New Index to Drive Diversity and Inclusion in Companies

The SHE Index – Powered by EY tool helps companies to measure the implementation and development of equality and inclusion. The index is now available for Finnish organizations for the first time. The best-performing companies will be announced in March 2022.

The tool, launched in collaboration with the Norwegian-based SHE Community, helps individual companies assess how far they have come in terms of equality. The index also takes into account the practices that will create long term positive changes for diversity and inclusion. 

”At EY we are truly committed to supporting an inclusive culture, and implicit within our purpose of Building a Better Working World is ensuring that women are included in decision making at all levels of society, business and public policy. In Finland, we have come far in respect to gender equality but there is still more work to do and many glass ceilings to break,” says Kinga Charpentier, Partner at EY Finland.

In 2019 Finland was ranked fifth in the European Union on the Gender Equality Index conducted by the European Institute for Gender Equality. The index shows that only 34% of board members in the largest quoted companies in Finland are women.

“We want to support all companies in closing the gender gap and enabling women to reach their full potential. This will benefit society and the economy as a whole and bolster the performance of businesses and companies,” tells Charpentier.

A Norwegian promoter of equality, the SHE Community has created and developed the SHE Index – Powered by EY tool in collaboration with EY. The index is based on a survey submitted by the participating companies. The goal is to draw attention to the diversity and inclusiveness agenda and to measure the practices implemented to support change.  

The index has helped companies assess the status of their gender balance and other diversity and inclusiveness practices in Norway since 2018 and in Sweden since 2020. More than 210 companies have already used the tool to measure the practices they have implemented for change.

The deadline for organizations to participate in the survey is 20 February 2022. They can participate in the index survey annually and use it to monitor the development of diversity and inclusion in their practices. Participation is free of charge.

The companies with the highest scores will be announced at the SHE Conference held in Helsinki in March 2022. Similar conferences will be held in Oslo and Stockholm where the companies with the most gender equality in Norway and Sweden will be announced.

The SHE Index – Powered by EY tool can be found at sheindex.com/fi.