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Employee Life Cycle

1. Attraction and Talent Outreach

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2. Recruiting and Hiring

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3. Onboarding and Training

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4. Performance Management, Compensation, and Benefits

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5. Talent and Leadership Development

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6. Retention and Employee Engagement

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7. Succession Planning and Promotion

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8. Separation and Retirement

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Organizational Enablers

9. Corporate Culture and Leadership

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10. Company Performance and Reporting

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11. Policies and Grievance Management

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12. Corporate Communication and Branding

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9.1 Develop a business case for gender equality, diversity, and inclusion based on company-specific gender and diversity assessment

Content

Description of Best Practices

Familiarize all senior leadership with the global evidence for the business case for gender equality and diversity

Conduct a comprehensive gender assessment of the company to identify gaps and opportunities to improve gender equality and diversity

Develop a specific business case unique to the organization based on the assessment

Conduct a cost-benefit analysis of gender inequality to support the business case, (e.g., benefits vs. employee turnover and decreased productivity and costs of sexual harassment and GBV)

Communicate the assessment findings and business case across the organization

Identify priority areas for measurement, define indicators and gather baseline and regular periodic data

Challenges of Implementation

Precise attribution of benefits will not always be feasible

Additional resources may be required for effective measurement 

There may be resistance to gender equality initiatives until such time that the business case has been developed

What Success Looks Like

Senior leadership and employees understand the business case for gender equality and buy-in to company initiatives for gender equality and diversity

Resources and Tools

Guide: Four for Women: A Framework for Evaluating Companies’ Impact on the Women They Employ (Wharton School of Business)

Guide (incl. Additional Resources): Minimum Standards for Mainstreaming Gender Equality (Gender Practitioners Collaborative)

Guide (incl. Case Studies): A Gender Equal Future of Work: A Discussion Guide for Leaders (Male Champions of Change)

Guide: Toolkit for Mainstreaming Gender in Water Operations (World Bank Group)

Tool: Women’s Empowerment Principles Gender Gap Analysis Tool (United Nations Global Compact & UN Women)

Tool: Developing a Business Case for Gender Equality (USAID)

Case Study: Female Perspectives Raise Revenue for Indian Power Utility: How BRPL made the Business Case for Gender Equality (USAID)

Case Study: Women in Utilities: A Driving Force for Workforce Modernization. A Case Study of Three Utilities in the Danube Region (World Bank Group)

Case Study: Gender-Smart Solutions Reduce Employee Absenteeism and Turnover in Solomon Islands (World Bank)

Case Study: Employing Women Catalyzes Change at a Chemical Plant in India (World Bank Group)

Example (incl. Additional Resources): Women on Boards and in Business Leadership (IFC)

Report/Study (incl. Case Studies): Understanding the Business Case for Gender Equality in the Workplace (UN Women)

Report/Study (incl. Sample Indicators and Company Case Studies): Investing in Women’s Employment (IFC)

Report/Study: The Business Case for Gender Equality (Workplace Gender Equality Agency, Australian Government)

Report/Study: Quick Take: Why Diversity and Inclusion Matter (Catalyst)

Report/Study: Women in the Workplace 2019 (LeanIn and McKinsey & Company)

Report/Study: How to Calculate the Cost to Business of Gender-Based Violence in Papua New Guinea (ODI)

Report/Study: The Business Case for Change (ILO)

Report/Study: Women in Water Utilities: Breaking Barriers (World Bank Group)

Report/Study: The Untapped Resource: Gender and Diversity in the Water Workforce (The International Water Association)

Report/Study: Handbook on Gender and Organizational Change (ILO International Training Centre)

Report/Study: We Lead: Five Women Who Drove Company Success in the Middle East and North Africa and How Good Corporate Governance Helped (IFC)

Report/Study: Women as Levers for Change (FP Analytics)

Report/Study: Occupational Segregation (Washington Center for Equitable Growth)

Study/Report: Executive Briefing: The Business Case for Gender-Smart Solutions in the Private Sector (World Bank)

Report/Study: The Costs of Sexual Harassment to Business: An In-Depth Look at the Workplace (International Center for Research on Women, ICRW)

Report/Study: One-Pager of Women in Water Utilities (World Bank)

Report/Study: Women on Boards Research Study in Egypt (IFC)

Report/Study: Women on Boards in Nigeria (IFC)

Article: Gender Equity Starts at Home (Harvard Business Review)

Article: When Gender Diversity makes Firms more Productive (Harvard Business Review)

Article: What makes a Team Smarter? More Women (Harvard Business Review)

Article: Still looking for Room at the Top: Ten Years of Research on Women in the Workplace (McKinsey & Company)

Article: Innovate! Run a Strategic Debate on Gender for the C-Suite (Forbes)

Article: Advancing Gender in the Environment: Making the Case for Women in the Energy Sector (USAID)

Article: Empowering Women to Reduce an Energy Utility’s Commercial Losses (World Bank)

Article: How to Build a Women-Powered, Green-Energy Transition (Mail & Guardian)

Webinar: Water Workforce: Ensuring Gender Equality and Inclusion (The International Water Association)

Video: Comorian Women help transform Power Utility (World Bank)