The charity is poised to launch its Gender Equality Benchmark so organisations can tackle the broken leadership pipeline. But first it needs some help from the women who will most benefit from it – and is calling for sign-ups to its January webinars
A new initiative is being shaped to help tackle the broken leadership pipeline for women in the workplace. The One Loud Voice (1LV) Gender Equality Benchmark aims to bolster gender equity from within organisations. But 1LV can’t launch the Benchmark without the input and insight of the women it is trying to help and is calling for sign-ups to its two January webinars. The aim is to gain feedback on the Benchmark in its current state, which has been drafted with input from human resource (HR) and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) experts.
1LV is on a mission to help women in the workplace at every point on their career journey, but it has a particular focus on those women in the ‘sticky middle’. This group of talented and ambitious women are often held back in their careers for multiple reasons including embedded biases and a desire not to change the status quo. A lack of pathway to more senior roles not only impacts individual careers and senior leadership opportunities but is also impacting the overall pipeline of talent to get to the boardroom.
The Benchmark aims to encourage organisations to adopt best practices and become places that not only welcome women at the start of their careers but helps them rise through the ranks if that is the career path they choose. In turn, it aims to help organisations become truly diverse and by doing so perform better. The Benchmark will address areas such as: ending bias in recruitment and promotion; flexible working; discrimination and harassment.
Anna Sofat, 1LV chair, says: ‘The Benchmark will be an industry disruptor that will help organisations understand how they fare on the gender equity scale and what actions they need to take to progress women’s careers across their businesses. We all know that diverse teams perform better, and we should be celebrating and encouraging that diversity at all stages of seniority. By doing that, we will unlock the talent pipeline and ensure more women who are talented and qualified can get to the boardroom.’
The 1LV January webinars will invite discussion and feedback from participants. This insight will help shape the final version of the Benchmark before it is rolled out later this year.
Sign up to the webinar at 8am on Tuesday 23 January or 12.30pm on Thursday 25th January – here