What's making the news for gender equality and women in the workplace?

📰 1LV Round up: Once a month we will bring you a selection of articles, interviews and news that will make you think about gender equality and women in the workplace. ⬇️

1LV launches WE+ Measure

We’re biased but it’s the biggest thing to impact women in the workplace in years. The One Loud Voice WE+ brand is all about Women and Equality and so much more. The three core pillars of work are: WE+ Measure, which is all about best practice metrics; WE+ Allyship, which is about gender partnerships; and WE+ Support which is advisory and coaching. The WE+ Measure allows organisations to measure their gender equity inputs against established best practices that achieve gender equality outputs. It benefits the organisation and the women who work there. It’s gamechanging. To find out more visit  https://www.oneloudvoice.co.uk/benchmark

The 2024 Times Top 50 Employers for Gender Equality

The list, which is run by Business in the Community as part of its Gender Equality work, is the UK’s most highly profiled and well-established source of employers that lead the way on workplace gender equality. It focuses on those employers that make gender equality part of their business strategy at all levels. Why does inclusion in the list matter? The answer is simple – (and it speaks to everything 1LV wants to achieve through its WE+ Measure): companies that are listed attract better talent and they tend to do better overall. Some 93% of previous applicants agree is enhances their organisation’s profile; some 86% say it pushes their organisation to do better; and 73% agree it helps their organisation attract talent.  To view the list, see here https://www.bitc.org.uk/the-times-top-50-listmakers-2024/

HERS ranking returns down

Disappointing news for investors hoping to make good returns on funds focused on companies that emphasise gender equality. According to Morningstar, which looked at funds with a gender equality tilt, there has been a period of poor performance. In the year-to-date only one in five of gender equality funds managed to outperform their relevant Morningstar benchmark. That figure is less than 10 percent over a three-year period. In linked news, companies that score highly on the Morgan Stanley Holistic Equal and Representation Score (HERS) last year delivered their worst relative performance since 2011. https://www.ft.com/content/872650c0-6862-4034-88b3-acbff5e506e3

And finally…

We can’t ignore the UK election. The new Labour government, which swept to power on 4 July, promise to do more for women’s rights in the workplace. Among the issues that are likely to be tackled are an increase in time limits from three to six months for employment tribunal claims. This will be particularly beneficial for those looking to make a pregnancy discrimination claim. Labour has also made key proposals around menopause in the workplace. Organisations with more than 250 employees will be required to produce ‘menopause action plans’ detailing how they intend to support employees going through menopause. In addition, general guidance for all employers will be published on measures such as those relating to uniform, temperature, flexible working and leave. Finally, Labour have committed to strengthening of the legal duty for employers to prevent sexual harassment.