IAG’s Australian and Asian businesses remain short of gender equity targets, while New Zealand has hit its goal, according to an article by a senior executive.

EGM Operational Partnering Suzanne Young says the company aims to have women occupy 38% of senior management roles by 2020. The goal includes a 40% target for Australia and New Zealand, and a 30% target in Asia.

The overall percentage was 32.4% at January 31, with New Zealand already achieving the 40% level.

World Economic Forum research ranks Australia 46th out of 144 countries for gender parity, well behind ninth-placed New Zealand.

“There is significant evidence across the globe demonstrating the positive impacts on company performance of female representation on boards, in executive management and senior leadership,” Ms Young says in the article posted on her LinkedIn page before International Women’s Day last week.

“It is time for change, not only because it is ‘fair’ and the ‘right thing to do’, but because the Australian economic payback is estimated to be 11% of GDP.”

Ms Young urges employers to consider actions under way at IAG to improve equality, such as regular reporting to company leadership on gender issues and ensuring each shortlist for senior appointments has both a male and female candidate.

Other initiatives include an onsite school holiday program, a flexible working policy and peer support and mentoring.

A staying-in-touch pilot aims to aid communication between leaders and staff on maternity leave and provides resources on return-to-work transition for working families, while a blind recruitment pilot removes gender identifiers from CVs before shortlisting applicants.

“If we allow recruitment and promotion barriers to continue that are based on ethnic origin, our names or our gender, we are certainly not hiring or promoting the best talent,” Ms Young says. “Besides being unfair, companies that don’t fix it will struggle – we need to embrace diversity to remain competitive.”