In 2007, men had five times more officer roles than women at Genentech, and the biotech company's female directors were leaving twice as often as its male directors. Now, men and women have nearly equal representation among the company's workforce, including officer and director positions, according to a June 2 Harvard Business Review report.
To achieve this, Genentech identified and eliminated factors hindering women's advancement at the company. This required the company to revise its processes for recruiting, professional development and succession planning.
Below are four key lessons the company learned along the way, according to the report:\
- Data drives informed, effective plans to foster corporate gender equity.
- Companywide accountability needs to be built into plans to foster corporate gender equity.
- Small actions add up.
- Change is meaningless unless it can be proved.