Dubai-based all-female agency, TishTash Communications, proves that staff benefits catering to the needs of women in the workplace reaps incredible results.
People across the world marked International Women’s Day on March 8 in grand fashion. However, the reality is that there is plenty of work that is yet to be done to achieve true gender equality. Global progress on women’s rights is “vanishing before our eyes”, the secretary general of the UN, António Guterres, warned, saying the increasingly distant goal of gender equality will take another three centuries to achieve.
Women’s workplace equality is a key aspect in socio-economic deprivation and female empowerment. Still, in 2024, many workplaces are simply not designed with the needs of women in mind, or the many factors which would enable them to grow, flourish and achieve all that their male counterparts do.
The Dubai-based, award-winning independent communications agency TishTash, has created a 100 percent female workforce with a working environment designed especially for women’s needs.
The agency’s commitment to designing a workplace for women includes the implementation of flexible working for all staff including a 4.5-day week, continued hybrid working, a ‘work from home country’ allocation each year and other benefits. The agency also boasts a myriad industry leading women’s health policies including paid leave for fertility treatments, menstruation and menopause. This is in addition to four women’s physio appointments which can be used during pregnancy or up to six months after the birth of the baby. Further catering to the needs of women, the agency also provides four therapy sessions which support with pre- and post-partum depression.
“Recent research by Bain & Company had 70 percent of GCC female respondents highlighting that gender bias and stereotypes represent one of their biggest challenges to workplace advancement, along with inadequate mentorship, training and support for work-life balance,” says CEO & Founder of TishTash Communications, Natasha Hatherall-Shawe. “Organisations undergo a ‘tipping point’ in their journey toward gender equity success when women represent at least 30 percent of the total workforce. This effect is even more pronounced when women hold 30 percent or more of an organisation’s leadership roles.”
Proving that when these workplace needs are met, women can flourish, the agency has recorded phenomenal stats:
- 50 percent year on year increase for the past three years.
- 62 percent increase in turnover in the last 12 months (2022-2023).
- Significant client wins and international expansion.
- 45 percent of the team have been with the agency for more than 5 years.
- 8 percent company attrition.
- 45 percent of clients have been with the agency more than 4 years.
- Company achieved ‘Great Place to Work’ certification in 2023 with a score of over 95 percent.
- Today the agency stands as a team of 68 women and is intended as a deliberate example of focus on the importance of policy change and operations that take into account the shocking statistics around the modern workplace for women and their workforce retention — an increase which benefits society as a whole, and not just the bottom line.
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