It’s always interesting to learn about diversity in other countries. For example, when highlighting New Zealand, did you know that the country is “one of only 18 nations (of 173) that have no legal differences between men and women?” While no law has ever been implemented, there are still huge opportunities for change and growth for the country.
Recently, 44 New Zealand corporations voluntarily committed to “a new diversity reporting framework that heralds a huge commitment to change, and one that will enable a new generation of diverse leaders to drive New Zealand’s future economic growth and social prosperity.” In comparing to Australia, 20% of senior management is made up of women for New Zealand, versus the 30% minimum in Australia.
In an effort to help the new reporting commitments, Champions for Change has developed a reporting framework focused on “gender and ethnicity representation within the workforce and across boards, with a spotlight on leadership pipelines.”
Champions for Change co-Chair, Dame Jenny Shipley, says that developing clear targets and metrics to measure diversity and inclusion is critical to breaking entrenched patterns that inhibit organisations achieving their full potential.
The end goal is to increase diversity within the workplace, and both private and public sectors believe this is the right way to do it. According to Global Women CEO Miranda Burdon ” This approach has already led to success with gender representation on Boards in the UK, where a combination of reporting and voluntary target-setting saw the number of women on FTSE100 boards increase from 12.5% to 26% between 2011 and 2015—an overall increase of 52% over just four years.”
