Overview

Report title: How to improve gender equality in the workplace-evidence-based actions for employers ​

Source: BIT ​

Year published: 2021

Sources
Categories
For Employers
Context
  • Employers often assume meritocracy governs hiring and promotion, but behavioural science shows unstructured processes invite unconscious bias, limiting diverse talent progression​
  • Many policies expect individuals—especially women—to self-advocate for flexibility or negotiate pay, overlooking powerful frictions such as social norms, ambiguity, and fear of backlash​
  • Gendered stereotypes and workplace norms disproportionately affect returners, part-time workers, and women in male-dominated fields, reinforcing barriers for mothers and low-income women seeking re-entry
Outcomes
  • In the UK, advertising jobs with flexible working by default led to a 19% increase in women applying to senior roles at Zurich Insurance and a 35% increase at John Lewis & Partners​
  • In the US, structured interviews—asking all candidates the same questions and using standard scoring—improved fairness in hiring decisions and reduced bias in selection outcomes​
  • In the Netherlands, formatting CVs to show total years of experience (rather than date ranges) increased callback rates by 15% for women returning from caregiving-related career breaks
Implications
  • Require all ministries and public employers to adopt structured interviews and skill-based assessments to standardize hiring, reduce bias, and improve talent selection​
  • Embed gender-equality goals into institutional accountability by mandating internal targets and public reporting on progression, pay, and flexible work uptake​
  • Design recruitment systems to default to inclusive practices—such as flexible job adverts, anonymized CVs, and batch evaluation—to shift the burden from individuals to the system
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