More to gender parity than equal pay

There’s a major talent gap on the horizon. The UAE, like most countries, simply doesn’t have enough highly skilled people to sustain its economic growth in the new digital economy marked by the proliferation of advanced technology and AI.

Companies that go beyond equal pay implementing the UAE’s new Gender Equality law will find themselves in a much stronger competitive position to compete for the right talent in the new digital economy. The challenge companies face is less about ensuring equal pay for like jobs. It’s relatively easy to conduct an assessment by job title to determine where men and women lie within preset salary scales.

If inequality is found, they can set a correction course.

The real challenge is ensuring fair and equal access to all roles across an organisation. That means up to and including leading business units with the best talent, regardless of gender, having a potential pathway to the CEO position.

Too often women in the workforce are relegated to positions in departments like communications and human resources — Positions that typically have lower pay scales than those directly tied to the commercial success of organisations and that don’t have the kind of formal grooming and development programmes that open the door to higher value roles.

Women may make the same salaries as male counterparts in similar positions, but if women don’t have the same pathways in an organisation that have the potential to lead to the top spot, we can’t achieve true gender equality. Not having those pathways is one reason why only 6 per cent of Fortune 500 companies have women in the top job, despite significant research that shows female-led businesses deliver greater shareholder value than those led by men.

STEM education

Korn Ferry recently published a research report that explored the journey and key learnings of 57 current and past female CEOs of Fortune 1000 companies. In Women CEOs Speak: Strategies for the Next Generation of Female Executives and How Companies Can Pave the Road, we looked at the education to employment journey of some of the most successful women in business.

There are many insights from this report that companies can use to follow the true spirit of this new law.

The first is that inspiring young women to focus on STEM education can lead to greater participation higher up in the commercial divisions of organisations. More than 40 per cent of the CEOs started out with college degrees in science, engineering, or math — twice as many as those with a background in the arts and humanities or business and finance.

The UAE is already demonstrating its progressive leadership by directly tying STEM education to its efforts to increase female participation in the workforce, particularly nationals in the private sector. Dr Ahmad Bin Abdullah Humaid Belhoul Al Falasi, Minister for Higher Education and Advanced Skills, addressed the issue in a recent interview: “Historically, STEM has been perceived as a male-dominated field, but I can tell you from the ministry, we are seeing more women that are interested in STEM.”

Entering the business world with a background and expertise in STEM-related areas creates a better pathway to the CEO seat. That’s because the road to the top requires experience running a business unit and managing a P&L. Rising through an “expense” side of the business such as communications, marketing or HR may help earn a seat at the table but it won’t get them the top seat.

Personal goal

Another interesting finding from “Women CEOs Speak” was that the majority of leaders we spoke to gave no thought to being CEO until someone explicitly told them they had it in them. Only five CEOs studied actually identified becoming CEO as a personal goal.

Companies need to encourage and inspire young female professionals to set their sights high from the start and give them the mentorship at every stop along the way to enable them to reach their full potential. They can and should take the first step of objectively assessing like-for-like pay scales of men and women in each job.

Here are three additional steps leaders can take to chart a course to transparent gender equity:

* Extend the internal assessment to give a fair and accurate picture of the actual representation of women in the workforce across all job levels as well as to assess the potential of the current workforce to identify female professionals who should be considered for stretch assignments.

* Create rotational programme assignments for those with the greatest leadership potential to learn more aspects of the organisation and work across business units and commercial departments.

* Formalise mentor and sponsor programmes, both inside the organisation and by tapping potential external mentors.

Companies that proactively lead the charge toward true gender equality in the workforce will be better prepared to compete for and develop the next generation of leaders that are key to winning the talent war and sustaining future growth in a rapidly changing business environment.

Let’s go beyond equal pay and set the bar higher for young women and female executives across the UAE. It’s CEO or bust!

The writer is Senior Client Partner, Korn Ferry.