Asia sees more women in management but employers yet to achieve broader diversity

More women are in line manager roles in Asia but recruiting firm Hays says many organizations still need to embrace a broader diversity and inclusion as part of their corporate culture.

Launched in March and April, Hays’ latest 2018 Asia report found that 58 percent of surveyed participants in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia reported to a male line manager, an improvement on last year when 63 percent of respondents reported to a male line manager.

By countries, Malaysia has the highest proportion of respondents reporting to a female line manager (46 percent) and Japan the lowest (28 percent).

However, the Hays report found that a significant proportion of participants perceived that access to pay, jobs and career opportunities for those of equal ability could be blocked by factors such as gender, life choices, race and disability.

Overall, under a third of respondents (32 percent) believe colleagues of equal ability have the same access to career opportunities in their organization regardless of age, disability, ethnicity, gender, family commitments, marital status, race, religion or sexuality.

The report revealed that Hong Kong has the highest proportion of respondents, 39 percent, who believe career opportunities are available equally. At the other end of the scale, Singapore has the largest proportion of respondents, 25 percent, who believe access to career opportunity is not equal in their organization.

Equal pay was another thorny issue with only 30 percent of respondents believing employees of equal ability are rewarded equally.

Employers received the best assessment from respondents in China’s mainland where only 12 percent said pay and rewards are not awarded equally to those of the same ability.

Respondents in Singapore, however, were again the most dissatisfied as 26 percent reported that equal pay for equal ability is not the case in their organization.