Attaining Gender Parity: Diversity 5.0 and 10 Best Practices for Global Health Care Organizations

Abstract

In view of the increasing global importance of women as consumers/patients, employees, employers, and leaders, we discuss 10 best practices for the global health care organizations to attain greater gender parity: (1) make diversity and inclusion (D&I) an essential element of global strategy, (2), tailor global D&I to fit local needs, (3) embed D&I throughout organizations, (4) multiply D&I impact via external partnerships, (5) maximize the role of employee resource groups, (6) maximize the role of diversity councils, (7) leverage D&I for innovation, (8) leverage D&I for business development, (9) engage CEO, and (10) make sharing of D&I best practices a meta best practice. These are practical approaches that can be used in both overall strategic planning and in day-to-day management of health care institutions. We examine this in the context of what we call Gender Diversity 5.0, which will be an increasingly important part of today's health care environment as the business imperative grows for diversity, inclusion, and engagement at the patient, employee, and executive levels.