Women Mean Business

At WEX, we embrace workplace diversity in all the forms that it takes. We were pleased to participate in a recent forum on gender diversity in the workplace held by the Maine Women’s Fund. The event addressed the gender gap in today’s businesses, despite numerous studies that show companies perform better when women are included in teams and leadership.

Attendees got some background and statistics on workplace gender issues from Garrett Martin, executive director for the Maine Center for Economic Policy. In his remarks, Martin spoke of the 20% wage gap between men and women and noted that it surprisingly is the same whether you have a high school diploma or a college degree. He also noted that gender disparities can negatively affect women in other ways, including labor force participation and retirement.

“Our CEO is a woman, and with only 5.2 percent of female CEOs in the US, we’re in the minority,” said Hilary Rapkin, WEX SVP and general counsel, who participated in a panel discussion. “I’m proud to say that we have three females on our executive team at the highest levels of the company, and two members of our board of directors are women. When we think about diversity at WEX, we think about diversity of thought, perspective, and experience and bringing different voices to the boardroom, conference room, and office.”

Women at WEX

When asked how WEX has nurtured a workplace culture where women thrive and the company prospers, Rapkin replied that it’s “part of our ethos at WEX and it’s always been that way.” With the company for 22 years, Rapkin noted that she and WEX CEO Melissa Smith both “grew up” in the company, and that there were never any barriers to their growth. She pointed to the “best athlete” mentality of the company that recognizes potential and achievement over a focus on gender, race, or other labels.

With that strong heritage of gender diversity, Rapkin shared that a focus for her and the company is to make this a more intentional part of how WEX operates. From a business perspective, things like diversity awareness and unconscious bias training are part of manager training and our integrated leadership development.  For every WEXer, in-depth talent assessments are a tool to help identify potential leaders and remove barriers to career success and growth.

“We’re a big company, and we do a lot of data analysis and have a lot of cross-functional discussions to see where the talent lies,” offered Rapkin. “Some of it’s women, some of it’s not. We have a strong female leader with Melissa, and she’s always asking where the next opportunity for people is with an eye towards women because that’s part of her experience.”

“Women at WEX,” a new group being piloted at our headquarters, was also highlighted by Rapkin as a way to reach out to and support women at the company. Spearheaded by Rapkin and Nicola Morris, SVP of corporate development, the group’s focus is to engage female leadership in conversations with WEXers – finding out what’s important to women and how we can help them advance. It also gives us a chance to ask about policies, like paid parental leave, designed to help them succeed in life outside of work.

Diversity at WEX

Gender diversity is just one component of the company’s overall efforts, and as a global company, we want the people in the organization to reflect the diversity of the cultures where we’re located and that we serve. Rapkin spoke of our global talent acquisition team and its recruiting efforts as a perfect example of this approach. The team, which is 80% female, is comprised of two veterans, one minority, and a person with a disability who has an accommodation. Managing our recruitment efforts is a female veteran who served in Operation Desert Storm. “Her recruiting team is really the face of diversity, and they’re out there every day getting new WEXers with that lens in place,” observed Rapkin.

“Another thing we do at WEX that nurtures a workplace environment of inclusion is our community work,” offered Rapkin. “Community is one of our five core values, and we focus a lot on women and disadvantaged people to provide education, leadership, and a leg up. This involvement permeates the organization and is a way for us to recognize opportunities that are lost or not available to others which is a core tenet in creating a diverse and inclusive workplace.”

For organizations working on gender diversity, five key strategies were offered by panelist Anne Greenwood, SVP of Pax Ellevate Management, whose Global Women’s Index Fund invests in the top 400 companies in the world for advancing women.

• Change has to come from the top and gender diversity has to matter to the CEO
• Using smaller, attainable goals can make the task seem less daunting
• Bringing in a change agent with a different perspective and who knows how to make things happen can create momentum for diversity efforts
• A male champion of change, both at the corporate and individual level, can diffuse any perceptions of  diversity being a “women versus men thing”
• Active internal sponsorship of women within an organization provides advocacy, advice, and a seat at the table that traditional mentoring relationships usually don’t offer