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  • Publication
    Advance & HSG Gender Intelligence Report Schweiz 2018
    Including women in leadership makes good business sense. It is well documented that diverse leadership teams perform better, are more innovative and more profitable. A look into the overall status quo in Switzerland is a wake-up call. Far too many highly educated and skilled women are still lost on the way to the top. The overall conclusion from the study is that we see signs of improvement in the external hiring process with positive pipeline effects, and challenges in the internal promotion of female talent. A highlight is the high number of women returning after maternity leave, which is far above the Swiss average. Sample We analyzed the anonymized raw data of 238’700 employees, 71’600 of whom hold management positions. The sample consists of 50 Swiss-based companies across all industries. Thirty-eight are Advance member companies. Twenty-four companies participated via the St. Gallen Diversity Benchmarking, 12 of which are also Advance member companies. They are therefore part of the “Advance member companies”. The other 12 companies that participated via the St. Gallen Diversity Benchmarking form the group “Benchmarking companies”. The size of the companies varies from around 100 up to 30’000 employees. The results are based on data from 2017. Men overrepresented at the top, yet we see positive pipeline development Whereas in non-managerial positions, the gender distribution is almost equal, men still represent over 80% of top management. With 30% women in management overall, however, we still see positive developments. Relatively more female managers hired than already employed The positive trend in hiring continues. This is true on average and is even more pronounced for Advance members, which seem to be more attractive to female talent. Turnover rates of male and female managers converge This relatively new trend shows that companies are improving in retaining female talent in the total workforce as well as in management. Fewer women are promoted than men Promotion processes still favor men. The gender gap becomes clear already on the first level of promotion from non-management to management. Recommendations Based on the results of this study, we strongly recommend leaders to focus on promotions and structural changes conducive to female careers while keeping up the hiring efforts. Set clear commitments and targets covering the employee life cycle • Define KPIs to track progress – what gets measured, gets done. • Align management incentives to these targets. • Report on your progress. Implement un-biased promotion processes • Develop transparent promotion criteria. • Include more than one decision maker. • Actively support women in their career development. • Empower male managers to be inclusive leaders. • Encourage flexible working and part-time for all and focus on results rather than presence. Become employer of choice for female talent • Use unbiased language in your job advertisements. • Use targeted on-site events and authentic social media campaigns. • Leverage positive role model effects. • Make sure that women with potential are hired in order to fill the pipeline.