That’s to ensure that people everywhere are treated with respect and without judgement or bias. 

Building on IWD’s core objective of creating a gender equal world, this year’s theme is ‘Inspire Inclusion.’ 

“When we inspire others to understand and value women’s inclusion, we forge a better world,” the official IWD site explains.

“And when women themselves are inspired to be included, there’s a sense of belonging, relevance, and empowerment.”

At Vault, the value we place on women’s inclusion is clear. It’s very rare to find organisations with all-female boards, but that is the case with Vault and it’s a fact we’re proud of.

What is the state of play?

Despite the progress made by organisations whose vision of the world aligns with Vault’s, there’s plenty of evidence to show how far society needs to develop to meet the goals of IWD. 

The World Economic Forum has estimated it will take another 131 years to reach gender parity globally.

The International Labour Organisation says: “Around the world, finding a job is much tougher for women than it is for men. When women are employed, they tend to work in low-quality jobs in vulnerable conditions, and there is little improvement forecast in the near future.”

Melinda Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation says “economic progress for women is stalling worldwide”, with COVID-19 one of the reasons cited.

United Nations sounds alarm bells

The UN, which officially recognized IWD in 1977, says the world faces a key challenge – “the alarming $360 billion annual deficit in gender-equality measures by 2030.”

The figures it cites come from a recent UN Women and UN DESA report.

The UN describes gender equality as “the greatest human rights challenge” and says just 5% of government aid is focused on tackling violence against women and girls, and less than 0.2% is directed to its prevention.

The UN says: “Achieving gender equality and women’s well-being in all aspects of life is more crucial than ever if we want to create prosperous economies and a healthy planet.” 

The Un Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last month highlighted gender equality as a key objective.

“We are promoting women’s full and equal participation and leadership in all sectors of society, as a matter of urgency,” he told the UN General Assembly.

What about workplace issues?

Due to the nature of what we do at Vault Platform, our team speaks to many people who are on the front line when it comes to dealing with bias, harassment, and discrimination in the workplace.

Our team hears some distressing stories about people’s day to day reality. Yet most of these situations could be avoided by putting more effective and user-friendly methods of reporting and resolving incidents of discrimination in place. 

How can technology help in the workplace?

When it comes to uncovering misconduct in the workplace and building a speak up culture to support a more inclusive approach for women and all employees, a modern system encouraging an approach of ‘active integrity’ is key. 

Tools like a traditional hotline are outdated. These legacy methods can do more damage in the long term by failing to contribute to the improvement of misconduct reporting. 

At Vault, we believe in using technology, not on its own, but as an enabler to rebuild trust between people in situations where the balance of trust is not always equal – such as employer and employee. By doing so, we are helping to tackle the problem of unconscious bias.

Want to learn more about how Vault is helping organisations and driving forward the goals of International Women’s Day? 

Follow our LinkedIn page.

The post International Women’s Day: at the heart of Vault’s mission appeared first on Vault.

In November, the FCA banned three men convicted of sexual and, in one case, domestic violence offenses from working in the financial services sector ever again. Although the serious nature of the offences makes the decision seem like a no-brainer, it is unusual for the watchdog to take such an interest in non-financial incidents. That said, the FCA has put several flags in the ground over the last few years which paved the way for these developments.

In an open letter to CEOs almost exactly one year ago Jonathan Davidson, Executive Director of Supervision, Retail and Authorisations, at the FCA, warned that “non-financial misconduct and an unhealthy culture is a key root cause of harm,” and said it would be a key focus for the body in its supervisory capacity. 

“Poor culture in financial services can lead directly to harm to consumers, market participants, employees and markets…How a firm handles non-financial misconduct throughout the organisation, including discrimination, harassment, victimisation and bullying, is indicative of a firm’s culture. We view both lack of diversity and inclusion, and non-financial misconduct as obstacles to creating an environment in which it is safe to Speak Up, the best talent is retained, the best business choices are made, and the best risk decisions are taken.”

Among other things, the FCA said it expects firms “to have strong whistleblowing processes and appropriate incentive structures,” in place to expose and resolve misconduct. 

