MEPSC Senior HR Roundtable on Workplace Culture and Inclusion

The MEPSC roundtable brought senior HR and industry leaders together to examine how gender-inclusive workplaces can help expand women's formal employment. It positioned inclusion as a talent and productivity strategy aligned with She Works and MEPSC's skilling mandate.

The event combined a She Works overview, an FSG-led consultation, a keynote on the business case for gender diversity, and a CHRO panel from manufacturing, automotive, financial services, and allied sectors. The emphasis was on demand-side change inside companies.

What employers discussed

• Barriers included safety, sanitation, perceived skill gaps, career breaks, hiring-manager bias, and job ads that screen women out.
• Participants stressed that inclusion works when it is tied to productivity, lower attrition, fewer disputes, and business performance.
• Line managers were identified as the strongest influence on women's daily workplace experience and retention.
• Panel practices included redesigned shopfloor workstations, women slates, flexible work, sponsorship, sentiment tracking, and leadership targets.

Way forward for industry

Employers can move from intent to practice by setting gender-diversity goals, reviewing job descriptions and hiring criteria, training line managers, and tracking retention, productivity, attrition and employee sentiment. MEPSC members and participating companies can pilot inclusive shopfloor and workplace changes, then use evidence from those pilots to strengthen internal business cases for scale-up.

Who was in the room: Senior HR leaders, industry executives and gender-inclusion practitioners.