Following Schneider Electric's impressive ranking on Forbes' list of America’s Best Employers for Women, Annette Clayton, CEO and President of Schneider Electric North America, has shared insights into how Schneider Electric has achieved this outstanding and prestigious recognition.
"I would like to share a few observations of why I believe Schneider Electric is a great company that values diversity and inclusion," says Annette.
Schneider Electric uses mentoring to build a gender inclusive culture
Annette greatly admires Schneider Electric's focus on mentoring, a topic that she believes impacts everyone’s career growth and can help build a gender inclusive culture.
"Research shows that due to individual and collective biases, women and men perceive, cultivate, and capitalize on these relationships differently. Women are 54 percent less likely than men to have a mentor or a sponsor, and globally only 54 percent report having a senior leader who acts as a mentor. Employees with mentors are five times more likely to be promoted and 1.4 times more likely to stay in a company– and this is especially true for women," she explains.
"I’m a big believer in mentoring. I’m a mentor and I receive coaching as part of my philosophy to be a life-long learner. To this day I still benefit from the coaching and advice I was given early in my career as a mentee. Receiving feedback is a gift as it can help you improve and make adjustments in your career."
Schneider Electric has a commitment to gender pay equity
Schneider Electric's commitment and journey to close the gender pay equity began in 2015 and has been one that Annette has been especially pleased to work on. Annette knows that Schneider Electric has been making exceptional progress and has been expanding its global scope of paying women equitably.
"I’m proud knowing that today we have dedicated pay equity budgets for 55 countries globally to reach female employees where we have gaps. And even though we’ve met our #HeForShe commitment for gender pay equity, we’re not done yet," she adds.
"Training is critical and we’ve conducted extensive training for leaders and managers on the pay equity framework which will help us manage this better in the future."
Schneider Electric has created a pioneering family leave policy
Schneider Electric launched its family leave policy that provides for paid time off for life moments such as parental leave for primary and secondary parents to care for their children.
"I appreciate the inclusiveness of this policy because we view a primary parent as one who is a parent by natural birth, a single parent by adoption, or same-sex parent by adoption. We also provide paid care leave so an employee can be with an elder family member or a family member who is facing a health condition or illness. We also provide for paid bereavement leave," says Annette.
"While we have more work to do to ensure that gender equality permeates across all facets of how we operate, we can stand tall knowing the inroads we’ve made are positively impacting the lives of our employees, women and men alike."
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Disclosure: Where Women Work researches and publishes insightful evidence about how its paid member organizations support women's equality.