Organisations thrive when they are representative across all levels. Where leadership positions are filled by people from similar backgrounds, ideas can become one-dimensional and appetite for driving organisational change can be limited. Contributor Sharon Looney, Chief Human Resources Officer, CoreHR.

Gender imbalance is one area where numerous workplaces have room for improvement, but it can be difficult to understand the scale of change needed without having sight of where we’re at. Gender pay gap reporting is designed to trigger change and bring about transparency.

10,471 employers have now reported their gender pay gap. Now we need to think about the next steps. For this policy to achieve its aims, it is critical that we don’t get bogged down in percentages and numbers, and neglect to focus on the steps businesses are taking to address any imbalance.

A smaller gap might indicate a business is further along the road to equality, but if no measures are in place to make further improvements those numbers might just be a convenient coincidence. At the opposite end of the spectrum, some businesses might publish outwardly shocking figures – yet these might be a considerable improvement from a short time ago.

Concrete Actions
We need to instead spotlight concrete actions. What objectives are in place to achieve more balance across the organisation? Is there a robust strategy to ensure leaders hit those targets? It’s also important to appreciate that there is no quick fix that can reverse deep-rooted gender imbalances, so putting a plaster over the issue won’t lead to long-term change.

Useful Policies
The right plan of action will vary across organisations but, to devise useful policies, leaders must understand what factors might have influenced their own pay gap. A leading cause is the lack of women in management positions. Robust succession planning, drawing from a wide profile of workers, is an obvious way to create a talent pipeline for women who aspire to leadership.

In addition to identifying and developing future leaders, introducing sponsoring and mentoring programs specifically for women is also vital. It’s also worth considering whether your organisation has any unconscious biases. There’s no clear-cut way to identify that, but if all your leaders walk and talk in the same way it’s likely to reflect in your culture too.

Encouraging Women into Leadership
Amidst accounts of women being blocked from reaching leadership positions, it’s important to consider that there may not be any clear barriers. Women might simply feel leadership is beyond their reach. Enabling strategies such as flexible working policies, support networks, and work from home policies is one way to open accessibility. While this may be seen as a ‘disruption’ to the traditional working model, it will give a more diverse range of applicants the possibility to move up through the ranks.

We also need to tackle the issue of diversity in the boardroom. Women board members clearly bring value, but the gender imbalance means that most boards lack the necessary diversity to encompass a broad range of perspectives, voices, and experience. In more established companies, there could be the opportunity to create more openings at board level to be filled by women through the introduction of term limits.

Long-term change
Unlocking diversity across all levels is the only way to achieve true workplace equality. Gender is quite rightly being spotlighted at the moment, but long-term change is only possible if driven individuals and smart talent are nurtured to rise through the ranks. This isn’t only the right thing to do, but ultimately this approach will improve how businesses understand their own customers and enhance overall financial performance.