DBS Included in Gender-Equality Index
DBS Bank is part of Bloomberg's Gender-Equality Index for the second year running, amongst one of 230 companies selected worldwide.
Singapore-based DBS has been included in the recently published Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI) again. Bloomberg's sector-neutral index, which is based on a self-disclosure survey on gender-equality performance, measures gender equality across internal company statistics, employee policies, external community engagement as well as gender-conscious products and services.
«We believe that gender equality is essential to effective and sustainable development. Progressive companies that embrace gender equality are more likely to have more diverse ideas and avoid groupthink, which ultimately leads to better decision-making,» said Piyush Gupta, chief executive of DBS in a media statement.
Significant Part of Senior Management
DBS has a slew of policies that provide flexibility to women, such as flexible time arrangement, sabbatical leave arrangement, savings, well-being and medical protection.
To further boost the diversity of gender, nationality, skills and knowledge among the bank’s Board of Directors, DBS adopted a diversity policy. «In Singapore, close to 60 percent of DBS’ overall workforce are women, and women make up 40 percent of the lender's senior management (senior vice presidents to managing directors). In addition, more than one-third of the Group Management Committee are women who run the bank’s largest businesses and key functions,» added Gupta.
GEI Doubled In Size
The 2019 GEI doubled in size from 2018 and includes companies headquartered in countries including Argentina, China, Finland, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan. These companies, which operates in various sectors such as communications, energy, financials, and health care, have a combined market capitalisation of $9 trillion and employ more than 15 million people – of which seven million are women – around the world.
Disclosures from firms included in the 2019 GEI provide a wide-ranging and comprehensive look at how companies around the world are investing in women. According to GEI data:
- Women had a 40 percent increase in executive level positions between fiscal years 2014-2017.
- 60 percent of firms conduct compensation reviews to identify gender-based variations in pay to close their average 20 percent pay gap (18 percent on average in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Middle East regions and 26 percent in Asia-Pacific).
- 34 percent have programmes in place to recruit women looking to return to work after a career break.
- For U.S. employees, the average number of weeks of fully paid primary leave offered is 13 weeks, and the average number of weeks of fully paid secondary leave offered is five weeks.
- 43 percent of firms cover gender reassignment services in health insurance plans.
- 68 percent of firms evaluate all advertising and marketing content for gender biases prior to publication.
