Achieving better business results with innovative methods of ensuring equal opportunities
On Thursday, September 26, Minister for Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Ms. Ksenija Klampfer awarded the first GEMA certificates at the 2019 Managerial Congress (which is annually organized by the Managers’ Association of Slovenia, and this year hosted more than 450 managers). In the first generation of certificate recipients are:
- Bisnode D&B Southern Market d.o.o.
- Public company Komunala Brežice d.o.o.
- Istost d.o.o. (Nelipot)
The GEMA Certificate (Gender Equality Management Assessment) is the first certificate of a social corporate responsibility, which enables effective implementation of gender equality in organizational structure, culture and working processes of companies (and other organizations). Given the emerging awareness that every business is driven by its (satisfied in motivated) employees, GEMA Certificate is an indispensable tool that is not only in line with value-led and sustainable entrepreneurship, but also provides companies of high added value with progressive solutions of 21st century by improving their long-term business performance. It has been proven that companies with best gender equality state of art have even 15 % more chances of higher financial returns.
Since the GEMA Certificate was created in close cooperation with five Slovenian companies (of different size and geographical location), including a public company, its content is fully tailored to the business environment, and is therefore able to actually contribute to gender equality in recruitment procedures and in the workplace.
It is based on ten sets of measures, including, inter alia, impartial employment and promotion, work-life balance, regulation of the gender pay gap, a mentoring system, effective mechanisms for preventing harassment and sexual harassment in the workplace, and methods to strengthen an inclusive organizational culture on all levels of the business’ operation. Each company is also subjected to an independent set of checks on the balanced representation of women and men in the company, not only in managerial positions, but also in individual sectors or departments, and at the level of employment itself.
Otherwise, the synchronous and reciprocal interaction of the implemented measures envisaged by the GEMA Certificate enables companies (and other organizations) to optimize their human resources, improve the efficiency of the work flow and, above all, increase the level of employees’ well-being in the workplace. This not only contributes to the higher financial returns of the certified companies, but also enhances their reputation (both at home and abroad). This makes it possible to effectively tackle the challenges of attracting and retaining the best staff, which in today’s globalized and highly competitive business world is a significant challenge.
