New Women Workplace Index to track female-friendly office policies in Hong Kong, Asia
- ‘Not much progress on making workplaces conducive for women to straddle work and caring responsibilities’, founder and CEO Nicole Yuen says
- Companies that have signed up as members so far include Sino Group, CLP Power, Linklaters, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Manulife
The Women Workplace Index (WWI), which was launched on Tuesday, is said to be the first of its kind in Asia and aims to become the biggest publicly accessible database of such disclosures. It will collect data from firms on policies and practices such as those against sexual harassment, as well as maternity leave and equal pay, using a survey developed with reference to criteria such as listing rules and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The index will also act as an accreditation scheme, certifying companies based on the extent of their disclosures, and will make the data available online for free.
“It’s not just about representation in management,” said Nicole Yuen, the founder and CEO of WWI, citing care for the elderly, unconscious biases, sexual harassment and a lack of flexible work as examples of continued obstacles.
“There is still not much progress on making workplaces conducive for women to straddle work and caring responsibilities.”
Many organisations do track companies’ policies as part of broader corporate or environmental, social and governance (ESG) monitoring, but this is often limited to counting female representation on boards and in the C-suite.
