4 September2022Editor NoteMalaysian Corporate World Making Headway in Attaining Gender Diversity The jury is no longer out on this one, gender diversity makes great business sense for organizations. Various studies back this fact too. Experts believe that companies that have a higher number of women in leadership positions tend to be more profitable, innovative and respected. A diverse and inclusive leadership team also helps organizations when it comes to hiring top talent, improving customer orientation, employee satisfaction and decision-making. The world over there have been numerous efforts to promote more women to not only join the workforce but also build lasting & fruitful careers across varied fields. The Malaysian government also took a critical step in 2022 when it mandated that public corporations must work towards increasing women representation to 30 percent in the next five years. Although the target is yet to be achieved, it is imperative to note that the move has yielded positive efforts to a great extent. By 2018, the participation of women across top 100 listed companies in Malaysia had increased to 24.4 percent. Looking at a broader landscape, Malaysia had made great strides in bringing more women to join top leadership positions across various sectors. Although COVID-19 had a terrible impact on women's participation in the workforce globally, yet Malaysia was able to achieve a 37 percent representation of women in top leadership positions in 2021. The statistics were released by Grant Thornton's annual Women in Business report which also stated that this was the highest ever recorded number for the Malaysian market. The number last year was 35 percent. Looking at the different industries and roles played by women and the consequent increase, the report presented some positive outcomes. The proportion of female chief finance officers went up by 12 percent to 41 percent, female chief marketing officers reached 26 percent after seeing a 14 percentage point increase. Similarly, the percentage of women CIOs reached 20 percent with a 3 point percentage rise. The proportion of women in the more traditional senior human resources (HR) roles has grown to 54 percent. Malaysia also has the highest percentage of women leaders headlining the CMO position across all Asean countries. The research also delved into understanding the concrete steps undertaken by firms that brought about this positive action. It concluded that a host of Malaysian companies strived to `create an inclusive culture', `ensure equal access to developmental work opportunities', and `provide mentoring & coaching'. This action plan, if replicated and adopted by various other countries, can also result in building a more inclusive and diverse workforce which in turn can spur business growth tremendously. Rachita SharmaManaging Editor
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