GENDER & WORKMEASURE | BENCHMARK | GET CERTIFIED

THE GLOBAL BUSINESS CERTIFICATIONFOR GENDER EQUALITY

GENDER & WORKIMPACT

THE CHALLENGEGender equality is increasingly on the radar with the result that business leaders are compelled to address the key issues involved, including:

• A lack of women in senior leadership

• A stubborn pay gap

• A disconnect between advancement opportunities and the demands of daily life

• Deeply-entrenched stereotypes of men and women at work and at home

EDGE Certification provides a competitive advantage in positioning an organization as a gender enlightened environment to work in, to invest in and to do business with. Studies show the advantage of gender parity to companies’ bottom lines. The reality is that it will actually become a competitive disadvantage not to be EDGE Certified.

THE OPPORTUNITYBusiness motivations for fostering an equitable and inclusive workplace for women and men are multifaceted. The most cited benefits include:

• Improved financial performance

• A healthy talent pipeline

• Retention and development of the best talent

• Deeper insight into customers and market opportunities

• An enhanced reputation and corporate brand

As an increasing number of companies are discovering, gender equality in the workplace is an opportunity that can no longer be ignored.

OBJECTIVES & DELIVERABLESEDGE’s assessment methodology and global business certification standard is built around the four pillars that define success in gender equality. Two are quantitative and outcome-driven and two are qualitative and process-orientated:

• Strong gender balance at all levels of the organization

• Proactive management of pay equity in the organization

• A solid framework of effective gender equality policies and practices

• An inclusive culture, as reflected in employees’ high ratings in terms of gender equality

The objective of the EDGE assessment methodology and global business certification standard is to capture an organization’s most important opportunities to attract, develop, motivate and retain a gender-balanced pool of talent.

GENDER & WORKEDGE CERTIFICATIONEDGE Certification is the world’s leading business certification standard for workplace gender equality, applicable across industries and geographical regions.

1. MEASURE An online assessment – EDGE Assessment Tool™ – examines three sources of company information.

2. BENCHMARK Organizations benchmark themselves against the EDGE Standard and peer organizations. The benchmark serves as the basis for an action plan.

3. GET CERTIFIED After a successful independent audit by a third-party certification body, the organization receives the EDGE Certification Seal – in one of three levels.

4. COMMUNICATE Public display of the EDGE Certification Seal sends a clear message of commitment to the organization’s stakeholders. The globally recognized business certification enhances the brand’s credibility.

MEASUREWHAT GETS MEASURED GETS DONE

EDGE’s assessment methodology and global business certification standard is based on three sources of information:

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

A HOLISTIC APPROACHEach source of information is important in its own right, but EDGE goes further by examining the alignment or gaps between all three. This triangulation enables a company to compare and contrast its efforts to build gender equality infrastructure most effectively, in terms of both workplace experience and impact on the gender mix of the talent pipeline. The outcome enables the organization to create clear milestones in the process of building an inclusive culture and reap the economic dividends of workplace gender equality.

An employee survey that captures the staff’s experience and perceptions

about gender equality in the workplace

Implemented policies and

practices that create the gender equality

infrastructure

EXPERIENCEINFRASTRUCTURESTATISTICS

Companydata relevant

to gender equality

EDGE STANDARDThe results become the basis for a concrete action plan that is grounded in accountability and business impact.

BENCHMARKDETERMINE WHAT TO AIM FOR

Organizations benchmark where they stand against the EDGE Standard and peer organizations. The benchmark serves as the basis for an action plan.

KEY ASSESSMENT AREAS

EQUAL PAY FOR EQUIVALENT

WORK

RECRUITMENT & PROMOTION

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

TRAINING & MENTORING

FLEXIBLE WORKING

ARRANGEMENTS

COMPANY CULTURE

3 4 521

EDGE ASSESS COMMITTED TO PROGRESS

EDGE LEAD CAPITALIZING ON CHANGE

GET CERTIFIEDIMPACT DESERVES TO BE RECOGNIZEDOrganizations become EDGE Certified for their commitment to workplace gender equality and progress through three levels of certification on their journey to achieve excellence.

THIRD-PARTY CERTIFICATIONTo maintain impartiality, EDGE Certificates are issued by independent certifiers who are approved and trained to audit organizations against the EDGE Standard.

ASSESS, MOVE, LEADEDGE Certification embraces a philosophy of continuous improvement. The EDGE Certification Seal is visible, credible recognition of a company’s commitment to workplace gender equality. It is valid for two years.

