5 U.S. companies improving their Gender-Equality Index scores
Bloomberg Seasonal ESG Specialists Sana Pashankar, Emily Unruh, Jasper Van de Ree, and Marcus Evans contributed to this article. The data used in this story appears on the Bloomberg Terminal.
Background
Investor interest surrounding gender equality has increased as companies and businesses recognize the benefits it can provide for their workplace. Businesses with more equitable work cultures notice improvements in productivity, organization, talent attraction and retention, economic performance, and reputation among consumers.
Bloomberg’s Gender-Equality Index (BGEI) measures the efforts of companies to promote and improve their gender equality in the workplace. Specialists do this by assessing data on a company’s policies, representation and delivering a unique gender equality score. The comprehensive framework evaluates a company’s women in leadership, equal pay and gender parity, inclusive culture, anti-sexual harassment policies, and external brand. To find out more on Bloomberg’s ESG data on 11,800+ companies in 100+ countries and 7 types of proprietary scores, reserve your seat at this upcoming webinar in September.
The issue
With the recognition of the benefits of an equitable workplace, it’s important to identify those companies that are actively striving towards, and supporting, gender equality. Here are the five companies that have experienced the greatest average increase in their gender equality scores from 2018 to 2020 and how they’re doing it.
The Clorox Company
The Clorox Company is a consumer products manufacturer primarily focused on household cleaning products and currently holding a market cap of $17.8 billion. The company is well known for its commitment to gender equality, which is shown through its 34.66-point increase in its overall BGEI Score from 2018 to 2020. Additionally, Clorox has experienced a 10.19% increase in the composition of multicultural female employees of their total US workforce over these three years, reflecting their efforts to increase their gender and ethnic diversity. They have also improved their secondary parental leave policy, which has resulted in a 10% increase in parental leave retention rate from 2019 to 2020.
Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.
Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. is a global commercial real estate and investment management company with a market cap of $8.71 billion. Jones Lang LaSalle experienced a total increase of 31.58 points in their gender equality score from 2018 to 2020, starting off with a score of 45.55 in 2018, increasing to 69.00 in 2019 and finishing off their growth streak with a score of 77.13 in 2020. They have made their workplace culture more inclusive through increasing their offered weeks of paid parental leave from two to six weeks and growing their representation of women in different racial and ethnic groups by 18% from 2018 to 2020. They have also made active efforts to promote gender equality by sponsoring financial education programs for women and donating to gender equality organizations.
Principal Financial Group Inc.
Principal Financial Group Inc. is an American Fortune 500 investment management and insurance company, with a standing market cap of $17.38 billion. The company experienced a total increase of 28.54 points in their gender equality score, rising from 36.02 in 2018 to 64.56 in 2020. Over these three years, they have implemented policies to actively address and correct for gender inequality in the workplace such as conducting an annual quantitative compensation review by gender, implementing unconscious bias manager training, and providing access to on-site lactation rooms. They have incorporated gender equality into aspects of their brand by evaluating advertising and marketing for gender biases and sponsoring health education programs for women. Because the financial sector ranks among the slowest growing sectors when it comes to improvements in gender equality scores, Principal Financial Group stands apart from its peers on the issue of bettering gender equality in their company as of 2020.
Ulta Beauty Inc.
Ulta Beauty Inc. is an established beauty store chain with a market cap of $19.98 billion. From 2018 to 2020, Ulta’s gender equality score rose 28.28 points, starting at 42.25 in 2018 and improving to 70.53 in 2020. On the leadership front, Ulta Beauty saw an increase in the percentage of women in management from 2018 to 2019. The company fostered a more inclusive work culture by increasing their secondary parental leave from two to four weeks. Furthermore, they strengthened their sexual harassment policies by recently prohibiting NDAs in sexual harassment settlements along with requiring the use of third-party investigators. Ulta has additionally implemented policies to embrace greater gender diversity, for example utilizing a supplier diversity program which includes women-owned businesses.
S&P Global Inc
S&P Global Inc. is a financial information services company that operates, and serves clients, on a global scale. The company’s current market cap is $113.74 billion. From 2018 to 2020, S&P’s BGEI score increased by 28 points, from 52.76 in 2018 to 80.76 in 2020. Specifically, S&P has made their workplace more accommodating by increasing their US primary parental leave policy from fourteen to twenty weeks and more than doubling their US secondary parental leave policy from eight to twenty weeks. Their BGEI mean gender pay gap, which measures the percentage difference between men and women’s mean total compensation, decreased from 7% to 3%, reflecting their efforts to strive towards more equitable compensation.
Tracking
On the Bloomberg terminal, investors can explore gender equality data from participating companies through the function {BI BESG BGEI <GO>}. On this page, click “BBG Gender Equality History” to view the historic gender equality scores of participating companies. Here, you can investigate gender equality data by sector, industry, specific companies, regions, and more. Additionally, by clicking the chart function, you can visualize these scores over time and for multiple companies.
To view the individual data points that contribute to a company’s score, load the company ticker into your terminal and run the function FA ESGS <GO>. This will allow you to see the breakdown of the sub-pillars that contribute to the overarching gender equality score.
*Note: Bloomberg only provides a gender equality score for those companies that self-submit their data to the gender reporting framework annually.
For more information on this or other functionality on the Bloomberg Professional Service, click here to request a demo with a Bloomberg sales representative. Existing clients can press <HELP HELP> on their Bloomberg keyboard.