Lead by example: Engro paves the way for women looking to break the glass ceiling
Each day, women experience biases that impact their growth, dreams, and aspirations. Society's unconscious or intentional biases lead to discrimination against women and minorities everywhere: at home, in schools, in the workplace, and beyond.
The Global Gender Gap Report 2021 by the World Economic Forum estimates that Covid-19 has negatively affected women, increasing the time needed to close the global gender gap from 99.5 to 135.6 years. Hence, if the current pace continues, it will take another generation for gender equality to occur.
This year's International Women's Day theme #BreakTheBias provided us with the opportunity to imagine a world without bias, stereotyping, and discrimination. As a leader in diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, Engro Corporation fights against societal biases that are aimed at stopping women from reaching their full potential. The conglomerate is committed to helping women overcome those biases through their aptitude, capability, and strength.
Some ways companies can empower women in the workplace to foster their professional and personal growth include:
1. Integrate diversity across all organizational levels
Engro aims on working towards creating a culture that fosters the development of future leaders, and treating diversity as more than a percentage. Diversity and inclusion problems cannot be solved by women and underrepresented groups alone, therefore, active allyship is needed to proactively build inclusion into the very DNA of an organisation.
Currently, around 7% of the company's upper management positions and 18% of the positions directly reporting to the Head of Departments are held by female colleagues. As of now, three women serve on the company's Board of Directors; by 2025, it plans to have 30% of women in leadership positions.
2. Developing women-centred policies and procedures
Fostering a culture where women feel supported is essential to their active participation and retention. For the past two years, Engro has focused on policies and procedures to create a gender diverse and inclusive leadership pipeline, workforce, and culture. These are inclusive of talent acquisition guidelines for greater gender diversity based on:
● Meritocracy
● Travel policies
● Maternity and paternity leaves (being amongst the first to give six months of maternity leave)
● Day care solutions
● Flexible working hours and remote work
● Strict Anti-Harassment Policy with trained committees in place
The adoption of pro-women policies and procedures enabled Engro to receive special recognition for work-life integration at the OICCI Women Empowerment Awards 2020. Similarly, for the last two years, WE Thrive, a networking and a capability development program for Women of Engro (WE), has provided a platform for women at Engro to connect across seniority levels, departments, subsidiaries, and locations for authentic, trustworthy, and supportive connections.
3. Encouraging the participation of women in non-traditional roles
Women are often excluded from field and technical careers because they are seen to be better suited to office positions. That bias is even more important for STEM careers.
By capitalising on the untapped potential of women graduating from STEM institutes, Engro acknowledges that a greater effort needs to be made to create a talent pipeline. The company takes on the challenge head-on as an industrial conglomerate in remote areas.
Engro Enablers - (GTE) is an engineering leadership program that entails a 12-month immersion into technical aspects of the business. The program is designed to encourage participation for women in engineering across plant sites, out of which 33% are eventually hired.
From shift engineers to warehouse, workshop supervisors and laboratory, as well as instrument technicians, women at Engro are breaking the bias every single day. Engro's triumph in the Leadership commitment category of UN Women 2021 Asia-Pacific WEP Awards is a testament to the company's commitment to encouraging women in non-traditional roles.
4. Fostering a more approachable and diverse environment
Providing accessible spaces are paramount to promoting equal representation among disadvantaged groups. Although there is still much to be done, Engro has made one floor fully accessible, recruited employees with hearing and vision impairments, and run an internship program, ENable All, for persons with disabilities.
To further empower them, Engro has developed a user-friendly email platform for internal communication, and an accessibility audit is underway to ensure the company's websites and social networks are fully accessible.
Whilst addressing gender bias, it is imperative to note that the trans and third gender community is one of the most marginalised communities in Pakistan. With its first ever transgender hire, Engro Corporation aims to bridge that barrier and be an equal opportunity employer for all.
5. Smashing the glass ceiling
More and more companies must invest in women for them to be equipped, engaged and empowered with leadership capabilities, since equity is a critical component of diversity and inclusion.
Via programs like Break Ke Baad, a returnship program for women to restart their careers, and Uraan technical training program that inducted women from surrounding areas of Port Qasim to increase the number of women working on the front lines at the terminal from 12% to 42% - Engro consistently seeks to increase women's participation in the labour force.
As a result of its diversity and inclusion efforts, Engro Corporation and its subsidiaries—Engro Fertilizers,
Engro Polymer & Chemicals, and Engro Energy—earned 37 awards at the 2021 Global Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Benchmark (GDEIB) Awards.
To build an equitable future for all, it is imperative that communities, organisations, and individuals come together. As a society, we must all work together and start today to create a world that is diverse, equitable, inclusive, and one in which differences are valued and celebrated.