HCM CITY – Gender responsive human resources policies are a key factor in a company’s development by helping improve labour productivity and loyalty towards the employer, experts told the 2nd Việt Nam Corporate Forum held in HCM City on Wednesday.

The forum, on eliminating barriers for effective governance and human resource development, highlighted the need for gender equality at workplaces.

Experts said gender discrimination and inequality are barriers to human resource governance and development.

Phạm Thị Mỹ Lệ, chairwoman of Le & Associates, a company that offers recruitment, training and HR counsulting services, said her company often gets a mandate from employers to hire only men or women.

Enterprises should avoid connecting jobs with a particular gender, and her company often advises its clients to focus on the capacity and efficiency of candidates instead, she said.

Trịnh Mai Phương, vice president of human resources at Unilever Vietnam, said jobs in the supply chain and sales are often thought to suit only male employees.

The gender discrimination begins at the university level, and companies and universities should collaborate with each other and improve communication to eradicate this, she said.

Her company has many programmes to improve girl students’awareness, she said.

Vũ Đức Thịnh, country manager of Lazada Express Việt Nam, said it is very important that women employees have ambitions to develop their career.

“If they want, they will do it.”

He said in the e-commerce sector 70 per cent of the workers are women, and so his company has many policies to encourage and create opportunities for them to develop.

Many delegates at the forum blamed social discrimination, enterprises’ policies which do not create opportunities for women employees to develop, women’s perceived responsibility for taking care of the family, and their lack of ambition for preventing them from advancing in their career.

Võ Trí Thành, an economist and director of the Institute for Brand and Competitiveness Strategy, said there should be no gender discrimination if there is to be development.

The forum also discussed how the fourth industrial revolution would affect work in future as many new kinds of jobs appear in the country.

Tôn Nữ Thị Ninh, president of HCM City Peace and Development Foundation, said universities and other educational institutions should collaborate with companies to train students in skills and ways to adopt to the revolution and overcome challenges it might bring.

Delegates said both employees and employers should change their mindsets to keep pace with the changes brought by the fourth industrial revolution.

The forum was held by Việt Nam Economic Times magazine, the Vietnam Business Coalition for Women Empowerment, the Australian embassy, and  the Investing in Women Project.

Three companies, the Southern Airports Services Joint Stock Company, Electricity of Việt Nam in HCM City and Maritime Bank were honoured with an Economic Dividends for Gender Equality certificate for fostering gender equality at their workplaces. – VNS