Partnership aims to boost women’s leadership roles

CEDAR RAPIDS — Women make up nearly 50 percent of the state's workforce but are sorely underrepresented as executives or in senior leadership positions in their companies and on company boards. A statewide public-private partnership that was launched on Thursday wants to fix that.

The EPIC — Economic Potential for Iowa Companies and Communities — Corporate Challenge aims to improve the attraction, retention and promotion of women in Iowa companies.

In Iowa, women hold only about 16 percent of corporate board positions and 22 percent of company executive positions, according to a 2014 Iowa Women Lead Change report. The Cedar Rapids-based organization, focused on providing women's leadership development, is heading the initiative and asking companies to commit to set voluntary, measurable goals in at least one of the following areas:

• Actively recruit women to fill open positions at all levels of the organization, to increase the percentage of women in the company's workforce, including women in non-traditional roles

• Increase the retention rate of women at all levels of the organization

• Increase the percentage of women among the top 10 percent of the company's senior positions

• Increase the number of women on the board of directors

• Monitor pay by gender and address gaps.

'This is a great opportunity from a state perspective to build on a big piece of the puzzle, which is to have a strong human capital pipeline,' said Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds, who was at Geonetric headquarters in Cedar Rapids Thursday afternoon for the launch.

Gov. Terry Branstad and Reynolds's offices, the Iowa Economic Development Authority and Iowa Department of Workforce Development all have endorsed the challenge, said IWLC Chief Executive Officer Diane Ramsey, and now the private sector must execute it to make it happen.

About 20 companies have agreed to take the challenge so far, including the city of Cedar Rapids, Alliant Energy, Delta Dental, Hy-Vee, Pearson, Rockwell Collins and Van Meter. IWLC would like to recruit 100 companies from across the state to participate.

Iowa is only the second state in the country to launch a public-private initiative aimed at increasing women in leadership positions, Ramsey said. Massachusetts started the Corporate Challenge in 2014, which encourages employers to commit to making progress in the workplace on women's issues.

Since then, about 168 Massachusets companies have taken part in that initiative, Ramsey said.

IWLC worked with Bentley University — a private university in Waltham, Mass. that also helped in Massachusets — to develop the EPIC Corporate Challenge.

'We're using the same framework,' Ramsey said. 'But Massachusets companies haven't committed to releasing the information.'

Participating Iowa companies will submit data to Iowa Workforce Development, which then will put together an annual aggregate report highlighting best practices and case studies, Ramsey said.

IWLC will put on educational events for participating companies and provide resources, such as a leadership assessment tool, Ramsey said.

'Research shows that when women ascend to leadership positions in business, companies report increased profits, return on investment and equity, more equitable environments and greater company retention,' she said. 'The EPIC Corporate Challenge and the pioneering companies that have signed on to 'take the challenge' are taking the first step to ensuring that Iowa companies are growing and retaining women in leadership positions.'