If your firm has made women’s advancement a priority or you’ve recruited an unusually high number of female executives for your industry, let people know.
You don't have to look hard these days to find headlines highlighting how companies are dealing with gender diversity issues.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff got lots of favorable press for analyzing the salaries of all 16,000 employees and then spending close to $3 million to bring women’s salaries in line with their male counterparts. IBM has been lauded for its impressive numbers of female senior managers and executives, including its female CEO, Ginni Rometty. Johnson & Johnson has been in the news for its Women’s Leadership Initiative and other programs supporting women’s career goals.
If, like these high-profile companies, your firm has made women’s advancement a priority through training, mentoring programs, or hiring initiatives, or you’ve recruited an unusually high number of female executives for your industry, it might be worth marketing those efforts. Positioning your firm as one that cares about creating an optimal environment for women not only helps women who may be struggling in their careers, but helps strengthen your overall company brand, promote your workplace brand, and potentially broaden your demographic reach.
Promoting Your Overall Brand
Many companies are taking deliberate steps to promote women into their upper ranks. And there has been plenty of research to indicate why this matters, including studies that demonstrate how dynamics in the decision-making process change when women are more evenly represented. The Peterson Institute for International Economics, for instance, recently released a paper on the profitability of gender diversity that suggests a more diverse leadership team in a company tends to deliver better outcomes on average.
Women and men often approach problems differently, ask different questions, and offer different perspectives. You can build a platform for your company that draws on such research to showcase your efforts to recruit and support women – demonstrating not just that you have gender diversity, but how stakeholders benefit from it. If you disrupt the status quo and offer fresh perspectives, and that correlates with improved performance, then let people know.
Promoting Your Workplace Brand
Looking to promote your workplace culture? Maybe you’ve seen the recent Deloitte report on how millennial women are feeling overlooked by employers and don’t have long term plans to stick around. If you’ve got programs targeting women, you could benefit from promoting your company as an inclusive workplace that values difference.
Groom a spokesperson who can effectively communicate the company’s strength in gender diversity—promoting recruitment, training or mentorship programs—and how it’s distinguished from the competition. Publicize workforce growth among women, bill yourself as a manager who values female leadership, and promote successful female employees. It will strengthen your overall brand, but also your workplace brand by building your talent pool as women at other companies look to yours as a place they’d like to work.
Broadening Your Demographic Reach
A company makeup that reflects the demographics of its customers can enhance overall credibility. So it should come as no surprise that women are often the most effective spokespeople when trying to reach other women. Don’t miss out on opportunities to capitalize on your company’s gender diversity and expand your clientele.
Although this dynamic applies across sectors, it’s probably most compellingly illustrated in the financial services industry where women are increasingly becoming an important source of investable assets. Promoting female tax attorneys, portfolio managers or other executives can be an effective way to reach female investors by crafting messages that speak to them directly.
That might mean, for example, writing about the particular financial obstacles women face and how best to overcome them. Some women raised in more traditional homes haven’t been financial decision makers, while others have invested sizable assets, but approach money much differently than men. A female financial advisor who recognizes those differences and can build a platform for the company speaking to their needs could help grow the client base.
If you have a diverse workforce, let people know. Companies who effectively showcase their efforts can reap rewards, and make their brand resonate more strongly throughout their workplace as well as on a national stage.
Thinking of sprucing up your brand? Download our free ebook for top tips for a successful rebrand:
Let’s Connect
Ready to build, grow, manage and protect your brand? Complete the form below to discuss how we can help.