Fast Company did a recent study of 913 women leaders from four female-dominated industries in the U.S. (higher education, faith-based non-profits, law, and healthcare) to gain some insight into the huge discrepancy in numbers between male and women leaders and why institutions consistently fail to promote women to top jobs. Research revealed 30 aspects of female identity used as points of criticism about performance and become barriers to progress.
Research by Gartner (2022) found that approximately 50% of employees think that increasing numbers of their colleagues feel alienated by and resent DIBE efforts, considering them to be divisive. This might be because most people want to protect their own self esteem and sense of goodness and so resist, reject and lash back at anything that challenges that feeling. How then, do you address this?
Following on from the 2020 murder of George Floyd in 2020, companies ramped up DEI efforts, leading to many organisational pledges to improve DIBE. Since then, however, commitments have slowed and the lack of progress on pledges despite the best intentions is a matter of frustration at all levels. McKinsey suggests that the difference between success and failure in D&I is simply that the companies who see successful internal DEI commitments take a systematic approach to establishing their DEI strategies. They recommend these 5 steps to set and achieve a robust D&I strategy
Mental Health Foundation research shows that over a quarter of adults say they’ve felt so anxious that it’s stopped them from doing things how they’ve wanted to either some of or all of the time. According to the Health and Safety Executive, stress is thought to be responsible for around 50% of “lost” working days. In fact – work-related stress is the most common type, with 79% of people saying they felt it frequently. Additionally, poor mental health is currently estimated by Deloitte to cost employers up to £56 billion per year. How can employers help their employees mitigate some of their mental health and stress/anxiety challenges?