Using Data > Bringing Transpsrency to The Diversity & Social Equality Space

With employers around the globe placing greater value on diversity in the workforce, a recent study from the McKinsey Global Institute calculated just how much could be gained by achieving gender parity: $12 trillion.
Other studies repeatedly demonstrate that diversity encourages diversity of thought, stronger leadership and ultimately, more successful businesses.

Organizations with more women in management and senior leadership positions are tied to stronger financial performance and companies with diverse workforces benefit from higher returns, increased innovation and higher employee satisfaction.

On Tuesday morning, Bloomberg unveiled a new index intended to showcase what the biggest financial players are doing to promote gender equality.
The index, called the Bloomberg Financial Services Gender Equality Index (GEI), includes 26 public companies that are best-in-class in the financial industry in terms of providing opportunities for women.



The results released two days ago, provide investors and companies increasingly sought after information to evaluate reputation, value and performance.
“We decided to create the Bloomberg Financial Services Gender-Equality Index because we realized investors and organizations lacked the data to assess the gender-equality of various firms” said Angela Sun, Head of Strategy and Corporate Development.
“We hope the index will bring greater transparency to the diversity and social equality space and raise awareness around the issues companies, employees and communities face.”
Bloomberg partnered with third-party experts, including Women’s World Banking, Catalyst and Working Mother Media, to focus on the most pertinent challenges and data points in the space. . . Yet a glance at corporate boardrooms and c-suites around the globe indicates we’re largely ignoring what the research tells us.
Women in S&P 500 companies make up 45% of the labor force but hold just 19.2% of board seats and represent only 4.4% of CEOs. Their representation drops to just above 25% at the executive and senior-management level.
The new GEI lists 53 data points for each included company, ranging from number of women in the company and on its board, to length of parental leave, to provided child care and adoption services. It will also provide investors with an easy way to compare the performance of these companies with that of the market as a whole.
The Bloomberg index is simply a rich source of information—it’s up to investors to decide how to use that data. Still, understanding where companies stand on women and diversity is the first step to creating real corporate change, says Sun: “If you can’t measure something, you can’t manage it.”
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Blogger Note: this post is an aggregation from two sources
http://www.bloomberg.com/professional/blog/using-data-to-bring-transparency-to-the-diversity-social-equality-space/ November 23, 2015

http://fortune.com/2016/05/03/bloomberg-gender-equality-index/ May 3, 2016