There is parental leave but dare not use it, lack of sense of belonging, lack of psychological security in the workplace can affect team performance?
In the process of pursuing SDGs or ESG sustainable development, diversity, fairness, and inclusion (DEI) have become an important core goal of corporate culture construction.
Womany has teamed up with Taiwan's three major human resource platforms: 104, Yourator and CakeResume to collect an extensive survey of more than 1,000 Taiwanese professionals to launch the latest "2023 Diversity and Inclusion White Paper" report, which conducts a comprehensive performance evaluation of Taiwanese business organizations, and the results of the report are pointed out6 Key areas for improvement provide concrete action insights for organizational leaders and HR practitioners.
The key is that the psychological safety is insufficient
Only 9.9 per cent of workers feel completely psychologically safe in the workplace. Psychological safety is closely related to team openness, transparency and mutual trust, and the lack of psychological safety not only inhibits employee motivation and productivity, but also becomes an obstacle to the sustainable growth of the enterprise. Some of the employees in the survey reported being discriminated against on the basis of their appearance, age or gender. In such an environment, it is difficult for employees to express their true thoughts, leading to silence of ideas and dissent.
The report also revealed that women had the lowest percentage of complete psychological safety, about 2.2 times lower than men, highlighting the significant role of gender in the experience of psychological safety, pointing to the fact that women may face more challenges in the workplace. These challenges include: gender stereotypes, unfair opportunities, lack of support, work and family pressures, etc.
The second key is the lack of a sense of belonging
Only 16% of workers feel a high sense of belonging in their organization. A sense of belonging is a basic need for people to feel accepted, valued, and connected with their colleagues. When employees feel a sense of belonging, their engagement and job satisfaction increase significantly.
Key 3: Hidden Barriers in the Workplace: Micro-discrimination
Micro-discrimination (or "micro-aggression") is prevalent in the workplace, and the top three prevalent micro-discrimination includes prejudice against physical appearance, age, marital and childbearing status, which undermines employees' psychological safety and sense of belonging. For example, some employees have reported that their professional competence has been questioned, or that they have been judged by their colleagues because of their size.
Fourth, too much emotional labor
58.6% of workers said that they were subjected to too much emotional labor, which led to burnout, accumulation of stress, and affected mental health. For example, scolding among colleagues and inappropriate messages from supervisors during non-working hours are examples of emotional labor. According to the latest data from 104, as of July 2023, only 0.2% of companies mentioned "employee physical and mental health" policies in their welfare policies, and 0.3% mentioned "Employee Assistance Program (EAP)" policies.
Fifth, nearly half of workers are hesitant and afraid to take parental leave
A whopping 45% of employees in Taiwan who need to take childcare leave are uncertain or scared, and these policies are underutilized. Among them, the main reasons why employees dare not ask for leave are the fear of career development and the lack of support from colleagues and supervisors.
Key 6: The need for communication and leadership skills
Employees expect organizations to strengthen empathy/conflict resolution, psychological safety and resilience, and inclusive leadership among supervisors. Effective communication skills and inclusive leadership skills are seen as key to building a positive workplace culture.
Drawing on these trends, the white paper argues that companies should actively build a psychologically safe and innovative work environment. This includes providing education and training to all peers to build personal resilience so that all members, regardless of gender identity, feel respected and willing to express their views openly.
Business leaders also need to be actively involved in identifying and addressing micro-discrimination, and eliminating unconscious bias by enhancing employee training and developing communication guidelines. In addition, companies should publicly support employee maternity benefits policies, encourage leaders to take parental leave, provide diversified maternity support programs, eliminate discrimination in the workplace against marriage and childbirth, and provide flexible work arrangements to create a DEI work environment.
Through the implementation of these strategies, companies will be able to increase employee satisfaction and loyalty, promote a healthy and positive workplace culture, and remain competitive in the competitive talent market.
About the woman fan
Since its inception in 2011, Womany Women Fan has been committed to providing a platform for dialogue from multiple perspectives, and has repeatedly represented Taiwan at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) to deliver on women's economic empowerment issues and share Taiwan's successful experience, and in 2019, she was shortlisted for the WSIS Prizes, a global award created by the United Nations (UN) Geneva Plan, and in 2022, she took the lead in launching the "DEI Vision Award" that combines local and international perspectives, and released Taiwan's first DEI The strategy white paper gathers private and industry data, aiming to gain in-depth insight into talent needs, promote the implementation of enterprise and organization's DEI strategy, and guide organizations to improve their ESG performance and ensure the sustainable development of talent strategies with reference to the United Nations' SDGs sustainability goals.
In 2023, the "2023 Diversity and Inclusion White Paper - Equitable Development and Sustainable Governance Policy for Enterprise Talents" will be launched, which is the first part, and the introductory overview version of the PDF report will be officially released at the end of November, please go to the official website of Women's Fan to download it.