Achieving gender equality: what are the best doing better?

📍Last week, the global recruitment solutions provider Hays 🇨🇭hosted a networking event in Basel welcoming over 30+ participants and leaders from the pharma and biotech industry.

📣 On stage: Bettina Bachmann from Women in Tech® Switzerland, Rachel Ougier Simonin 🧩 Delivering effective solutions from Novartis and Birgit Viktoria Huber from Hays exchanged on what we can learn from organisations that excel in promoting gender equality.

➡️ Here are some takeaways from the panel discussion:

✅ Achieving gender equality is not solely the responsibility of businesses; as citizens with voting rights, spouses, parents, and leaders, we all have a role to play in promoting gender equality.
✅ In light of companies’ struggles to attract and retain talent, we discussed what factors would encourage more women to apply for jobs. The top drivers were good income, a workplace that aligns with company values, and flexible working hours and location.
✅ Although the topic of quotas is still highly debated and causes division, it was pointed out that the Nordic model, where quotas were implemented early on to increase gender equality, has been successful. 
✅ We must all be aware of our own mental biases, such as assuming that a woman who has a baby will experience career setbacks while a man will not.

➡️ Check out the joint white paper from Hays and Basel Area Business & Innovation that outlines some of these aspects: https://lnkd.in/efEssxXM. 

✨“At Hays we aim to continue sharing and promoting good ideas across companies and industries, in order to move towards gender equality. An extremely important aspect of that process is to promote an internal culture that allows everyone to play an active part, regardless of gender. This is also a crucial step in fighting talent shortage, as it allows companies to position themselves better and opens the door to new talent pools.”✨

🙌 We thank our partner Hays for inviting us on stage and for their support & commitment to our shared mission.