Research from the Commonwealth Bank has shown that increasing gender balance in leadership in roles at retailers has benefits across a range of metrics.
The report reveals that retailers with an extremely good customer service experience have gender balance in their leadership, with an average of 47 per cent female executives. This in comparison to just 35 per cent among those businesses where customer experience is poor.
Retailers with more females in executive roles experienced higher business confidence, placed greater emphasis on customer service and saw personalisation as important.
“Retailers with more female executives prioritise customer experience within their business strategy, and within that see personalisation as very important,” Commonwealth Bank National Retail Manager Jerry Macey said. “They’re right: in previous research, we found that three-quarters of Australians will stay loyal to a business that personalises their experience.”
Retail is among the top-performing industries in terms of gender balance in leadership, with retailers employing 41 per cent females in executive roles, compared to the 23.3 per cent average of Australia’s top 2,000 companies.
Although this is promising, the research indicated that the larger the retailer, the fewer female executives are likely to be in place.