As the world prepares to celebrate International Women’s Day on Wednesday, March 8th, recruiting experts Hays has found that the number of women in managerial positions has increased in Asia.
The 2017 Hays Asia Salary Guide reveals that 31 per cent of management roles in Asia are held by women compared to 29 per cent reported in last year’s Guide.
The Hays Asia Salary Guide now in its tenth year, highlights salary and recruiting trends drawn from more than 3,000 employers across Japan, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore representing six million employees.
The countries with the highest percentage of women in managerial positions in the region are China and Malaysia, both at 35 per cent. Whilst China has increased this figure by 3 per cent, Malaysia has decreased by 2 per cent from last year.
Hong Kong sits in third place with 33 per cent of management positions filled by women. Hong Kong incidentally, reported the largest increase in the region with a rise of 5 per cent from last year. Singapore follows with 31 per cent with Japan remaining the poorest performer with only 22 per cent of women in managerial positions. This figure has however, increased by 3 per cent from last year.
Christine Wright, Managing Director of Hays in Asia, points out: “It’s worth noticing that China has led Asia for the number of management roles held by women consistently over the past 5 years. This reflects both the rapid pace of economic growth and the skills shortages in China's fast-growing service industries. Employers are firmly focused on finding the right talent to support their business growth, more likely to offer management opportunities to female candidates based on their abilities.”
“As progress continues to be made on gender diversity, the topic is still a critical issue in Asia. The rich insights our research uncovers, enables us to share the findings and advise employers on what measures can be taken to address the gender balance in their recruitment, retention and progression strategies”, says Christine.
The 2017 IWD theme is “Be Bold For Change”. This year IWD calls for the mass to have the courage and confidence to changes, and to help forge a better working world - a more gender inclusive world. What steps can employers take? According to Hays, employers should encourage female ambition, focus on employee self-promotion and implement and communicate gender diversity policies.
“Businesses need to make sure they have clear initiatives and development plans in place to retain and promote their top female talent. Employers also need to recognize the benefits of a gender diverse workforce, including a stronger talent pipeline, higher productivity and ultimately a more successful business. From a talent management perspective, working in more diverse teams can broaden employees experience, expose them to international markets and management practices, facilitate innovation and develop a culture that is based on merit. Clearly, addressing gender equality needs to be more than just a box-ticking exercise” , said Christine Wright.
For Christine who was named in the ‘Global Power 100 – Women in Staffing list’ for the second year running in 2016, gender diversity is a topic she lives and breathes. “As the leading recruiting experts, Hays has a duty to be at the forefront of trends and issues regarding the world of work. In Asia, I’m immensely proud that 51 per cent of the Hays workforce across the region is female, 44 per cent of females make up our senior leadership teams and 57 per cent of people managers are female.”
Meanwhile, Hays is conducting a gender diversity survey, please join us at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/hays17gd. Your opinions matter to us. The result will be released later in summer.
Hays, the world’s leading recruiting experts in qualified, professional and skilled people.
- Ends –
About Hays
Hays plc (the "Group") is a leading global professional recruiting group. The Group is the expert at recruiting qualified, professional and skilled people worldwide, being the market leader in the UK and Asia Pacific and one of the market leaders in Continental Europe and Latin America. The Group operates across the private and public sectors, dealing in permanent positions, contract roles and temporary assignments. As at 30 June 2016 the Group employed 9,214 staff operating from 252 offices in 33 countries across 20 specialisms. For the year ended 30 June 2016:
– the Group reported net fees of £810.3 million and operating profit (pre-exceptional items) of £181 million;
– the Group placed around 67,000 candidates into permanent jobs and around 220,000 people into temporary assignments;
– 22% of Group net fees were generated in Asia Pacific, 45% in Continental Europe & RoW (CERoW) and 33% in the United Kingdom & Ireland;
– the temporary placement business represented 58% of net fees and the permanent placement business represented 42% of net fees;
– Hays operates in the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Chile, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, the UK and the USA