Strong female representation in the workforce is the common denominator among this year’s Best Companies to Work for in Asia.  

Among the recently revealed HRD’s (Human Resources Director) Employers of Choice is Lebanon-based Malia Group, which has achieved a 56% female representation among its executive-level employees. This includes their CEO, Joanne Chebab, who has been leading the organisation since January 2016.  

Despite women still being “vastly underrepresented” in CEO roles, recent data from Russell Reynolds Associates shows that female executives have significant representation. In the firm’s Lebanon operations, there is also almost a 50:50 ratio between genders in most roles. 

Another Employer of Choice, SEEK, has also achieved a 55% female representation in its workforce. Among its strategies to ensure diversity include: 

– Third-party gender-neutralising technology to help reduce gender bias in job advertising. 

– Gender balance on candidate long and short lists, where possible, ensuring female representation on interview panels. 

– Targeted education such as “Overcoming Bias in Hiring” workshops for the hiring team 

– Recruitment agencies must provide a gender-balanced shortlist of candidates, where possible, before proceeding with interviews.

Philippine-based organisations, AboitizLand and Ayala Land Premier, also have a huge number of women making their workforce, with 56% and 59%, respectively. Rob Guevarra, manager for talent management and organisational development at AboitizLand, said they also try to use diversity as a “foundation in terms of giving a positive work experience to our team members.”

Michel Mchantaf, head of human resources at Malia Group, shared that their success is due to their HR team’s strong emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion. “We work with competency-based interviewing and don’t discriminate between genders. Malia Group also remunerate based on performance and competencies. We were one of the first companies in Lebanon to assign female employees as warehouse supervisors. This was significant because the stereotype assumes that such roles are typically handled by men. All our group communications are gender neutral and also our career pages.”

Find out more about this year’s Employer’s of Choice here.