A significant number of women and men surveyed in Singapore believe shared parental leave and more sharing of child rearing responsibilities would break down unconscious bias and improve gender diversity.
The Hays Asia Gender Diversity Report 2017, produced by recruiting experts Hays, found 44 per cent of the women taking part in the Hays research in Singapore and 39 per cent of men believe ‘shared parental leave and more shared responsibility associated with child rearing’ would “very much” break down unconscious bias and improve gender diversity in local workplaces.
No women and only one per cent of men in Singapore expect there would be no positive impact while most other respondents expect some degree of improvement in the level of unconscious bias and gender diversity.
The Hays Asia Gender Diversity Report 2017 is based on a survey of women and men working in five major employment markets – China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore.
Of those taking part in Singapore, approximately 69 per cent work for an organisation that offers parental leave to fathers – a larger percentage of respondents than any other country but China. And of those, 11 per cent work for employers that offer equal amounts of leave to men and women. However, 11 per cent work for companies that don’t offer leave to fathers. (The rest were unsure what their organisation offers).
Earlier this year, Singapore enhanced its Government-Paid Paternity Leave (GPPL) from one week to two weeks for working fathers.
A further 49 per cent of women and 43 per cent of men in Singapore describe working flexibly as “very important” to them while more than a third of both genders describe it as “important”.
“The Hays Asia Gender Diversity Report 2017 research clearly makes the case for developing flexible working policies that benefit employees of both genders, but also employers,” says Lynne Roeder, Managing Director of Hays in Singapore.
“While it’s great to see so many men rating working flexibly options, for women it’s a must if they are to pursue both a meaningful career and manage their responsibilities as primary caregivers,” says Lynne.
“We were concerned to see that 20 per cent of female respondents in Singapore and 21 per cent of male respondents fear accessing flexible work options would be ‘very much’ a career limiting move.”
“Another 44 per cent of our female respondents and 36 per cent of male respondents in Singapore expect some negative career impact to follow accessing flexible work options.”
“We know from working with candidates that flexible work options are a key consideration when weighing up job offers, so companies taking a progressive approach to flexibility will benefit in being able to attract quality people.”
“Having children and/or being able to care for older or ill family members should not derail a promising career for anyone but as women provide most care giving, employers need to remain especially vigilant in supporting female talent and their careers at different life stages,” says Lynne.
A 2017 report by the International Labour Organization found that 20 per cent of working women in South-Eastern Asia and Pacific found work/family balance to be the biggest obstacle.
Other key findings of the Asia Gender Diversity Report 2017 include:
- When asked the gender of the most senior person in their organisation, 82 per cent of respondents from Singapore told us the person is male. Singapore was second to Hong Kong where men occupy 89 per cent of the most senior roles; Japan 80 per cent, China 77 per cent and Malaysia 73 per cent.
- Men occupy 65 per cent of line-manager roles in Singapore compared to 54 per cent in China at the other end of the scale. In other markets, men occupy 57 per cent of the line manager roles in Malaysia, 61 per cent in Hong Kong and 76 per cent in Japan.
- Singapore also had the highest proportion of respondents that believe them and their colleagues have the same career opportunities open to them regardless of gender (27 per cent).
- However, 15 per cent of both female and male respondents in Singapore told Hays that gender barriers ‘’very much’’ exist in today’s workplace. A further 55 per cent of female respondents and 34 per cent of male respondents believe there are some barriers in place within their workplace.
- When it comes to pay, 29 per cent of female respondents and 16 per cent of male respondents in Singapore do not believe people of equal ability are paid the same regardless of gender.
- Another 30 per cent of women and men believe conditions are somewhat equal when it comes to pay in Singapore while 21 per cent of women and 36 per cent of men believe people are paid equally regardless of gender.
- 51 per cent of female respondents and 41 per cent of male respondents believe greater gender diversity significantly improves an organisation’s success. Across all markets, 47 per cent of women and 37 per cent of men share this view.
- A further 30 per cent of men and 36 per cent of women in Singapore expect greater gender diversity to “somewhat” improve an organisation’s success.
- The highest proportion of respondents in Singapore (31 per cent) regards training and development of people managers as the most useful diversity and inclusion initiative.
- Another 30 per cent regards flexible working policies for parents as the most useful diversity and inclusion initiative.
Of the respondents that took part in this survey from across Asia, women comprised 55 per cent of our survey group and men 45 per cent. The majority of those taking part (40 per cent) were managers at the time of our survey. Another 19 per cent were employed in executive roles, 17 per cent were at director-level, 14 per cent “juniors” and two per cent graduates. At the other end of the scale, four per cent of respondents were in C-suite roles.
To learn more information about the findings of the report, please click here.
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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 2017 the Group employed 10,000 staff operating from 250 offices in 33 countries across 20 specialisms. For the year ended 30 June 2017:
– the Group reported net fees of £954.6 million and operating profit (pre-exceptional items) of £211.5 million;
– the Group placed around 70,000 candidates into permanent jobs and around 240,000 people into temporary assignments;
– 24% of Group net fees were generated in Asia Pacific, 49% in Continental Europe & RoW (CERoW) and 27% in the United Kingdom & Ireland;
– the temporary placement business represented 59% of net fees and the permanent placement business represented 41% 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