The panel discussion on “Retaining Female Workforce” was held on July 22, 2021. We are very happy to have different panelists joining us, including Under Secretary Mr Ho Kai-ming, JP from the Labour and Welfare Bureau, Public Policy Manager Ms Maggie Tam from Facebook Hong Kong, Talent Acquisition Director Mr Ricky Cheung from Rosewood Hotel Group, Communications and Marketing Manager Ms Inti Tam from The Women’s Foundation and Professional working mother, head of strategic partnerships and ETPs at Quotingo, founder of Releaf Ms Charlene Low moderated by Lena Wong, co-founder of Womentors.
This cross sectors panel explored many issues and tackling solitons that can support women in building sustainable career. Key takeaways:
Providing Flexible working time is very useful to mothers. By allowing employees to choose their working hours, they can better strike a balance between work and family. In order to implement this policy, companies should trust their employees for being disciplined. Employees will work even harder when they can feel the trust from their respective companies. It would be even better if companies can develop an empathetic culture and show employees their understanding.
There are different ways to support mothers in a company. For example, install proper facilities like mothers’ rooms with suitable equipment such as fridge and sink, and ask other experienced colleagues to support the new mothers. On the other hand, mothers should also speak up and tell their companies what they need. Management may not know how to help mothers, so by voicing out their needs, employees can assist their companies to better make arrangements to suit your needs.
Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) is becoming more significant and beneficial to companies in several ways. First, with a more diversified leadership, there will be a variety of views on the company’ opportunities and threats. Companies can make better decisions and there will be an improvement in financial performance. Second, more and more young people value whether they can balance between work and life. In order to retain talents, there will be more employee benefits. D&I is tuning to a business objective. With more voices in the team, there will be more innovation. Thus, companies will have a greater chance to succeed.
The panel discussion closed with great conclusion how Diversity and Inclusion is no longer a tick in the boxes for companies but should be embedded in every function of any organization.
If you’d like to see what Womentors can do for your company in terms of education and awareness and how it can support your D&I, HR department, get in touch below: hello@womentors.co.