news Customer relationship management firm Salesforce has announced a new partnership with the United Nations Women’s National Committee for Australia that will see the company join its global ‘HeforShe’ gender equality program as its first Australian corporate partner.
Making the announcement in a blog post, Wendy Johnstone, marketing lead at Salesforce, explained that, in order to accelerate gender equality in Australian workplaces and to make gender equality “a more inclusive conversation”, the two organisations will develop a guiding set of HeforShe corporate principles to help companies develop a gender equality strategy and take action to bring about change.
“Over the coming months Salesforce and UN Women NC Australia will run several workshops with staff from both our organisations to leverage the best practice from the HeForShe campaign and to build on the work Salesforce has already started to advance gender equality,” she said.
According to Johnstone, Australia’s workplace gender inequality statistics pose challenges for the future: the pay gap between men and women is at 24% and there is a lack of representation of women at a senior level, with only 21.9% of directors in the ASX 200 being women.
However, a recent McKinsey Global Institute report found that $12 trillion could be added to global GDP by 2025 by advancing equality for women.
“If we’re serious about achieving workplace equality – companies, business leaders and employees need a clear strategy,” she said.
The conclusions of the HeForShe partnership workshops will form the basis of the corporate principles on gender equality, and will be released later in 2016, Johnstone added.
“I hope they will give businesses a solid framework to develop their own gender equality strategy and to start the process of change in their organisation,” she said.
Salesforce also plans to work with UN Women NC Australia to explore how its technology can help it drive the campaign’s message.
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