Engage Men as Allies to Drive Diversity and Inclusion

With the increase of female ratio at the workplace and more women taking on leadership and executive roles, diversity and inclusion have become top priorities among many enterprises in China. After all, as the Chinese proverb goes, women do hold up half the sky. However, what some people often forget is that the other half of the sky is held up by men.

To achieve gender equality and diversity at workplace, we need to engage men as our allies and not alienate them. Men can be passionate advocates for diversity and inclusion, often inspired by the experiences of their mothers, wives, daughters, sisters and nieces.

With these aspirations in mind, PageGroup and sHero jointly hosted a D&I Learning Series seminar at our Shanghai office, with a focus on how men can be engaged as allies in the diversity and inclusion conversation. Andy Bentote, regional managing director of PageGroup, Christine Liu, founder of sHero, and Phillip Chen, business manager of Yaraco, a joint venture owned by British Petroleum, were guest speakers at the event. The main conversations revolved around how various initiatives can create a welcoming work environment for women. In attendance were over 40 senior professionals and leaders from prominent companies in China.

More than 40 senior professionals attended the event.

The business case for equality

More than just a social issue, gender diversity is a business issue also. Many companies now realize that driving gender diversity will tremendously boost their business growth. According to a McKinsey study, companies that are more gender diverse are 21% more likely to outperform others. Furthermore, companies that are more ethnically diverse are 33% more likely to outperform companies that are not.

During the seminar, Christine revealed that if we can engage the 240 million women waiting to take part in the workforce, we can expect a US$4.5 trillion boost to Asia’s gross domestic product by 2025.

“To achieve inclusive culture and gender equality is a long journey. For women to grow in leadership, we need lifelong education, a mindset of courage and confidence, good role models, as well as support from the organization, society and men around us,” Christine said.

“The current data shows that 80–90% of senior executives are men,” Andy said. “They have absolute power over strategy, vision and goals. Therefore, for male leaders, they need to think about how to use that power and create a more inclusive working environment for women. They need to make sure that the male allies are involved in those programs and truly believe in it.”

Phillip (left), Christine (middle) and Andy (right) discussed about how to engage men as allies to drive diversity and inclusion.

Men are also husbands, sons and fathers. "You should treat your women colleagues the way you want your mother and daughter to be treated,” said Phillip.

As an MNC regional leader, Andy shared his experience of managing diversified employees. “You should learn to manage teams with different styles and personalities, focus on the strengths of talent, let everyone's voice be heard, and make sure everyone has the right to express his or her ideas confidently and bravely.”

During the panel discussion, senior professionals from various companies shared their companies’ diversity and inclusion initiatives, as well as their thoughts on how to engage men as allies.

group discussion

Opportunities and empowerment

As for PageGroup, we aim to change lives for people by creating opportunity to reach potential. We are driving diversity and inclusion continuously by launching various initiatives. These initiatives include Women@Page, which seeks to improve gender balance; Pride@Page,  which lends support to members of the LGBTQ community; Parents@Page, which provides resources and support for parents; Ability@Page, which is about empowering disabled employees in all areas of their physical and mental wellbeing.

Stella shared PageGroup's initiatives on diversity and inclusion.

“According to our gender balance statistics released in June 2019, female employees in Greater China make up 77%. For directors and above, females make up 61%,” shared Stella Wu, head of HR for PageGroup Greater China.

The D&I Learning Series is an initiative of the sHero Council on Women & Diversity, with PageGroup as a strategic partner. The series allows member companies to access a network of senior D&I practitioners, advocates and sponsors with invaluable ideas, strategies and recommendations on diversity and inclusion.

Attendees shared ideas after the event.

We’ll continuously hold a series of events on diversity and inclusion topic. If you want to know more about D&I in China, please contact us.