Grameenphone has celebrated International Women’s Day by organizing an event on March 08 at GP House marking the Global theme, “Break the Bias.”
Humans are, very naturally, prone to biases. According to the findings of a study by the United Nations, almost 90% of humans are biased in any form. Taking a cue from this, Grameenphone has celebrated the day reflecting on its organization, continuing dialogue with its employees & instilling bias-free organizational culture across the value chain.
Grameenphone is already promoting the idea of a bias-free workplace where a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace for all is inspired. With that in mind, Grameenphone has done extensive research; the study findings say seven workplace biases against women need to be addressed and eradicated. The biases include – gender overshadows performance, women don’t earn for a living – they earn for luxury, sales & tech is a masculine field, women cannot be top leaders, women are good at a desk job, women cannot deal with difficult tasks/projects, and women gets less competent after marriage/maternity break. Grameenphone believes there are practical and needs to be addressed moderated by Grameenphone CEO Yasir Azman; the discussants shed light on these biases and shared their experiences. In addition, the leadership team shared their honest opinions about existing biases and how to overcome those.
Yasir Azman, CEO, Grameenphone, said on this occasion, “This is the right time to break all kinds of bias against women because we need to march forward to a future that will be diverse & sustainable. At Grameenphone, we always focus on ensuring a discrimination-free and inclusive working environment for our female colleagues. To take another step towards a gender-equal workplace, we have sorted out seven biases against women, which we will work on in the coming days. We believe we can break free from all these biases if we work together.”
The panelists also highlighted what can be done to address these biases and ensure a bias-free workplace for all. Yasir Azman, CEO, Grameenphone; Sajjad Hasib, Chief Marketing Officer; Jens Baker Chief Financial Officer, Hossain Sadat, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer (acting), Syed Tanvir Husain, Chief Human Resources Officer, Grameenphone and other high officials of Grameenphone attended the event and expressed their views. The attendees vowed to break the existing biases prevalent at Grameenphone and create a more equitable workplace for women.