In a further indication of the growing focus on culture in the financial regulation community, Davidson also gave a speech towards the end of 2020 in which he focused on the business of social purpose and purposeful, diverse, safe and inclusive cultures as a driver of profitability. 

He identified the ‘permafrost’ of trust lacking between employee and employer and noted that in cases where this permafrost has melted it is due to trust being recognised as “a two-way thing” and employee trust in senior management has been reciprocated by senior management trust and empowerment of middle management. 

But he also warned of a persistent challenge in “the domination of a compliance box-ticking mindset at the expense of a systems thinking outcome and learning mindset.”

Something we have spoken about time and again is the end of the line for ‘canned compliance’. It’s no longer enough to do the bare minimum required to operate legally, businesses now have to go above and beyond to ensure they behave ethically and with integrity. And a key component of this model is being able to accurately gauge the ethical temperature of your workplace culture. We know that incumbent models don’t encourage employees to Speak Up and this leaves businesses blind to systemic misconduct, whether of a financial or non-financial nature. 

This is also something we discussed in depth with compliance expert Tom Fox and the LSE’s Chief Risk Officer, Maxine Gee, at the end of 2020. We covered:

• The difference between ‘conduct’ and ‘culture’
• The changing nature of ethics
• The increasingly interconnected relationship between Compliance, HR, and Legal around ethics and culture

The post Financial watchdog cracks down on non-financial misconduct  appeared first on Vault.

According to the report: Closing the racial inequality gaps: The economic cost of Black inequality in the US, America could have been $16 trillion richer today by solving inequities in education, housing, wages, and business investment over the past two decades.

Education, income, housing, spending

Citigroup estimates:

• Black employees have lost $113 billion in potential wages over the past two decades because they couldn’t access education that would help them climb the career ladder. Fewer than 1% of Fortune 500 CEOs are black.
• The housing market lost $218 billion in sales because Black people couldn’t access mortgages or home loans.
• About $13 trillion in business revenue never flowed into the economy because Black entrepreneurs couldn’t access bank loans and Black-owned businesses are disadvantaged from the get-go.

Citigoup also estimates that an additional $5 trillion in gross domestic product could have flowed into the US over the next five years if those gaps and others were already closed.

Inequality does not just burden minorities

Commenting on the release of the report, Citigroup Banking Chair Raymond McGuire, said that the financial cost of racial inequality was often thought to impact the minority groups most affected when the reality is that it affects everyone.

“Racial inequality has always had an outsized cost, one that was thought to be paid only by underrepresented groups. What this report underscores is that this tariff is levied on us all,” he said.

This misconception over the impact is perhaps one of the biggest perceived disincentives to fixing the problem.

According to a survey conducted in late 2019 by the Center for Talent Innovation 58% of black professionals have experienced racial prejudice at work – much more than any other racial or ethnic group.

Furthermore, 65% of black professionals say that black employees must work harder to attain the same advancements in their careers as white professionals. Yet only 16% of white professionals agree with that statement.

Download Vault Magazine to find out more about tackling discrimination at work 

The post The real cost of racial discrimination appeared first on Vault.

Recent research showed that Imposter Syndrome is one of three hidden causes of the gender and BAME pay gap, and lack of parity in leadership roles. But those who struggle with it work hard to hide it.

This fear of being “found out” as not good enough, even if you’re outwardly confident and successful, was found to affect around half of the UK workforce on a ‘daily’ or ‘regular’ basis – and that was in the past year alone. It causes people to subconsciously self-sabotage their success. It has a direct impact on productivity and performance, and it can turn a thriving team toxic in just a few weeks.

In this session, Clare Josa – considered the UK’s leading authority on Imposter Syndrome – will guide you through what you need to know from the research study, how you can spot Imposter Syndrome in your teams, and what you can do to support people to set themselves free from it, once and for all.

Her talk will be followed by an interactive panel discussion with expert speakers from 87%, Toppan Merrill & Vault Platform to share insights and perspectives on this important issue.

Register to watch

The post LSE Group: Imposter Syndrome and the Gender Pay Gap appeared first on Vault.

