To pursue a successful career, women still have to surmount high barriers in Switzerland. This is revealed by the latest Gender Intelligence Report 2020, a study jointly conducted by Advance and the Competence Centre for Diversity & Inclusion (CCDI-HSG) at the University of St.Gallen. The report appears for the fourth time and provides facts and figures about the development of diversity in Swiss companies. The evaluation was based on data from 302,000 employees in 75 organizations.

Report 2020 Press Release DE

According to our study, only 18% of the positions in top management are occupied by women in the companies under review. Although most of the participating firms have subscribed to the promotion of diversity and taken initial measures, the process is only advancing slowly.

Gender maturity compass – A barometer for diversity in the swiss labour market

A novelty of the new Gender Intelligence Report is the Gender Maturity Compass (GMC), a model which places companies on their journey towards gender diversity & inclusion (D&I) at four different levels. In this way progress in the D&I maturity of organizations can be measured and furthermore the Compass provides bearings and specifically helps companies to attain a balanced gender distribution.

The distribution of the companies on four levels clearly reveals that gender diversity in Swiss companies is often still in its early stages. The majority of participating companies have attained level I. 20% and 11% are positioned at levels II and III, respectively. However, only 5% reach the highest degree of maturity. All the companies which have attained levels III and IV of the Gender Maturity Compass are Advance members. The same holds true for more than 90% of the companies which have reached level II.

Advance Members Take the Lead

“It makes us proud to see that Advance members show considerably higher Gender Maturity. All companies that have reached stages III and IV in the Gender Maturity Compass are members of Advance. The same goes for more than 90% of companies that have reached stage II. – A clear sign that leadership commitment has impact.”

Alkistis Petropaki, General Manager Advance

glass ceiling cracked in three firms

Three of the participating companies have a very high degree of D&I maturity. In these companies, the gender distribution is similar at all hierarchical levels. In other words: hardly any women are lost on the way upward. These companies succeed in employing and promoting women at least proportionately to men, and in retaining them thanks to an inclusive corporate culture. Best practices in the report provide an insight into the specific measures that companies have taken on this journey.

key findings of the report

According to our analysis, women still face great barriers when it comes to reaching higher management positions. Things can be done differently, too:

• companies which have participated in the Gender Intelligence Report for several years register an increase in the proportion of women in upper and middle management. Whereas in 2018, an average of 20% of women of these firms were represented, their number rose by 3 percentage points to 23% by 2020. If we only look at the upper and top management, the increase even amounted to 6%, from 15% in 2018 to 21% in 2020.
• Most promotions take place between 31 and 40 years of age. The employment rate in this age group decreases among women while remains the same among men. This is most likely connected to unevenly distributed family and care work as to the standard full-time work in management which poses structural and cultural barriers to women’s career in Switzerland.
• On average, women are promoted at a disproportionately low rate (37%) in comparison with their proportion among all employees (40%). To increase the representation of women at higher hierarchical levels, it makes sense to define clear promotion targets and ensure that women are represented as strongly as men on all selection lists in cases of succession planning.
• A new opportunity results from the wave of retirements of the baby boomer generation: one in three male managers is over 50 today, which will provide a historically unique opportunity to boost gender diversity in management teams.

Unique Window of Opportunity

“Now is the time to get women into the pole-position for stepping up as the baby boomers’ retirement wave rolls in.”

Prof. Dr. Gudrun Sander, Director CCDI-HSG

case studies of leading swiss companies

In the second part of our report, you find 18 D&I best practices of Advance member companies. They vividly document effective measures and their results. All the best practices are published online here.

time for a big thank you

With its 9 months’ journey from kick-off to publishing, the Gender Intelligence Report is one of our biggest strategic projects. It takes a lot of stamina to pull this through with a small team. We thank the GIR team from the Competence Centre of Diversity & Inclusion, notably Gudrun Sander, Ines Hartmann and Nora Keller, as well the engaged Advance team members in charge and our external partners design, layout and print. They all went the extra mile for the successful launch of this report.

Also, and especially, we thank our member companies and their teams who participated by submitting their raw data, be it for the first time, or year after year. Without you, this report would not be possible.

This study was first presented on 10 September 2020 in the context of the Diversity and Inclusion Week.

Report 2020 Best Practices