Language Barriers and Cultural Isolation Limit DEI Advancements

Asia Pacific

Building opportunities for making an impact in DEI is becoming a more recurrent topic across the Asia Pacific region (APAC). The region is starting to show positive signs of how people and businesses can encourage and drive change, but there’s still some work to be done. Creating opportunities for DEI faces unique challenges due to multiple factors. For example, the region has various official languages for each country, which can hinder easy communication. Border restrictions additionally limit travel between countries, which discourages professionals from embracing other cultures and diversity. Further, most APAC countries are dominated by a specific race, limiting the opportunities for racial inclusion in the region.

Language Barriers and Cultural Isolation Limit DEI Advancements

In APAC, greater emphasis is placed on gender disparity than on other marginalized groups. Though programmes have been set up to support more women in leadership roles and attitudes toward gender roles are shifting, there is still a lot of opportunity for advancement. Marked by generations of acceptance of inequality and cultural separation among many nations in the region, there are unique challenges in APAC that would require bold actions to create a more significant impact.

Abolee Valsangkar
Senior DEI Programme Manager - APAC
LinkedIn | Email

Progress Stalling on DEI Efforts in APAC

All the latest facts and figures.

27%

of organisations believe their DEI initiatives were effective

80%

of DEI programmes were amplified by the CEO but were not viewed as effective

27%

of organisations lack the funds to achieve their goals

52%

of companies disclosed that they had just started their DEI efforts, had yet to begin their DEI strategies or had yet to initiate adequate studies on DEI efforts

59%

of organisations found the execution of DEI plans incredibly difficult

52%

of organisations claim that changing behaviours is a stumbling block to implementing DEI programmes

Source: Korn Ferry

Focusing DEI Initiatives to Close the Gender Gap

The primary focus for DEI programmes in APAC is building more gender equality in the workforce. Progress is being made in appointing women to leadership positions, with 30% of such roles held by women. Southeast Asia accounts for 37% of such leadership roles.

Despite the progress, there is still a disparity in the number of women in leadership roles between local and multinational organisations. For example, in Singapore, there is an emphasis on improving DEI programmes; however, the attitude at local companies is that this is a pleasant feature, whereas multinational companies see DEI as more of a business imperative.

Though many DEI initiatives are focused on improvements for women, APAC is still seeing a lack of programmes for LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and marginalized professionals. For example, apart from Australia, professionals with disabilities in Singapore, the Philippines, India and Hong Kong continue to face challenges in terms of workplace inclusion and opportunities due to biases and a lack of accessibility.

Regional Support for Equal Rights is Very Low

The APAC region has the lowest percentage of equal rights (10-15% lower than the global average) of any region. Acceptance of the inequality of marginalized groups is highly evident in the region – something businesses should prioritize to address in their DEI efforts. However, in terms of the importance of gender roles, the region ranks first across all regions. Factors for this disparity are:

Perceptions around diversity, socioeconomic status and gender are regarded as high priorities.
Ethnicity and religion are regarded as the least important factors for change.
New Zealand and the Philippines are the only APAC countries that ranked in the top 20 highest gender gap indexes in the world.

Leadership Teams Are Roughly Unchanged

A primary challenge to making significant DEI inroads in APAC is that the percentage of white and male managers in leadership teams is significantly higher than the percentage of women and members of other races. Overall, DEI initiatives are focused on social media and webinar event campaigns, women’s rights and LGBTQ+ awareness. Conversely, people with disabilities and ethnic minorities are the least common professionals in leadership roles.

Women Representation in Leadership Roles in APAC

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