EDGE Certification: Bringing Gender Equality to the Forefront

08 Mar 2017

Join Intertek in celebrating International Women's Day: March 8th.

Gender equality in the workplace has been a hot-button issue for decades. There are a growing number of dual income households, but women are still finding themselves limited in their career trajectory due to a glass ceiling that is only slowly being broken down. Women in the workplace face many obstacles to achieving promotions to management positions including unequal pay, difficulty getting meaningful feedback, organisation's lack of flexibility around family obligations, and push-back from trying to negotiate with employers.

According to a study conducted by LeanIn.Org and McKinsey and Company, women are still greatly underrated and underrepresented in management positions in the workforce. According to McKinsey's and LeanIn.Org's Women in the Workplace report, "For every 100 women promoted to manager, 130 men are promoted." These findings illustrate that there is still much work to do to make the workplace an equal playing field.

The EDGE Certified Foundation is the leading global assessment methodology and business certification standard for gender equality in the workplace.  This organisation provides solutions for measuring a company's commitment to equal pay, equal opportunity for promotion, leadership development, and access to training and mentoring. EDGE is currently the only global assessment methodology and business certification standard for gender equality.

Research shows that there is an 11% increase in performance for more gender equal organizations. Business leaders, such as Mercer, have made it a strategic imperative to close the gender gap and actively supporting organizations in their endeavours.

EDGE certification offers companies the opportunity to improve their performance by creating equal opportunities for talented employees regardless of gender and by maintaining a socially responsible brand image. As more and more companies are appealing to increasingly socially conscious consumers, the necessity of an equal workplace where everyone has a chance to succeed is not to be ignored or downplayed. Intertek and EDGE are both committed to providing concrete solutions to companies who seek to improve compliance with gender equality standards.

Intertek is one of the few organisations that are fully approved to certify companies against the EDGE Certification Standard for the purposes creating a gender bias-free corporate culture. Together, Intertek and EDGE hope to close the gender gap in the workplace by conducting rigorous audits that hold companies accountable for creating and abiding by unequal gender policies.

International Women's Day will be observed on March 8th, 2017. Show your support by ensuring that your organisation is EDGE certified and bias-free. Click here to learn more about EDGE and click here to learn more about International Women's Day.