Gender Equality in the Workplace

 
“The problem of gender inequality is only going to be solved by men and women working together”
Dr Jill Armstrong, Research Associate, Murray Edwards College

In May 2018, Alpha’s Gender Equality Committee ran a “Collaborating in the Workplace” survey designed by Dr Jill Armstrong, a Cambridge Fellow specialising in gender studies. Her research had concluded inhospitable workplace cultures that work against gender inclusivity inhibit optimal staff performance and waste talent by standing in the way of women’s progress to leadership positions. Much of this stems from unconscious bias and consequent gendered judgements made by men and women.

The survey covered known industry-wide challenges which hinder gender equality; the objective was to identify forms of gender biased behaviour specific to Alpha employees and to identify initiatives to help us tackle these issues. We had strong engagement across all levels and offices across UK, Europe and Asia.

Following the survey, we held an interactive roundtable to analyse the results with the wider team, including a number of Directors, our UK CEO and Global COO. It was a compelling discussion and, safe to say, we are on the right track but always looking to improve and continue leading the industry.

While reviewing the results, we also made sure to incorporate the feedback from our employees into the Gender Equality Committee’s 2018/19 Roadmap of initiatives, including:

  • Continuing the celebration of International Men’s Day and International Women’s Day with a set of challenges to help raise awareness across the firm;
  • Partnering with our Recruitment team to run unconscious bias training for interviewers and understand the gender split of candidates and interviewers across different levels; and,
  • Quarterly round tables to encourage open discussion on topical subjects such as shared parental leave.

We look forward to the final research findings from Murray Edwards College and seeing our initiatives in action over the next year!

Alpha is committed to supporting, and growing, a diverse team and providing an inclusive work environment.

Alpha’s global Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) initiative sets the strategic D&I objectives for the firm. Our D&I which is currently supported by four core delivery teams; Cultural Diversity & Social Mobility, Gender Equality, Pride and Wellbeing.

To find out more visit our D&I page.