Should your gender equity plan come before your coffee pod recycling plan?

When people are happy and inspired in their careers they feel good and create good work, but the boxes that need ticking in the workplace are and must keep changing.

Sustainability is increasingly at the heart of many businesses, but what else needs to propel up the priority list? Image from Nespresso; the coffee brand encourages recycling and upon request supplies bulk recycling kits

Questioning the validity of an opinion about equality if it doesn’t make the International Women’s Day deadline I initially envisioned is something I feel bad for even thinking for that split second.

Yes, it would have been timely, but other than that, any conversation that works to improve equality and create a world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination is a worthy one.

So to all those people who missed that “ideal” deadline to write, post or speak up, today, tomorrow or this time next year – it doesn’t matter. IWD is a day to take action for equality and raise awareness against bias, but the reality is this needs to be done every single day, until we reach that longer-term goal of gender equity in Australia.

So what did I want to say? A lot, too much, but not enough.

To forge a gender-equal industry (and world) major steps need to happen, but much like some of the great behaviour change primary prevention ad campaigns that we have seen this year – think phase four of the Australian government’s domestic violence Stop it at the Start campaign and Women for Election’s Power Like You’ve Never Seen ad – small steps need to be taken first.

Often we look to others to lead the charge or change. Be that a brand, a boss, the specialist committee at work or global HQ. Sometimes it’s easier and almost natural to think it’s in hand and that it’s a much bigger issue that you can’t impact.

However, this isn’t the case. We all have a role to play and if Covid has shown us anything, it’s that employees in particular do perhaps have more power than before.

Whether it’s holding firm on mandated returns to the office, awakening to the fact more career options are out there, wanting to work for a more sustainably conscious company or realising that life is too short to put up with an unsatisfactory job, the ball feels further in the court of the employee.

A friend in the industry said to me recently that he was thinking about leaving his job as the leadership layers were too male dominated. I’ve never actually heard those words come out of anyone’s mouth as a direct reason to leave a job and would have assumed I’d first hear it from a woman’s mouth – not a man himself.

It was weighing on him. He felt flattened by it and, importantly, he was uninspired.

I wholeheartedly get it, but was still a little surprised. Surprised but delighted at the prospect of people questioning and thinking about these things more.

We discussed why, how this impacts and shapes the company, the output for clients and how being a part of a company like that can in turn make you feel part of the problem. His plan was to raise it with global HR who was in town and ask for a response about the plan to address the gaping gender inadequacies in not just the top layer, but in many senior roles.

Depending on your mindset, you’d view this as risky, or brave. And as a leader, depending on your mindset, you’ll either feel confident, open to the change or concerned.

To me it’s a brave move. Leadership and boards need to be looking inward, working to address the inequalities and setting an example, but employees can and should act to help activate or move the issue along.

People seem re-energised post the depths of Covid and there’s a new “nothing to lose” type of attitude. This attitude can power and force great change.

We are seeing such people-led change driven by consumers who are increasingly judging and selecting brands based on their sustainability endeavours and even the transparency of their supply chain. Just Last month Nike launched an interactive map that gave insight into its practices at global factories in order to demonstrate transparency. Granted it has been plagued with inaccuracies, but hopefully it’s a step in the right direction towards being accountable.

Speaking with Anna Baird, the chief executive of BCorp-certified Bared Footwear, which is making huge steps to become greener and use sustainable materials in shoes, she said the number No.1 thing people are saying in interviews is that they want to work for a company with important sustainability values.

Imagine if people placed the same level of importance around gender balances at a business?

Yes you can’t simply add a female co-founder. However, it’s about looking across the layers of a business and ensuring that you feel happy and confident as a leader that you are doing everything possible to ensure gender equality.

The same goes for staff. As an employee, do you feel happy and confident in who you are working for and know they are doing all they can to improve diversity and take action for equality?

Pippa Chambers, editor of The Growth Agenda

I recall in a past job the scores of emails going around about getting the business to recycle the coffee pods. It meant building up support from all floors, asking the company to provide mini bins and educating everyone not to bin them. It was a small victory and made many people very happy and proud.

As with sustainability, gender equality is everyone’s problem and everyone has a role to play. People need to look harder at the diversity in the companies they don’t just buy from, but who they work for, and look at what role they have in challenging it and asking questions around this.

If people can connect, relate and take small steps around their own and their companies sustainability efforts, then why not also do it around gender equality?

We constantly hear that “change starts at the top” so modern day leaders need to not just have a coffee pod recycling plan, but a plan to strengthen and develop gender equity across the whole business.

Pippa Chambers is editor of The Growth Agenda