Havas Malaysia Wins 1st Runner Up at UN Women Malaysia WEPs Awards 2024 for Gender-Inclusive Workplace

Havas Malaysia has won 1st runner up in the Gender-Inclusive Workplace category at the UN Women 2024 Malaysia WEPs Awards Ceremony. This win is a testament to the team’s efforts in advancing gender equality and creating a safe, flexible, and supportive environment that empowers every employee to succeed.

At Havas, efforts supporting gender equality and inclusion are continuously driven. The global Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) program, “All In,” initiated in 2018, underscores this commitment by addressing ethnic and cultural representation, gender equality, LGBTQ+ inclusion, disability, wellness, and age.

Programs like Femmes Forward and Femmes Academy have been launched to promote career progression among female employees.

In addition to Havas All In programs, Havas Malaysia has also adopted a gender inclusivity strategyaimed at bridging gender gaps and creating a more balanced and equitable workplace. Theseinitiatives include fair recruitment practices, flexible work arrangements, tailored employee support for work-life balance, support for employees’ family responsibilities, safety and well-being, women’s career development and leadership, and fair compensation practices.

Through these initiatives, Havas Malaysia has achieved remarkable gender diversity, with 90% of its leadership team being women, far exceeding industry standards in Malaysia. Across the organisation, the overall gender ratio is 80:20 (female to male).

Additionally, bi-annual pay audits have contributed to reducing the gender pay gap by 5% over the past year.

“We are incredibly proud to receive this recognition at the 2024 WEPs Awards, which reflects our unwavering commitment to fostering a truly gender-inclusive workplace. Our journey toward gender equality is ongoing, and this accolade reaffirms the impact of our efforts to create an environment where everyone can thrive.

We will continue to champion initiatives that bridge gender gaps and ensure equal opportunities for all,” shared Nizwani Shahar, CEO of Havas Malaysia.

The  2024 WEPs Awards is part of the new initiative ‘UN Women Gender Action Lab: Innovation and Impact for Gender Equality in Asia-Pacific,’ supported by the Government of Australia. The awards recognized innovations in the private sector that promote gender equality in seven categories: Leadership Commitment, Gender-Inclusive Workplace, Gender-Responsive Marketplace, Community Engagement and Partnerships, Transparency and Reporting, Innovative Financing and SME Champions.

The Gender-Inclusive Workplace category of the WEPs Awards recognized achievements that corporations have demonstrated in adopting relevant gender-inclusive measures in the workplace.

This includes innovative approaches to equal recruitment, support to provide flexible work arrangements, addressing needs of female and male employees, transformational initiatives to support family responsibilities of female and male employees to address the unequal care burden, and accelerative actions to guarantee the safety and well-being of female and male employees, accelerating progress towards equal pay, and promote women’s career development and leadership.

The WEPs is a joint initiative of UN Women and the UN Global Compact aimed at empowering women to participate fully in economic life across all sectors and outlines seven steps for businesses to achieve that in the workplace, marketplace and community. To date, more than 10,000 companies around the world are signatories to the WEPs, and the Asia-Pacific alone has around 2,700 signatories.