The initiatives adopted by these companies have successfully changed minds, altered behaviours and created more opportunities for women.
Three companies from three different sectors have been chosen for the Catalyst Award, 2017 for practising gender diversity. These three companies—3M, Bank of Montreal and Rockwell Automation— will be awarded in a ceremony in New York on 8 March, that is, International Women’s day.
“The initiatives adopted by these three companies have successfully changed minds, altered behaviours and created more opportunities for women,” says Deborah Gillis, CEO, Catalyst.
3M: The Company’s global initiative, ‘I’m in’ was adopted in 70 countries, where 3M operates. In the last five years, since this campaign was launched, 3M has successfully managed to increase women’s representation at the director level from 18.2 per cent to 23 per cent. Women’s representation at the level of vice-president and beyond has also increased from 16.7 per cent to 24.2 per cent. The ‘I’m in’ campaign includes a variety of talent management and leadership development components, such as networking, mentoring, talent development, work-life and workplace flexibility programmes and external community efforts. Even in male-dominated functions and roles, such as technical and lab managers, or plant managers, women’s representation has increased by close to 5 percentage points and 6 percentage points, respectively.
Bank of Montreal: The Company not only increased women’s representation in senior leadership, but a robust pipeline of women to advance to senior leadership roles. The bank now has 40 per cent women’s representation in senior roles—a goal accomplished in five years. Senior women managers form 35 per cent of the total workforce now. The company has also increased the number of women from colour and visible minority communities in the US and Canada by more than 2 percentage points.
Rockwell Automation: This Company has promoted a culture of inclusion across businesses and functions. Between 2008 and 2016, women’s representation in the US has increased from 11.9 per cent to 23.5 per cent among vice presidents, from 14.7 per cent to 23.2 per cent among directors, and from 19.3 per cent to 24.3 per cent at the middle-manager level.
Women’s representation among the CEO’s direct reports has more than doubled from 11.1 per cent to 25 per cent.
