Tinh Nguyen, a seamstress for Maxport Limited Vietnam works on an assembly line in its Hanoi factory (Photo courtesy of IFC) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - For many women in the workplace, salary may not beof the utmost importance but a female-friendly working environment is key tojob satisfaction.
And many experts believe businesses with a gender-friendly corporate policy isthe way forward for enterprises in Vietnam.
Maxport Limited Vietnam, which bought Factory Number 40 in Hanoi in 2006producing top brands including Nike, Lululemon, Kathmandu and Spyder, hadsought support from International Finance Corporation (IFC)’s gender advisoryteam to build a women-friendly working environment.
The company, which has three other factories in Vietnam, has ambitious plans toincrease its workforce and expand its global market access. CEO and founder ofthe company Nicholas Stokes believes the satisfaction of Maxport’s 6,000employees – 85 percent of whom are women – is crucial.
“It’s a whole bunch of young women sitting at a sewing machine for eight ornine hours a day, doing repetitive work. There’s got to be more to life thanthat,” Stokes said.
His efforts have paid off when female workers seem to be happy with changes incompany policies.
Nguyen Thi Thu Huyen, 47, moved from sewing machine operator to manager of theHanoi factory.
She remembers long days from seven in the morning till 10 at night back in 1992under previous owners, but now enjoys far more manageable hours.
“If we ever have to do any overtime, it is well-planned in advance, giving ustime to take care of the family. So, we have a sense of being able to manageour lives,” Huyen said.
Maxport may have made a wise decision in terms of economic benefits as it helpsthe company not only retain good employees but also makes it stand out as anemployer of choice in a tightening labour market with manufacturing on therise.
Vietnam is the third largest garment exporter in the world. Vietnamese garmentfactories exported 39 billion USD worth of products in 2019 providing jobs formore than 2.5 million workers, mostly women.
High on agenda
Gender equality is on high agenda both globally and in Vietnam.
Women for a long time were labelled as the main person responsible for takingcare of children and family while men go out to earn money. While men aredeemed to be better leaders, female workers are thought to only hold supportiveposition instead of leading.
These prejudices have been changing in recent times but still exist, especiallyfor women. This has seen the amount of women holding managerial positionsincreasing but still low compared to the increase in the female workforce.
A high proportion of women are working in simple manual labour jobs.
“Awareness on gender issues, especially gender equality in the workplace inVietnam is not high,” Le Thanh Hang, executive director of the Vietnam BusinessCoalition for Women’s Empowerment (VBCWE) told Viet Nam News.
Hang said gender equality means ensuring equal opportunities for men and women,not necessarily having an absolutely balanced workforce or only women-preferredpolicies.
In some places, the issue of income disparity between men and women in the samejob position is still evident.
"Opportunities for women to access high-income jobs is still lower thanmen, and women are also more vulnerable when businesses have needs to cutmanpower," she pointed out.
She says gender-friendly corporate policies should be considered as a strategicgoal of businesses as it brings many benefits in terms of stronger brand image,increasing competitiveness in the market, and a gender-diverse leadershipsystem often taking a more cautious approach which lowers risk and leads tosustainable development.
Vietnam has seen substantial improvements in gender equality in businesses inthe past, especially in the private sector.
Eight Vietnamese companies have earned Economic Dividend for Gender Equality(EDGE) global certification – the leading global assessment and businesscertification for gender equality.
They include Ho Chi Minh City Power Corporation, Maritime Bank, SouthernAirports Services JSC (SASCO), Deloitte Vietnam, Traphaco JSC, Saigon Food JSC,TNG Investment & Trading JSC and Maxport Limited Vietnam.
Tran Thi Kieu Oanh, human resources director of Saigon Food which employs 2,500workers with female staff accounting for 54 percent, said their gender-carepolicies helped it attract and retain talent and better promote competency ofevery employee.
“Although the company does not have gender discrimination in the policies andbenefits for employees, it has yet to achieve expected gender balance inmanagerial positions,” Oanh said, adding that it is striving to improve thisratio in the future.
Vietnam is one of the countries with the highest female workforce in the worldat about 48 percent, according to the General Statistics Office.
The percentage of women-owned enterprises alsoincreased from 4 percent in 2009 to 24 percent in 2019, and the proportion ofwomen holding leadership is relatively high (27.3 percent) compared to theglobal average (18.2 percent), data of the VBCWE showed.
"One of the biggest challenges when implementing gender issues inbusinesses is thinking of leaders. Some business owners in Vietnam have startedto pay attention to gender equality in the workplace but mainly in the numberof male and female worker recruitment," Hang said.
Many gender factors are not considered in policy making and are not considereda priority issue when making development strategy decisions, she added./.
VNA
