BeyondGenderAgenda: How diverse are German companies in 2021?
Did German companies get one step further in realizing the full potential of diversity and inclusion within the past 12 months? The just-released German Diversity Monitor 2021 follows up on last year's first diversity inventory and is designed to reveal changes and progress.
Promoting diversity and inclusion in German companies
At the Chair of International Management, we teach the importance and benefits of diversity in our lectures and seminars and encourage more diversity and inclusion within companies. Therefore, we cooperate with BeyondGenderAgenda, aiming to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) in Germany's publicly listed and medium-sized companies. Together with our Ph.D. students Sarah-Alena Rössig and Marie-Luise Penter, Prof. Susanne Schmidt provides the scientific support for the initiative and has conducted the second German Diversity Monitor. The study is run annually to portray the status quo of diversity in Germany's leading companies.
Last year's German Diversity Monitor revealed that diversity is more lip service than reality. Many companies lacked a holistic understanding of diversity and failed to implement adequate measures to hire, support, and integrate people from the various diversity chapters Disability, Ethnicity, Gender, Generation, LGBT+, and Social Mobility. Thus, the German Diversity Monitor 2020 called for companies to turn diversity into an executive's directive, define Key Performance Indicators and create an inclusive work environment to reap the full benefits of diversity and remain competitive in the long term.
Did the DAX companies act on these demands? How well do they perform this year in terms of diversity?
Standstill in diversity
Even though the pandemic has revealed weaknesses and increased the pressure on businesses simultaneously, the diversity engagement in most German companies is still somewhat superficial. Many companies started to adorn themselves with rainbow flags and arrange Diversity Weeks to demonstrate their efforts publicly. Yet, these publicity-driven campaigns are often not followed by real action. As the German Diversity Monitor 2021 shows, many listed companies dedicate neither financial nor human resources to promote DE&I in their respective management boards. More than 50% of the companies under investigation do not have systematic data management for diversity, and only a quarter has implemented appropriate tools to observe the actual success of diversity measures.
A relevance gap among the diversity dimensions
The German Diversity Monitor 2021 focuses on the three dimensions Gender, LGBT+, and Disability in particular. Companies assign high relevance to the diversity chapter Gender, not least due to the legal regulations involved. However, this alleged importance is not reflected in the management boards: Only 39 out of 233 board positions of the DAX40 companies are filled by women.
Looking at the chapter LGBT+ gives a good impression at first glance. The companies surveyed communicate more on sexual orientation and gender identity than they did last year. Having a closer look, however, reveals that they do not turn their words into concrete action. While many companies pride themselves on rainbow flags, they hardly implement appropriate measures to recruit and integrate members of the LGBT+ community.
On the other hand, the dimension Disability receives only a little attention and is of low importance to the companies. This alarming gap in relevance demonstrates that the DAX40 companies have yet to acknowledge the beneficial impact of every diversity dimension and recognize DE&I as a critical success factor. BeyondGenderAgenda, therefore, calls on the CEOs to take on the Chief Diversity Driver role, provide sufficient resources, and define an ambitious diversity quota. Next year's German Diversity Monitor will tell if the listed companies have made it out of the spiral of ignorance and managed to overcome the diversity dilemma.
Would you like to know more about the results of the German Diversity Monitor 2021? Click here to take a look at the whole study.