audience was led through a thoughtful and reflective discussion with our esteemed panel of industry leaders – Valda Tsang-Tolentino (Head of Group Property, Facilities Management, Rio Tinto), Jasmine Doak (Vice President, HR Australia, Pacific & Asia, Orica), Angelo Estrera (Partner and BHP Global Relationship Partner, PwC) and Nic Richards (Senior Manager, Data & Analytics, PwC)
From the survey insights and questions from the floor, a few common themes become clear: Inclusion and Diversity is now more prevalent and complex than ever before. While progress has been made thus far, the goalpost has also shifted. Higher expectations from the next generation and multiple layers of diversity & inclusion mean that organisations will now need to place greater emphasis on I&D policies to drive talent retention and innovation. This change will need to come from all levels of the organisation, not just from the top.
The three themes discussed revealed some interesting takeaways. First on leadership, women and more likely than men to disagree that they are free to practice their own leadership style without being subject to gender/cultural stereotypes. They are also not as comfortable raising concerns with senior leaders related to gender equality so more must be done to overcome such barriers. Second, most of the participants in the survey and interviews did believe some progress has been made in relation to gender equality, however most women and some men still believe there is a gender pay gap in their organisations. The divergence between male and female responses is also indicative of the need for better education and training of managers and leaders to prevent unconscious bias, but also to level out the understanding of where organisations are at in achieving their I&D goals. Lastly, on building the workforce of the future, most agreed that digitalisation and automation has enhanced efficiency and productivity but particularly in a post-Covid 19 world, this success may be at the expense of work-life balance, particularly for women pulling the second and third shift at home with child and elderly care responsibilities.
The discussion has indeed brought much food for thought to this topic – What are the tangible steps we can take to adapt to the ‘new normal’? We’ll like to extend our gratitude to all panellists, organisers and attendees for your ongoing support of WIMAR, and for making this event possible.
You can revisit the webinar via the recording here (Password IWDJul20). Feel free to share your thoughts, or even best practices from your organisations on I&D on WIMARSG Linkedin or email so that we keep the momentum going.
