At HAGER Executive Consulting, equal rights and the advancement of women play a central role.
The current study by auditing firm KPMG, the Global Female Leaders Outlook (GFLO) 2020, also confirms that there is still a great need for action in business and politics. In it, KPMG examines the question of whether the coronavirus crisis represents an opportunity for more equal rights for women in business and politics.
The pandemic as a potential catalyst for more equal opportunities
Last year, the auditing firm KPMG and Management Circle AG conducted the Global Female Leaders Outlook for the third time in order to record the perspectives of female managers on general and business management issues. The study counted 675 female participants from 52 countries worldwide, including Germany with 46 participants. CEOs and chairpersons, C-level executives and board members, department heads and other positions with management responsibility were surveyed.
“In an environment in which the right staffing of key roles is the central issue for success, diversity and inclusion also have a significant influence on business success,” explains Dr. Monika Becker, Business Unit Director Software at HAGER Executive Consulting and Sector Head IT & Digitalization at Horton Group International. Together with her HAGER colleagues, Angela Keuneke, Marketing Manager, and Yvonne Klein, Talent Acquisition, the experienced manager launched the HUB eQuality initiative at HAGER in 2020 and initiated a diversity and women’s network.
Corona and the economy
The KPMG survey focused on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy and companies. It also looked at the careers of the female participants surveyed. The aim was to find out whether COVID-19 is ultimately a catalyst for greater equality.
A key finding of the study is that female top managers also see the crisis as an opportunity rather than just its negative effects. They are more optimistic than the male participants in KPMG’s Global CEO Outlook 2020. One of the reasons for this could be that traditional approaches and decision-making processes in companies have been put to the test under the lockdown conditions. “We’ve always done it this way” and “just like me” suddenly no longer worked. As a result of this situation, talented people, both women and men, have greater opportunities to convince others with innovative proposals and take on more responsibility.
Conclusion
The pandemic was a shock for the economy and society. However, many companies have seen this crisis as an opportunity and modernized outdated principles and approaches. Many female managers in particular are recognizing the opportunities that lie in the lockdown crisis, such as greater self-determination through mobile working and establishing a management style that suits them.
Organizations are changing faster in terms of the mobility and digitalization of work than they themselves previously thought possible,
