Companies rush to participate before the September 30 deadline
Saudi Arabia, gulftech – The number and diversity of companies that have applied to be included in the 2023 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI) has risen sharply ahead of the September 30 deadline, Bloomberg announced today. In Middle East, Africa and Europe , the number of accounts registered have risen by 39%.
Publicly traded companies voluntarily participate in the GEI, which analyses the performance of their diversity and equality policies compared to their peers. The 2022 GEI listing included 418 companies from 11 different sectors in 45 countries. This year, Bloomberg is already seeing an increase in participants and the amount of details being disclosed over last year. While financial companies have traditionally led the list, now companies in the aerospace, pharmaceutical and technology sectors are participating.
“We are gratified to see so many more companies use the GEI to identify and strengthen their policies regarding equal pay and gender pay parity,” said Patricia Torres, Global Head of Bloomberg’s Sustainable Finance Solutions, which includes the GEI. “This transparency helps companies attract employees and gives investors the data they need to make decisions.”
The GEI evaluates companies on five key pillars:
Leadership and Talent Pipeline
Equal pay and gender pay parity
Inclusive Culture
Anti-Sexual Harassment Policies
External Brand
Companies participate voluntarily at no cost via the Bloomberg GEI website. The deadline for submission to the 2023 GEI is September 30, 2022. After submitting data, Bloomberg’s GEI team analyses the data and provides the company a scorecard based on the methodology. The team will review the results with the companies, so they know how they were scored and why, prior to the announcement of the GEI results in January 2023.
The Bloomberg GEI team held a webinar recently to explain the index and show companies how to participate. The webinar can be replayed via this link. Bloomberg has previously engaged with organizations across the region to expand the breadth of data available, and has worked with EGX and 30% Club MENA to invite eligible companies to participate in the GEI.
