Women employees and leaders have achieved significant success in the corporate sector like many other spheres of life. Most organizations attach considerable importance to celebrating Women’s Day on March 8th each year as a tribute to the efforts, struggles, achievements, and successes of their women employees.
Over the past several decades, women have increasingly become an integral part of the workforce of most organizations leading to greater diversity.
Even in industries, that have traditionally been considered a man’s forte, women have attained considerable success.
Studies show that organizations that have women leaders tend to demonstrate higher growth and profitability.
Many organizations have found women to be better administrators and leaders as compared to their male counterparts.
However, despite the growing number of women in the workforce globally, they still face considerable discrimination and are often denied key roles and responsibilities.
According to a recent survey by McKinsey across 60 major corporations, women comprised 53% of the entry-level workforce with the number declining to 40% at the managerial level and only 35% working as directors.
The number of female vice-presidents, senior vice-presidents, and c-suite executives was found to be 27%, 24%, and 19% respectively.
Today, most organizations are committed to building an inclusive and diverse workforce, where equal opportunities are provided to all employees irrespective of gender.
Read Guide for Ensuring Diversity and Inclusiveness at Workplace
Women’s Day provides organizations with the perfect opportunity to acknowledge the efforts and contributions of their female employees and make them feel equally valued.
It is a great platform for organizations to keep their female employees motivated even in the face of multiple challenges that they face at work and otherwise daily.
By celebrating Women’s Day, organizations can send out a strong message to their female workforce about their commitment towards creating a fair, safe and inclusive work environment with equal growth opportunities.
Celebrating Woman’s Day provides organizations with a great opportunity to express their gratitude and commitment to their female employees.
So, discussed below are a few effective ways to celebrate this day virtually:
1. Inspirational Talks by Prominent Women Achievers
2. Online Wellness Sessions for Women Employees
3. Social Media Challenges for Women Employees
4. Webinars on Financial Well-being for Women Employees
5. Recognize the Contributions and Achievements of Women Employees
One of the impediments to success for women employees in organizations is the lack of access to female role models, whom they can look up to for inspiration.
Hence, organizations can consider inviting prominent and successful female professionals for interactive sessions with their women employees on Women’s Day.
These women achievers would narrate stories of their struggles and achievements,
They would share tips and suggestions on how to overcome various challenges women face as professionals.
Therefore, these sessions can prove to be quite inspirational and provide the participants the motivation and confidence to face the challenges in their own personal and professional lives.
With the growing importance of health and fitness among employees, organizations can consider having online Yoga, Pilates, meditation, or other fitness sessions for their female employees on Women’s Day.
Organizations can also do webinars for their women employees with wellness experts such as dieticians, nutritionists, and medical professionals.
Such interactive sessions can provide a good platform for their female employees to gain better knowledge about health and lifestyle.
Read more: 5 Initiatives to Improve Employee Wellness at Work
One fun and exciting way to celebrate the spirit of womanhood is by organizing various social media challenges on Women’s Day.
Organizations can choose interesting themes such as creativity, fashion, dance, music, etc. that a majority of their female workforce can relate to and help to bring out their talent and individuality.
Ensuring the financial well-being of female employees is as important as their physical, mental, and emotional wellness.
Hence, they could organize webinars by personal finance experts for female employees on managing their financial well-being.
Being able to take control of their finances and manage them efficiently is likely to boost their confidence and self-worth.
Recognizing the contributions of female employees towards business growth and success is perhaps the best way to celebrate Women’s Day.
Hence, organizations can consider sending online gifts to all their women employees.
They can also reward their high-performing female employees and organize virtual awards ceremonies to felicitate them.
Apart from the above virtual methods of celebrating Women’s Day, organizations may also consider offline celebrations wherever possible.
These options could range from a dress code for the day or screening a women-centric film.
It could also be an in-office make-up and grooming session, a talent show, a special lunch, gift hampers, etc.
By celebrating Women’s Day, organizations can make a strong statement about promoting gender diversity and equality in the workplace.
This can help in enhancing the motivation, commitment, efficiency, and performance of their women employees, and hence, drive business growth.
Lead author: Sagar Chaudhuri, the Co-Founder and CEO of HiFives. He is an HR Tech Evangelist with over 25 years of experience in the corporate world and entrepreneurship. In the past, Sagar has worked with companies such as Genpact, Infosys, and ICICI Bank, in leadership roles. He has an engineering degree from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Lucknow. Connect on LinkedIn
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