Study on non-legislative initiatives for companies to promote gender ...

102 Gender equality initiatives
Dell Inc. e. g. actively encourages applications from women (by highlighting the
company’s work-life policies). IBM Corporation has achieved good results in attracting a
diverse workforce (also in terms of gender) and positive feedback for its approach to
present female role models when attending recruiting fairs (e. g. at universities).
Accenture (UK) Ltd. pursues graduate recruitment activities in order to recruit the best
female as well as male talent. For instance, this includes campus events, allocation of
female buddies, advertising in women targeted career publications and sponsoring
of various women’s clubs and societies.
While Exodus SA states to give priority to women applicants for technical positions
within their company, given that there are more equally qualified candidates, the opposite
approach is practiced at L’Oréal SA (that is one of the rare companies where more
than half of the management positions are occupied by women). As L’Oréal SA
operates in an industry that appears to be particularly interesting for women, the company
is currently thinking about ways to ensure gender equality by hiring more men.
Two interesting approaches have been detected among the SMEs analysed:
Stormberg AS, e. g., deliberately recruits pregnant women or persons with young
children to ensure an enterprise culture where work-life balance is accounted for. At
Polgár-Tárasak 2000 Kft. women or men may suggest a person to work as their
substitution when taking parental leave.
TUI AG has the policy to favour applications from former employees who once
decided to give up their job to care for their children and then wish to work for the
company again.
Recruiting targets are another option to account for gender imbalances. PSA Peugeot
Citroën SA e. g. has, within its current Action Plan concerning gender equality at the
workplace, set the commitment to recruit more women in each business line and at all
hierarchical levels. Royal Dutch Shell plc reports to have set a target of 50 % for
recruiting women for commercial roles and one of 28 % for recruiting women for
technical roles (which, according to the company, appears realistic concerning the
choice of studies among men and women). Although Henkel AG does not explicitly set
recruiting targets, the company has elaborated a benchmarking system where the
Board considers quotas of male and female university graduates of the previous year in
subjects that are relevant for the company. Siemens AG strives to equate the shares
of women among new hires with the share of female applicants.
The Recruiting Guideline of Henkel AG e. g. also foresees that the shortlist with the
final 3 candidates for any job has to reflect diversity in terms of age, gender and
nationality. Similarly, when (internally) recruiting for positions in upper management,
there has to be at least one woman on the shortlist at Royal Dutch Shell plc.
The investigation of the initiatives designed and implemented by individual companies
to ensure gender equality at the workplace has also revealed some interesting
practices concerning the selection process. PSA Peugeot Citroën SA uses simulation
based hiring procedures that allow for judging the applicants according to their
abilities rather than their diplomas or experiences. Such a procedure may also be
indirectly beneficial for female applicants, as it has been noticed that women tend to
pursue different professional formation paths then men. Nevertheless, female applicants
may have the same aptitudes to fulfil a job in the automobile industry as male
applicants with a traditional technology oriented educational background.