Best Practices in Gender Diversity between Canada and the Netherlands
Some 60 NCCC members and their guests gathered at KPMG in Amstelveen on March 31 and greatly enjoyed hearing the distinguished panel of speakers who shared their vision and wisdom on gender balance, with the conclusion that much greater progress has been seen in Canada towards gender equity in organizations. The speakers were both frank and informative on the progress of professional women on both sides of the Atlantic.
Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, CEO of 20-first.com and publisher of women-omics.com. Avivah gave a very stimulating presentation on the pressing economic need to see gender equity in organisations, and for companies themselves to become gender bilingual. She spoke on her research and ongoing work with top multinationals to address these issues.
Ton Reijns, Partner with KPMG Financial Services and KPMG Diversity Ambassador in the Netherlands spoke next about his personal experience with gender diversity within KPMG, and his observation that gender balanced teams both performed better and were more collegial. He had conducted his own unofficial survey of senior women managers both in the Netherlands and Canada, and concluded the infrastructure in Canada (shopping hours, daycare, schools, etc.) was also more conducive to full-time work for both men and women.
Claartje Vinkenburg, Associate Professor of Organizational Behaviour and Director of the Amsterdam Center for Career Research at the Vrije Universiteit spoke on the present situation in the Netherlands regarding gender diversity, and presented a wide range of statistical and anecdotal evidence comparing the Netherlands with other parts of the world. The Netherlands ranks almost last in Europe in percentage of women academics, in percentage of women working full-time, percentage of women in senior managerial positions, etc., which should be very worrying for Dutch businesses interested in global competitiveness.
Adam Travis, Global Director of Diversity & Inclusion at Nokia Corporation spoke about his experiences in the Netherlands, first as Diversity head for TNT and then with Talent Management at ABN-Amro. He indicated that having a large budget for talent development didn’t make an impact on diversity when the senior management did not support such initiatives. He also spoke about the ‘new ways of working’ being developed at Nokia, to create an inclusive and flexible working environment.
Alison Konrad, Professor of Organizational Behaviour, Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario was the final speaker, and she sketched the regulatory and social framework with which Canada has approached gender diversity, and described some of her own experiences with top businesses in Canada. Without legislation like Canada’s Equity Employment Act, and by refusing to adopt Norwegian-type quotas, the Netherlands lacks the tools or teeth to usher along the gender balance agenda.
Initiatives in the Netherlands such as the Talent to the Top Charter remain voluntary, and many of the objectives were already outlined in the Code Tabaksblat (the voluntary Corporate Governance Charter signed by many of the same companies that have rushed to sign the Talent to the Top Charter). All of it remains very much up to the individual signatories, what and how they wish to implement policies around gender balance in their organizations.
Canada’s approach ensures that companies must report to the Federal government on an annual basis on the actual state of progress with diversity practices in their firms, with hardest scrutiny reserved for government suppliers. This approach has resulted in competition between companies to be named ‘employer of choice’ for women, and the government has followed through by implementing the annual Employment Equity and Diversity Awards to further reward and acknowledge outstanding employers. When employers in the Netherlands start to fight over who deserves the title of ‘most woman-friendly employer’, perhaps we can truly say progress has been made, was one of the conclusions of the day.
Following the break the floor was opened for some very lively discussion on the differences in approaches to achieving gender balance between Canada and the Netherlands. All seminar participants received a complimentary copy of Why Women Mean Business by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and Alison Maitland, analysing the opportunities available to companies that really understand what motivates women in the workplace and the marketplace. The afternoon concluded with a very lively networking borrel/cocktail party, which was greatly enjoyed by all attendees.