Research from US academics at different universities published in July looked at historical data and found evidence that biases tend to re-emerge strongly during economic crises. The upshot is that business hunkers down with its flawed beliefs, despite evidence that diversity and inclusion have positive impacts.

It’s a learning often advocated by changemakers, that in order to act most appropriately, companies need to listen to those most affected for solutions and not propose solutions based on their own, likely very different, experiences. By focusing on actively broadcasting their intentions through the press and social media, businesses run the risk of talking over the voices they need to be listening to most. That businesses are taking action is undeniable, but it only matters if the action is effective.

Download the magazine now

The post Tackling Inequality and Discrimination appeared first on Vault.

Speaking about it is one step. Listening is another. Standing is yet another. Acting is the crucial step. And if anyone had any doubts: we now need crucial steps.

According to a survey conducted in late 2019 by the Center for Talent Innovation, 58% of black professionals have experienced racial prejudice at work – much more than any other racial or ethnic group.

Black workers account for only 8% of professional jobs, only 3% make it to executive level, and less than 1% of Fortune 500 CEOs are black. That’s four black CEOs in total and according to the Executive Leadership Council, none of them are in tech.

More than one in three black workers intend to leave their existing role within two years. Black workers are already thinking that – two years in advance.

Around 65% of black professionals say that black employees must work harder to attain the same advancements in their careers as white professionals. But only 16% of white professionals agree with that statement.

Only 40% of all professionals say their company has an effective D&I initiative and smaller companies – those with fewer than 100 employees – are better at delivering on belonging, trust, and respect.

A conversation has needed to happen for a very, very long time. That conversation is happening around the world now and like any good conversation needs some people to speak and others to listen.

Trust in government and media is at an all-time low. There is a role here for businesses to facilitate this discussion and to facilitate action.

This is a global responsibility, a business responsibility, my responsibility, and your responsibility. We stand to act together until we find a vaccine for racism, until no one would need to remind others, or shout from the rooftops that #BlackLivesMatter.

Below we have compiled a list of resources our team has been using to help facilitate that discussion.

Neta Meidav

CEO & Co-founder

Vault Platform

Articles

• My white boss talked about race and this is what happened
• It’s not enough to be non-racist: a list of resources
• How to build an actively anti-racist company

Resources

• Anti-racism resources: collection of books, podcasts, article, videos and more to deepen anti-racist work credit to Sarah Sophie Flicker, Alyssa Klein
• Marco Rogers on Conforming to Succeed and What it Means For People of Color
• Equity in the Center: AWAKE to WOKE to WORK: Building a Race Equity Culture
• Strategies for Creating an Inclusive Workplace
• Beyond Diversity: A Roadmap to Building an Inclusive Organization
• Being Black in Corporate America: An Intersectional Exploration
• Equality and discrimination: Creating fair workplaces

Training

https://righttobe.org/

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The post Webinar: How to handle discrimination in the workplace during COVID-19 appeared first on Vault.

Employers have been advised to take care not to discriminate against employees based on their national origin. Accordingly, employers should establish consistently applied and clearly communicated practices with regard to self-quarantining of employees and should take steps to deal with incidents of discrimination at work that arise.

Advice from SHRM is that employees should be encouraged to Speak Up and say that hostile behavior is not acceptable in the workplace. Employees that experience or witness discrimination should also be encouraged to record details of the incident, including date, time and location.

Here are some examples of how Vault Platform is helping employers protect their staff from racial discrimination related to COVID-19:

Take steps to publicize diversity and harassment policies and training for all staff on the issue. Vault Platform hosts links to policy and training materials directly within the app.

Encouraging a speak-up culture. It can be challenging for employees to Speak Up and report discrimination they experience or witness. Vault Platform is designed to provide a safe space for employees to report issues either anonymously, in-name, or through the power of strength in numbers if they don’t want to go it alone.

Managers should be reminded of their responsibility to identify and actively prevent discriminatory behavior. Statistically, employees are more likely to mention an incident to a manager or a colleague than they are to report the incident via a hotline or to HR. Vault Platform is designed to enable bystander accountability as well as give case managers and stakeholders real-time visibility of incident reports and progress.

