Best practices (Unconscious Bias)

Learn from the lessons of Scotiabank:

Scotiabank has introduced a fully transparent career development process, in which employees complete a self-assessment. They assess their progress and identify the steps they need to take to develop the skills and experience required for promotion. This strategy has been introduced in conjunction with other initiatives to ensure a broad range of candidates are considered for promotion and objectively assessed. Scotiabank has created the Human Investment Committee, consisting of the President, CEO, and their immediate subordinates to discuss major policies and programs. Finally, Scotiabank formalized the position of Senior Vice President and hired a woman for the position to mentor men and women with high potential. A result was a significant increase in the number of women at the senior management level, from 18.9 percent in 2003 to 31.0 percent in 2006. Similarly, the proportion of women at the highest level (executive vice president/corporate officer) increased from 26.7 percent in 2003 to 36.8 percent in 2006.

Learn from the lessons of Google:

Large organizations with data analytics capabilities increasingly turn to data to identify gender inequalities and overcome these barriers. For example, Google looked at employee data and found that its female employees left the company at twice the average rate. Employee turnover is costly, so Google wanted to reduce this rate. Further data analysis revealed that in fact young mothers, not female employees in general, are twice as likely to quit. This realization led Google to introduce new maternity and paternity leave. The plan has had a significant impact as new mothers at Google are now no more likely to leave the company than the average employee. Google has identified five indicators most predictive of turnover and is targeting interventions accordingly.

Learn from the lessons of Magyar Telekom:

Magyar Telekom also uses data analysis and data to examine the implementation of gender equality within the organization. The data helps to show where problems arise within the organization and where they can be improved immediately. So, based on this, they have also created an online training course to raise awareness of our own subconscious hidden biases.