How Employers Can Celebrate International Women’s Month 2020

While International Women’s Day had passed (and was on a Sunday) there’s still the rest of the month to appreciate the women at the workplace

Considering that many of us spend about 40 hours or more a week at work, it is as good as a given how some of the colleagues we spend this time with are also significant parts of our lives. This includes the women at work who, whether you are one of them or not, deserve to be commended for their continued contributions to the company and how well they work with their peers.

Add to this the countless challenges some women still, unfortunately, have to put up with at the workplace in general, and International Women’s Month proves to be a very important occasion for your company. Unfortunately, with the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, the way you’ll commemorate IWM may be limited.

With the local and national government units recommending people who can work at home to do just that and for gatherings with many people to be kept to a minimum, you’ve likely shelved that women empowerment themed event scheduled for later in the week or have reconsidered the hosting of a town hall meeting or company-wide lunch celebration. Still, there are several ways to still give big-ups to female colleagues, and the following are some of the most immediate you can do.

Thank you notes

As outdated as the concept seems, thank you notes remain a sincere way for employees to show female co-workers (or anyone else actually) how much they appreciate what they do in the office and simply the opportunity to be able to work with them because they themselves have to think about what to put on the note/s.

Recruiters can also take this as an opportunity to make their company brand more synonymous with equality in the workplace, by having custom stationaries made and handed out to employees for them to write their thank you notes to their female colleagues. Of course, this is all for naught if the company’s culture is not one that is appreciative and encouraging of women, so its best to work on culture first before putting it out in marketing.

If you have budget or time constraints, you can also opt for digital thank you notes. Apart from there being no limit to how many you send, you can also easily share these on social media. No time to produce a template for your company’s thank you notes? You can look to apps like Canva for a quick mock-up, or for a more official women’s month look, can use the one offered the official IWD website, an #EachforEqual branded social media card available for LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Feature them on your media

Speaking of digital, if you are reading this blog or are hiring via Kalibrr, then it is likely that your company is one that is online. Apart from an official website, this probably includes official social media channels. Along with your company’s products and/or services, you can also look to use this feature the women within your team and show your appreciation for them for all the word to see.

Granted, featuring women who are part of or behind a brand in videos, articles, and social media posts is not a new concept, however, you can make your company’s more meaningful by including the people not typically included in such features. So apart from management and executives, you can also feature women in associate, entry-level, and administrative roles.

To last the month-long celebration of women, you can make this a series, where videos, articles, or social media posts are shared daily or weekly, which will allow you to do the aforementioned featuring of the people in different roles within your company.

Support their personal endeavors

Of course, showing support and appreciation to women colleagues should never be limited to much, but rather, done every year. In that effect, it will be beneficial to them is they receive continuous support not only in an official working capacity but also as they make other professional pursuits and endeavors.

So whether allowing them time to attend skills training or seminars or featuring their businesses in the company newsletter, being supported not only for the companies benefit is surely something that they will appreciate and will empower them to do even better in and out of the office.

Ultimately, their success means everyone else’s, because, with fewer obstacles and more support, they’ll be capable of doing more than what they already do well now, and will also have the opportunity to share their experience and expertise with others.

These are but a few ways, in this day and age, to show our women colleagues gratitude and support, which is paramount as they unfortunately still face a myriad of challenges in careers in general.

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Kalibrr is a technology company that aims to transform how candidates find jobs and how companies hire talent. Placing the candidate experience at the center of everything it does, the company continues to attract the best talent from all over, with almost three million professionals and counting. Kalibrr ultimately connects these talents to companies in search of their next generation of leaders.

The only end-to-end recruitment solutions provider in Southeast Asia, Kalibrr is headquartered in Makati, Philippines, with offices in San Francisco, California, and Jakarta, Indonesia. Established in 2012, it has served over 19,000 clients and is backed by some of the world’s most powerful start-up incubators and venture capitalists. These include Y Combinator, Omidyar Network, Patamar Capital, Wavemaker Partners, and Kickstart Ventures.

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