Although the conversation has long been started, diversity is still a huge issue in the workplace. Article by: Adam Hale, EVP Sage People.

Despite progress being made, the vast majority of organisations are led by men, and the average woman is still paid significantly less than her male counterpart. According to UNICEF, women do 66 percent of the world’s work, but only earn 10 percent of the world’s income. It is a national and global problem – not just because equality between the sexes is vital but also as it is hard for a company to relate to its diverse customer base, without a diverse workforce.

It goes without saying that women play a central role in the workforce. Some of my female colleagues have taught me the most, including one former boss at Accenture who was fearsome. Companies that aren’t openly working towards re-addressing the balance are missing out on their own employee’s talent potential, marginalising their customer-base, and damaging their own reputation; as well as their ability to hire great talent. And research has made it increasingly clear that companies with more diverse workforces perform better financially.

Some have chosen to address the balance by hiring new women from outside the company into senior positions. But new research from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), shows that retaining and promoting women already working within a company is the most effective way of improving the gender balance within the workforce. The study found that, while senior executives preferred to focus on recruiting more women, initiatives to support retaining and promoting women already at the company had a higher positive impact on business growth.

A business’ Human Resources team have a key role to play in shifting attitudes in the workplace to make the most of existing female talent. But, what can senior HR and People leaders do to identify, retain, and promote women within their business?

Make more of your people data. First you must be able to identify where gaps, talent, progress and career development is required to retain staff. Keeping accurate retention and compensation records allows an organisation to understand the reasons why people leave and identify strategies to increase retention. Using People Science can help analyse your people just as data science has long helped companies analyse their customers. HR teams no longer need to rely on paper records but should be using digital data to answering critical business questions like these.

Collaborate to identify these gaps. HR leaders can’t do the above on their own and must work closely with department heads to identify stand-out female employers who are keen to develop. It seems obvious, but recent research we conducted found almost two-thirds (60 percent) of HR leaders would struggle to produce information about skills gaps and employee churn if their CEO asked for it today. That situation was unthinkable with customer data – its becoming unthinkable with people data.

Tackle the factors at the heart of workplace gender inequality to transform company culture. By addressing the issues that propagate inequality in the workplace, organisations can create company cultures that encourage fostering female talent. Rather than looking outside to find women to increase diversity, looking introspectively into the kind of atmosphere you are promoting is the most effective way to implement cultural change.

Organisations should consider how they may be unintentionally perpetuating inequality, for example, by asking the only woman in a meeting to take notes? Or are the women on your team always the ones asked to organise team socials? Reflecting on how your unconscious bias can permeate workplace culture is the first step on the path to getting the full potential out of your female workforce.

Develop new HR policies to support diversification and encourage female talent development. More than half the respondents of the Boston Consulting Group research said that flexibility was the most important intervention at their company, regardless of age, gender and whether or not they had children. Some of the policies that most improved the gender balance were making flexible working truly effective; involving men in gender diversity efforts, particularly middle managers; and backing up the programme with clear targets.

When it comes to parental leave, this is where many companies find female employees are leaving the company. Often this is not because they want to stay at home, but they’ve seen their pay become stagnant and opportunities for promotions denied. If you lose a talented female employee following maternity leave, it’s likely that she’s gone to one of your competitors. Implementing a progressive policy towards parental leave, that treats prospective mothers and fathers more equally is crucial to retaining and fostering female talent. Take a look at Deloitte which has implemented a new benefits package that offers its employees up to 16 weeks of fully paid leave including maternity and paternity leave.

Identify role models and champion them. Another factor women cite as a barrier to career progression is the lack of visible role models. Women hold only 5.8 percent of CEO positions in S&P 500 companies and only 15 percent of executive positions in the 600 largest companies in the EU. With few women in leadership positions there is a scarcity of mentoring and networking opportunities for them in the earlier career stages. Thus, women have limited options to build relationships with today’s leaders to enable their careers to progress. Creating leadership and mentoring schemes within your organisation is a simple way to foster talent at all levels, whilst creating a visible and active support network.

The solution to the diversity issue often sits in plain sight – fostering and retaining female talent within an organisation can prove to be a successful answer to having a more gender balanced firm.

Ultimately, workplace inequality reflects how society has been structured for a long time. There are no easy solutions. But, if companies bring thoughtful awareness and set goals with the use of People Science, they can achieve a balance that will empower their workforce and positively affect the business’s reputation and bottom line.