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future for her.” Now we say, “What
can we do to keep her here so that
in a couple years she’s still around.”
Logue: Do men participate in WIN?
Leung: Yes! We want to include
men. Everyone is welcome. And
the great thing we found is that
a lot of the things women want,
men wanted too. [In WIN] there
are four pillars. First, a workforce
pillar, which is all about attracting
and retaining top female talent –
networking is a part of that. It’s
also got the mentorship program.
So every assistant brand manager
or brand manager will have a
mentoree. Everybody can use it.
The next pillar is about
workplace, and it’s about driving
the inclusion of women with
policies. So things like agile [hours],
Leung participates in PR firm Edelman’s GWEN
initiative, a diversity-based networking event.
lextime programs, child care. We
did a crappy job with maternity
leaves. No one would call [those
women]. No one would talk to
them. No one would invite them
to anything. And then we realized,
why wouldn’t we want them to still
feel connected to Unilever? Now
they have buddies and sponsors.
We want them to feel like they’re
being taken care of.
A CARLETON AND DELOITTE STUDY FOUND THE TOP 10 BIGGEST
BARRIERS FOR WOMEN SEEKING LEADERSHIP POSITIONS ARE:
• GENERAL NORMS AND CULTURAL PRACTICES
• PATRIARCHAL OR MASCULINE CORPORATE CULTURE
• LACK OF ROLE MODELS
• LACK OF FLEXIBLE WORK SOLUTIONS
• LACK OF OPPORTUNITIES OR CRITICAL WORK EXPERIENCE AND RESPONSIBILITY
• LACK OF ADEQUATE WORK/LIFE BALANCE POLICIES
• LACK OF NETWORKS AND MENTORING
• LACK OF COMPANY LEADERSHIP COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY
• LACK OF TARGET SETTING FOR PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN
• LACK OF ACCEPTANCE OF THE USE OF DIVERSITY POLICIES AND PRACTICES
Then we have [a] marketplace
[pillar], which attracts female
workers, saying, “Hey, Unilever
is a great place to work if you’re
a women.”
The last pillar is about [building
a female-focused CSR push in the]
community, because we are focused
on our sustainability program.
We don’t have a committee for
ethnicity. I know when you look
at our global people survey, we’re
pretty diverse. People feel included,
they don’t feel discriminated
against. I know we don’t track
sexual orientation, but we do have
the pride committee that has a
similar objective to WIN.
Lloyd: [At Loblaw] we piloted a “Day
in her shoes” [program]. Female
and male executives, who are trying
to understand the experience of
female store managers, shadow
for the day. It’s not that her job
is different, but it’s a chance to
dialogue in a casual way. We also
have a senior director of diversity
and inclusion [with a team] tasked
with developing strategic initiatives
that are business-focused and that
provide exposure for both men
and women. [We realized] the lens
through which you identify talent
needs to be fairly broad. If you
apply a diverse lens, you will get a
diverse group.
Logue: That’s not just a relection
of women in the room. It’s a
relection of men who want
women in the room.
Vonk: I never found [the lack of
diversity] to be something people
sat around and talked about.
Especially if you’re successful
yourself, you think it’s no problem.
Leung: I ind it’s changing though.
Lloyd: I think there is more dialogue
– but probably not enough yet –
because people are learning how
to have the conversation and the
business argument is a safe way
to lead things. I think it can be an
uncomfortable topic. You need to
know how to have the conversation.
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