“If you can't measure it you can’t manage it!”

This quote is from Peter Drucker who is widely credited as being one of the greatest management thinkers of all time and more recently echoed by Mike Bloomberg in his drive for increasing gender diversity. Data driven D&I is the future if companies are serious about making real progress in reaping the benefits of diversity and inclusion and crucially winning the war for talent. While progress can not only be defined in a quantitative manner, we need to benchmark ourselves so we can show the tangible progress we have made and hold ourselves accountable for where we have failed. 

Acknowledging where we can do better and having C-Suite sponsorship is critical for driving change. Within Bloomberg, the Chairman Peter Gruaer, holds biannual meetings with all departments to review their diversity business plans and evaluate progress. I can tell you that that categorically focusses people’s minds as he does hold people very much to account!

For me measurement brings focus and focus brings consciousness of the benefits of diversity to a wider audience within the company. This when coupled with manager compensation being tied to D&I development as part of metrics channels energy in the right direction.

So where can we see this in action? Among many others, Bloomberg has one focus that stands out as they drive awareness in a transparent and tangible fashion that inspires others. It puts gender equality at the forefront of C-suite, investors and money manager’s minds and this is how.

Bloomberg's Gender Equality Index

So, to start let’s talk about Bloomberg’s gender equality index and how it is driving awareness and raising the bar for listed companies. No matter how sceptical you may be about the benefits of diversity, when it comes down to dollars and cents people listen. Bloomberg built the Gender Equality Index to highlight those companies that are being transparent and making progress in promoting gender diversity in their firms. They apply for membership by submitting data that covers 4 main categories and must reach a minimum score to be included:

1. Workforce statistics & compensation (% of management, tenure & attrition & pay gap)
2. Policies and benefits (Paternity leave, Fertility benefits & Career development)
3. External impact (Advertising without gender bias, Supplier diversity & Gender-conscious products and services)
4. Community (Targeted return to work programs & financial education for women)

The index has gone from 26 companies in 2016 to 230 companies in 36 countries, employing 7 million women of 15 million employees through 10 sectors

Collecting this data helps Bloomberg make the business case for gender equality as a driver for bottom-line impact. Majority shareholders are demanding transparency on issues that they strongly value and following on this demand, financial service providers are building products to meet these values-based strategies

What does the data say?

• There’s a shift in capital to women, who will control over 50% of the assets in the world by 2025
• Women are aligning their investments with values similar to their own as are millennials. $12 Trillion is invested in Socially Responsible Investment strategies, up 38% from $8.7 trillion in 2016 (US SIF Foundation 2018 Report)
• Women’s representation on corporate boards by GEI members is 2x the average for the universe (26.1% vs 13.6%)
• For GEI member firms 27.1% of the top 10% compensated group are women compared with their 19.4% non GEI peer group.
• Paid parental leave (U.S.) offered by 20 companies for both maternity/paternity. 
• There's a lot more you can now measure. E.g. Women who are in revenue-producing roles (37.6%), members providing employee resource groups for women (81.3%), unconscious bias training is provided by 80.4% of members with 86.7% of members offering flexible work schedule and location 

And here’s the kicker, if you invested in the Bloomberg Financial Services Equality Index in 2016 you’d have made 24.3% on your money vs the closest other at 14.5%,

With data driving decision making and providing transparency you can measure and you can manage!

Happy International Women's Day!