The Gap:
Type of Gap: ...in communities / countries of operation
In South Africa, the slow narrowing of the gender gap is easily demonstrated through income; comparing personal incomes, females earned, on average, 67% of what men earn, despite there being similar numbers of males and females achieving at least a matric education - the gender pay gap continues to be a reality.
The Practice:
Type of practice: Awareness, incentives & accountability
The purpose of the programme is to expose people to South African society to appreciate and celebrate the richness of our diverse population, and to take these insights back into the business. Investec’s embracing diversity exposure programme is founded on the belief that people build relationships and authentic understanding of each other by using an emotional context as well as cognitive understanding. Investec’s people include a myriad of different gender positions, cultures and identities. Different experts speak and then engage delegates in debates that range from the origins of humankind to religion, ethnicity, gender and sexual identity.
Metrics:
We measure our success through dialogue and feedback mechanisms including evaluation of written feedback and individual's account of change, and how this translates in the workplace.
Implementation Date:
It is an ongoing intervention, planned for 2011, 2012 and 2013
The Success:
The programme is aimed to enhance the emotional and cultural understanding of individuals and to celebrate their uniqueness through story-telling and an exhibition of personal objects. To enable personal growth through enhancing understanding of:
- Who am I?
- Where do I come from?
- Where am I going?
Success factors:
- Internal facilitation
- External expertise
- Leveraging individual's own experiences around gender and ethnicity etc.
Barriers:
- Budget and cost
- Time commitment
- Leadership buy-in