Third-party harassment: Employees may experience or witness harassment or discrimination by a third-party such as a customer or visitor. Although the employer might not be liable for race discrimination it is their duty to protect the employee. Vault Platform is designed to allow employees to report incidents related to external parties, not just those within the organization.

Reasonable steps: Typically, employers will only avoid liability in the event of discrimination if they can show they have taken “all reasonable steps” to prevent employees from behaving in such a manner. The mere implementation of Vault Platform within a workplace goes a significant distance meeting this requirement by offering employees an effective and secure solution for reporting sensitive issues.

This is a testing time for leaders worldwide. This outbreak is a reminder of just how important creating a transparent and open culture is for preventing and resolving any kind of harassment or bullying. Leaders are encouraged to remind their workforce of the individual and collective responsibility for all to exercise vigilance and take a proactive approach to reporting racial, ethnic, or gender discrimination in the workplace.

Download this information as a shareable PDF by filling out the form below

Find out more about your responsibilities as an employer when it comes to COVID-19-related discrimination

The post Addressing Coronavirus-related discrimination at work appeared first on Vault.

The news hit the headlines just as I was participating in a panel session for Women in HR Technology at the HR Technology conference in Las Vegas. The panel, led by Chris Havrilla of Bersin by Deloitte, was on New Technologies to Manage Workplace Diversity and the discussion echoed many of the sentiments set out by Melinda Gates.

It’s clear the issues surrounding women’s empowerment are very present in the social consciousness. One of the key points made during the panel was that in 2019 we shouldn’t still be making the case for diversity and inclusion but instead should be taking action. In a Time magazine article, Melinda Gates revealed that the thing that keeps her up at night is the fear of waking up one morning to find that the world has moved on and the media has stopped reporting on systemic inequalities.

What keeps you awake at night?

The fear that diversity is just a talking point that is fast running out of momentum is something that keeps many of us fighting for it awake at night. And so it should.

I founded Vault in the wake of #MeToo and my personal experience of workplace harassment. I founded the company because only 25% of misconduct experienced or witnessed at work is reported. Because women who are harassed are six times more likely to quit their jobs within 12 months – and when they leave they move laterally – they don’t progress in their career. Harassment, workplace bullying, and discrimination are harming the professional advancement of women every day.

On the panel with my co-speakers Ruth Thomas of Curo Compensation and Cecile Alper-Leroux of Ultimate Software, we talked about the gender pay gap and about how discrimination and harassment are the biggest contributors to this phenomenon. We talked about the humble progress made in equal representation and addressing the pay gap and how much is still to be done. But what I want to remind people is that these movements are not just about tipping the balance in the boardroom. They have to trickle down to every rung of the ladder below. Because otherwise, it’s just lip service.

In her Time article, Melinda Gates frames it like this: The window of opportunity was painstakingly pried open by the hundreds of thousands who have joined marches and by the millions of women who summoned the courage to tell their #MeToo stories.

#MeToo is for everyone

It’s not just grand gestures that moved the needle, but daily acts of courage from everyday women. #MeToo showed us that there is an appetite for change and people are increasingly willing to become agents of that change. While celebrity figures like Emma Watson and Alyssa Milano serve as champions of societal change, everyday women, men and other gender definitions alike are looking to their employers and CEOs for guidance and leadership in making change happen.

The consensus from the panel was that during this time when there is such a significant trust crisis – with a trust deficit in media and government – people are turning to their employer – almost out of desperation – to take the lead on sensitive issues such as discrimination, sexual harassment, and gender equality.

The window of opportunity will not stay open for long and we owe it to those millions who have worked hard to get us this far to make change happen. It’s great to see initiatives and investments such as that from Melinda Gates helping to move the dial by finding more innovative solutions – this is the reason for the existence of Vault after all. But it’s also our responsibility as employers to pick up the torch from the 71% that believe it is their CEO that should take the lead on change and show them that we can rise to the occasion. That we can find solutions.

If we’re going to act, we have to act now.

Watch the panel session on New Technologies to Manage Workplace Diversity here

The post The window of opportunity to end gender discrimination will not stay open long appeared first on Vault.