Gender Equality Plan

21 March 2024

Introduction

Navigator Consulting & Innovation Partners Ltd. (referred to as “Navigator Consulting” hereafter) was originally registered in 1995 in Athens, Greece. Since then, nearly 30 years have elapsed, marking tremendous social, technological, political and economic changes in the European Union, and in our home markets of Greece and Cyprus.

We believe that any consultancy operating in society must be representative in terms of the consultants that manage and operate it. Without an adequate balance of life experience, it is difficult or impossible for a consultancy to offer qualified advice today.

This applies to “agnostic” fields such as technology as it does to core fields such as business process restructuring or performance improvement.

Today, competitive enterprises in the European Union comprise largely of knowledge workers, and unless superior performance and productivity can be harnessed to technology and capital, there is a good chance the enterprise will fail.

We must understand and solve socio-economic, business and technological challenges through the viewpoint of gender equality and other diversity impacts. If we do not, we risk providing distorted framing of challenges to be solved, and equally distorted solutions.

This Gender Equality Plan reflects our commitment to equal opportunity for both women and men within our firm. It is based on the standards for gender equality established by the European Commission, and set out by the European Institute for Gender Equality.

Definition of Gender Equality

Gender equality refers to equality between women and men with respect to their rights, treatment, responsibilities, opportunities, and economic and social achievements.

Gender equality is achieved when interests, needs and priorities of men and women are equally valued.

The reference for our work is seen in the European Commission’s Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025 that sets out a vision, policy objectives and actions to make concrete progress on gender equality in Europe.

The Strategy presents policy objectives and actions to make significant progress by 2025 towards a gender-equal Europe. The goal is a Union where women and men, girls and boys, in all their diversity, are free to pursue their chosen path in life, have equal opportunities to thrive, and can equally participate in and lead our European society.

The key objectives are ending gender-based violence; challenging gender stereotypes; closing gender gaps in the labour market; achieving equal participation across different sectors of the economy; addressing the gender pay and pension gaps; closing the gender care gap and achieving gender balance in decision-making and in politics.

The Strategy pursues a dual approach of gender mainstreaming combined with targeted actions, and intersectionality is a horizontal principle for its implementation.

Gender Equality in Greece and Cyprus

Despite women’s increasing participation in the labour force, female employees are not treated in equal terms, as the gender pay gap remains at a considerably high level in most EU countries. Certain factors such as societal expectations and employer policies have limited opportunities for women to excel at careers.

Currently women in the European Union earn, on average, 16% less than men per hour. Only 7.5% of board chairs and 7.7% of CEOs are women.

Cyprus ranks 22nd in the EU on the Gender Equality Index. According to the Cyprus Statistical Service, in 2022, women comprise 60.9% of the labour force in Cyprus. Women’s gross hourly earnings are on average 10.2% lower than men's. Only 2.2% of employed women hold managerial positions in Cyprus.

Greece ranks 24th in the EU on the Gender Equality Index. Women in Greece earn on average 10.4% less than men per hour.Women are also considerably under-represented in decision-making roles. In 2022, only 22% of decision-makers in parliamentary committees in Greece were women.

Our Commitment

Navigator Consulting remains first and foremost a knowledge-based organization. Consulting is the expression of the application of theoretical and applied knowledge to a specific sectoral and work context. By applying knowledge through consultant and consulting teams, and by preparing consultants and consulting teams for knowledge-based project engagements, we contribute towards reaching tangible solutions and improvements for business, technological or investment challenges.

Our consultants are at the forefront of our business. As such, Navigator Consulting commits to the establishment and development of policies that integrate equal treatment and opportunities between genders among our consultants, administrators and leadership.

Equal opportunities for men and women are a fundamental strategic principle of Navigator Consulting in all areas of activity:

Skills Identification and Job Planning
Recruitment and Employment
Career Development and Promotion
Wages, Compensation and Incentives
Training and Development
Working and employment conditions
Work and time management
Work-life balance.

Navigator Consulting values and encourages diversity, expressed through the gender, ethnicity, religion, age and other demographic and social factors of our consultants and staff. We understand that gender equality, diversity, equity and inclusion are vital in modern society and in organization.

We identify the following key objectives for the promotion of gender equality and equal opportunities:

Within our organization: To increase the number of highly qualified female consultants and staff in management and leadership roles. To promote the presence of women in management projects. To improve the balance between men and women in the organization.
Within our organization: To ensure that our work and employment processes are gender-neutral and are designed with a view towards increasing the gender equality as well as diversity and inclusion of our workplace, business processes and career ladder.
Within our clients: To advocate for gender equality and to be aware of the importance of gender equality as well as wider diversity and inclusion in terms of analysis, solution design, corporate culture and implementation.
Within our startups and mentored teams and founders: To increasing the inclusion of female-led startups and founders in our ecosystem and support network. To increase support and mentoring for women-led startups. To further support women-led startups to access financing and commercial support.
Within our society, including membership organisations and other initiatives: To advocate for gender equality. To support and encourage qualified female candidates for leadership positions. To enhance cooperation with and support to female-led social and entrepreneurial organizations.

Gender Monitoring Framework

Navigator has identified 10 priority areas to enable the strategic and sustainable implementation of gender equality:

Gender Representation: We will monitor and report on gender representation among management, consulting and administrator roles within our workforce as well as the startups we support and the organisations we provide mentoring and acceleration services to.
Compensation: We will monitor and report on compensation per gender to ensure equal pay for equal work and equal positions.
Work-Life Balance: We will monitor our total compensation and incentive policies, including working conditions, maternity/paternity leave, flexible working time, working hours, etc. to ensure compatibility with and attractiveness for gender equality.
Career Development: We will ensure the equal access for career development exists for partner- and non-partner tracks within our organization.
Training and Development: We will track the hours provided for training and development to ensure that all partner and non-partner track staff have equal access to training and development opportunities.
Recruitment: We will implement job description and recruitment measures to ensure that conscious or unconscious bias does not affect our recruitment procedures or results.
Consulting Work: We will integrate the gender dimension considerations in our consulting work. This includes the assignment of high profile projects to female project managers and staff where applicable.
Research and Teaching Work: We will integrate the gender dimension considerations in our consulting work.
Startups, Mentoring and Innovation: We will integrate the gender dimension considerations in our startups, our mentoring work and other aspects of entrepreneurship and innovation within our ecosystem.
Gender and Diversity Policies: We will ensure the updating and regular training and familiarization of gender and diversity policies related to our company, our workspace, our policies and other aspects of our work and presence.

Sources:

The Gender Equality Strategy 2020

Gender Statistics 2023

Gender Equality Index Cyprus 2022

Gender Equality Index Greece 2023

In focus – Gender Pay Gap January 21, 2022