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Female leaders are more people-centred and empathetic than their male counterparts, with 64% of UAE women prioritizing investing in developing the skills and capabilities of their workforce. This compares with just 24 percent for men, who are more inclined to buy new technology.
That’s according to the latest edition of KPMG’s 2022 Women in Business Leaders Outlook, which surveyed women leaders in 50 countries, including the UAE.
Three quarters of UAE female leaders (72%) also believe their organizations have a responsibility to help reskill the workforce to avoid layoffs, compared to 60% of men.
Reconfigure and secure
The survey found that women leaders in the UAE are reconfiguring and securing supply chains, making advancing digitization, connectivity and cybersecurity resilience a top priority. This is in contrast to the priorities outlined by male UAE CEOs, who placed digitization as a top priority, followed by capital and input costs to hedge against inflation, and enhancing the employee value proposition to attract and retain talent.
Emirati female leaders are confident in their business prospects as they pursue aggressive M&A strategies, with 74% saying new partnerships will be critical to continuing to rapidly advance digital transformation post-pandemic.
More than half of Emirati women surveyed also believe their companies need to be more transparent about equal pay. A whopping 82% believe there is more work to be done to achieve gender diversity on boards and management, and 62% experience stereotypes and bias in their day-to-day work. It is encouraging to see that the UAE government is taking comprehensive measures to increase the representation of women in the top management, with recent research showing that there has been an increase in female leadership on UAE boards over the past two years.
empower women
Emilio Pera, Senior Partner and CEO-designate, KPMG Lower Gulf, added: “The participation of women in UAE government is among the highest in the world, reflecting the UAE’s strong commitment to women’s empowerment. There is no doubt that women leaders are Leadership positions in the public and private sectors bring fresh perspectives and valuable insights.”
Marketa Simkova, Partner and Head of People and Change, KPMG Lower Gulf, said: “Women leaders bring a new dimension to the workforce with an empathy-driven management style and people-centred leadership. Confidence in their company’s future growth prospects amid the challenges posed by the pandemic is very encouraging. They have also demonstrated a pragmatic approach to technology and innovation, which will be invaluable to businesses in meeting future challenges.”
ESG challenges differ between male and female leaders, with 29% of women citing the lack of an accepted global framework for measuring and disclosing ESG performance as the most pressing issue, compared to 5% of men. Encouragingly, all business leaders, regardless of gender, expressed a desire to address diversity issues.
social problem
Around two-thirds of men and women in the UAE agree that stakeholders will continue to increasingly scrutinize companies’ performance on social issues, including workforce diversity and inclusion. —trade arab news agency
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