How Good Return works with their financial service partners to create a best-in-class gender equality culture in the workplace

How Good Return works with their financial service partners to create a best-in-class gender equality culture in the workplace

27 October 2023

At Good Return we believe in gender equality and social inclusion, and we are serious about ensuring our partners, financial service providers across Asia Pacific, value these principles in their organisational policies and practices. 

If staff understand their responsibilities towards gender equality and social inclusion, then the organisation will be in a stronger position to provide better services to their women clients and better conditions for employees. 

Having a gender balance across all company levels also translates into better financial performance. A Morgan Stanley study* found that a higher proportion of women in a company’s workforce correlates with higher annual returns. Furthermore, workplace gender diversity can generate innovation by valuing diverse perspectives, plus it can improve a company’s reputation, enabling it to appeal to more women consumers.

CROWDE training participants

We work collaboratively with our partners to improve their gender practices and policies. This begins with a gender self-assessment to explore the current gender equality culture, policies and practices within each organisation. A survey is used to get a snapshot of the current situation, and then we proceed with in-depth interviews and focus group discussions to get a clear understanding of the underlying organisational gender dynamics. 

Secondly, we work with the organisation to refine or develop new ethical standards relating to gender equality and human rights principles. The adoption of gender and human rights based instruments such as safeguarding policies, including PSEAH (Prevention on Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment), and Child Protection is paramount. 

The next stage in the process is focused on introducing and communicating the new gender and safeguarding policies to the employees of the organisation. It is important that people working in the business appreciate why the organisation needs these new policies. We work with our financial service partners to do this via a participatory approach which improves employee understanding and support of the new policies. This is achieved through information sessions and small-group training sessions with all staff and senior management. The focus of the sessions is to provide attendees with an understanding of the policies, the consequences of breaching the rules, and the reporting mechanism for any incidents. 

The training sessions aim to improve the inclusive cultural context of financial service providers, and ensure they understand that gender equality benefits everyone. A productive workforce and a safe workplace contributes to an improvement in a company’s financial bottom line. As an example, one part of the staff training focuses on understanding and analysing the power relationships between team members. The methodology used is firstly the viewing of a training video, then self-reflection, and finally the group discusses thier feelings in small groups. All the processes are confidential to allow everyone to talk freely. 

We also take the training attendees through the complaints mechanism by utilising the PSEAH (Prevention of Sexual Exploitation Abuse and Harassment) Safeguarding policy, focusing on a survivor-based approach and Do No Harm principles. In order to help them to understand the complex issue for survivors reporting and utilising the available mechanisms, we use a gender-based violence spider web role play. The spider web analogy is used to help the participants understand the difficult situation for women survivors looking at it from many angles such as the social norm barriers to security issues, and the possibility of losing their career.

Spider web exercise

The last step of the process to improve gender practices and policy by our team is to ensure the business has competent master trainers so that there can be a continuation of the participatory training for new staff members and refresher training for existing staff. 

Financial inclusion for women relies on solid gender practices within the financial system and that is why we are passionate about responsible finance with our partners across the region. Tiurma Veronica, Gender Specialist at Good Return said "I have been working in the gender equality area for 20 years, and I have seen first-hand how powerful this process can be for our partners and its incredible impact on their employees and customers. One of the most incredible moments is when participants have the “A-HA” moment. You can see that they clearly understand why we need equality and a safe workplace for all." 

CROWDE training participants in break-out session

Good Return has implemented the gender assessment and bespoke gender action plan with many financial service providers in Asia Pacific such as Wing Bank and Chamroen in Cambodia, Unique in Nepal and CROWDE in Indonesia. Through our work we have seen our partners become flagship organisations championing gender equality in their sector. 

You can conduct your own gender self-assessment of your business by accessing the tool here.

*Morgan Stanley - Why Gender Diversity May Lead to Better Returns for Investors, 2019.