THREE LEVELS OF CERTIFICATION

The company is making a public commitment to maintain strong gender balance across the talent pipeline, proactively manage gender pay equity, effectively implement gender equality policies and practices, and foster an inclusive workplace culture with high engagement levels of both the male and female employees. At the same time, the company is identifying a concrete action plan for further progress.

The company has already achieved certain milestones pertaining to strong gender balance across the talent pipeline, proactively managing gender pay equity, effectively implementing gender equality policies and practices, and fostering an inclusive workplace culture as revealed by the high engagement levels of both the male and female employees. It commits to improving its action plan for even greater impact.

The company demonstrates strong gender balance across the talent pipeline, proactively manages gender pay equity, has effectively implemented gender equality policies and practices, and has an inclusive workplace culture as revealed by the high engagement levels of both the male and female employees. At the same time, the company puts gender equality to work for sustainable business success.

EDGE MOVE REACHING MILESTONES

ABOUT EDGE CERTIFICATION EDGE Certification is designed to help companies not only create an optimal workplace for women and men but to benefit from it. The Swiss-based EDGE Certified Foundation oversees the EDGE Certification system, the leading global assessment methodology and business certification standard for gender equality.

EDGE stands for Economic Dividends for Gender Equality and is distinguished by its rigour and focus on business impact. The methodology uses a business rather than a theoretical approach that incorporates benchmarking, metrics and accountability into the process. It assesses policies, practices and numbers across five areas of analysis: equal pay for equivalent work; recruitment and promotion; leadership development, training and mentoring; flexible work arrangements; and company culture.

Businesses, governments and academic leaders around the world have endorsed EDGE Certification.

The EDGE Certified Foundation developed the EDGE assessment methodology, which was launched at the World Economic Forum in 2011.

“With the EDGE Certification, we have the opportunity to verify whether our ambition to treat men and women equally at IKEA is a living reality,” said Simona Scarpaleggia, Chief Executive Officer, IKEA, Switzerland. “By reaching the highest level of certification, we are tightening IKEA’s company structure and culture to prevent pay gaps, under-representation of women in management positions and different career paths for women.”

“The EDGE Certification provides me with great leverage to go into discussions with the leadership team, not based on emotions but on facts. This is key to helping us drive the efforts within SAP. We received strong support from the leadership team, therefore the work with EDGE was actually a way for the organization to solidify and to validate that commitment and to define and achieve these concrete actions.” Anka Wittenberg, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, SAP, Germany.

“Equal opportunity for women and men is a fundamental principle of human dignity and development. Promoting gender equality is both the right thing to do and critical to ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity,” said Jim Yong Kim, President, World Bank Group. “EDGE Certification is a key part of our strategy to make gender equality a core value of our operations and our work with developing countries. It provides a vital external benchmark for measuring our progress and is one more way we’re working to be the employer of choice in the development community.”

EDGE COUNCIL MEMBERS A BLEND OF BACKGROUNDS & EXPERTISE

ACADEMIC & SCIENTIFIC COUNCIL

Iris Bohnet, Professor of Public Policy and Director, Women and Public Policy Program, Harvard Kennedy School, USA

Alice Eagly, Professor of Psychology, James Padilla Chair of Arts and Sciences, Northwestern University, USA

Herminia Ibarra, Cora Chaired Professor of Leadership and Learning and Professor of Organizational Behaviour, INSEAD, France

Johannes Jütting, Head, Poverty Reduction and Social Development Unit, OECD Development Centre, France

Judith Resnik, Arthur LimanProfessor of Law, Yale Law School, USA

Sabine Sczesny, Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Bern, Switzerland

Saadia Zahidi, Head, Employment and Gender Initiatives, and Member of the Executive Committee, World Economic Forum, Switzerland

GLOBAL ADVISORY COUNCIL

Lily Klebanoff Blake, President, Klebanoff International, USA

Yann Borgstedt, Founder, Womanity Foundation, Switzerland

Børge Brende, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway

Auret van Heerden, Chief Executive Officer, Academy for Sustainable Business, Fair Labor Association, Switzerland

Megan Beyer, Panellist, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), USA

Nia Joynson-Romanzina, Founder and Director, iCubed, Switzerland

Laura Liswood, Secretary-General, Council of Women World Leaders, USA

Carolina Müller-Möhl, Founder and President, Müller-Möhl Foundation, Switzerland

Carola Wahl, Member of the Supervisory Board, EnBW, Germany

CONTACT

EDGE Strategy AG | Vorstadt 2 | CH-6300 Zug | T+41 (0)41 530 11 49info@edge-strategy.com | www.edge-cert.org | Twitter @EDGE_CERT