A Balanced Path to Success
Why is gender balance so important in today’s business world? Well, let’s skip the countless reasons we could discuss and cut right to the bottom line. It’s good business.
By Mary Bentley, Guest Author -- Foodservice Equipment & Supplies, 5/1/2007
Why is gender balance so important in today's business world? Well, let's skip the countless reasons we could discuss and cut right to the bottom line. It's good business.
When an organization has gender-balanced teams, its employees tend to be more engaged and the company's financial performance tends to improve. It all starts with inclusion of women and minorities in the overall workplace. That leads to increased engagement and then to increased profitability.
The WFF commissioned a study based on DiversityInc's Top 50 Companies survey to quantitatively measure inclusion in the foodservice industry. DiversityInc is a broad-based business-to-business publisher that conducts research across an array of industries. The goal of this study was to provide a snapshot of where the industry stands today and a set of meaningful and actionable insights.
Looking at the human capital aspect of the study, operators continue to lead the way in the foodservice industry, with 47 percent of their new hires being women. This keeps pace with overall hiring practices in today's workforce and is ahead of foodservice manufacturers and distributors, who report 38 percent and 17 percent of their new hires as being female.
For operators, this is the right direction to take because consumers walking in the door want to see more people like themselves. These statistics also indicate that distributors have the biggest opportunity to increase the gender balance in their workplace. By hiring fewer women than their industry peers, distributors continue to become less like their customers, suppliers and, for that matter, society. This can create a competitive disadvantage for distributors because studies show that your business thrives when your representation within your business mirrors society.
“Looking at the foodservice industry, women hold 38 percent of all management positions in the operator community.” |
Nationally across all industries, women occupy 30 percent of management positions and 30 percent of all management promotions are women, according to DiversityInc.
Looking at the foodservice industry, women hold 38 percent of all management positions in the operator community, which is well ahead of the national averages. In contrast, only 19 percent of all operator promotions to management are women. That suggests that the progress this segment currently enjoys might stall later as its pipeline dries up. This is one area where distributors seem to be the mirror- opposite of their operator customers. The study shows that women hold only 18 percent of management positions in the distributor community. That aspect shows the potential to change, though, as women represent 30 percent of distributor promotions to management.
Ascending to management-level positions is another key indicator of gender balance. Catalyst, a research firm that measures all aspects of women's career advancement, reports that nationally, women hold 15.6 percent of all corporate officer and 14.6 percent of board of directors positions. Among the top 50 companies, that rate climbs to 22 percent. In the foodservice industry, though, that average is even better with women having earned 20.6 percent of those corporate officer positions. So, overall the foodservice industry continues to make better progress than its peers.
The statistics outlined here represent a small, but important aspect of the study. The bottom-line is this: Organizations that don't strive for balance and diversity will be at a disadvantage in the long run in their ability to drive top-line sales.
