Qualtrics Joins ParityPledge™, Commits to Gender Equality in Leadership Roles

At the current rate of change, it will take until 2085 for women to reach parity with men in key leadership roles in the United States(1)

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Qualtrics

Sep 12, 2017, 08:00 ET

SALT LAKE CITY and SEATTLE, Sept. 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Qualtrics®, the leader in experience management, today announced that it has joined Parity.org, a new non-profit organization focused on bringing gender equality to the highest levels of corporate America. Parity.org launched today with the ParityPledge™, asking companies to commit to interviewing at least one qualified woman candidate for every open position at the level of vice president and above.

Qualtrics joins Parity.org, a new non-profit organization focused on bringing gender equality to the highest levels of corporate America.

The ParityPledge was inspired by the NFL's Rooney Rule, a straightforward solution that improved diversity at leadership levels of NFL teams by requiring teams to include more diverse slate of candidates in the interview process. In just three years, the Rooney Rule helped increase representation of African Americans in team leadership positions from six percent to 22 percent.

"Women in general, and especially in leadership, are critical to our organization. We need to speed up the rate of change in tech, we can't wait until 2085 for equality. This is the right thing to do. Parity.org is simple, clear, and allows every organization to start making a change today," said Ryan Smith, co-founder and CEO of Qualtrics. "Also, our biggest talent pipeline is from within our organization. Hopefully, as most companies continue to grow a lot of their own talent, the ParityPledge will also clear a path for women to advance."

Multiple studies have shown that diverse teams make better decisions. Women increase a firm's skill diversity, thereby enhancing performance. Research from the International Monetary Fund² found that gender diversity in senior positions positively impacted firm performance. Using a sample of more than two million companies across 34 European countries in 2013, a strong positive association was found between the share of women in senior positions and firms' return on assets (ROAs). By substituting one male for one female person in senior management or on the corporate board was associated with between 8 and 13 basis points higher ROAs.

To learn more about Parity.org and the ParityPledge, please visit https://www.parity.org/. To learn more about career opportunities at one of Qualtrics' 11 international offices, please visit https://www.qualtrics.com/careers/.

About Qualtrics
Qualtrics is a single system of record for all experience data, also called X-data™, allowing organizations to manage the four core experiences of business—customer, product, employee and brand experiences—on one platform. Over 8,500 enterprises worldwide, including more than 75 percent of the Fortune 100 and 99 of the top 100 U.S. business schools, rely on Qualtrics. To learn more, and for a free account, please visit www.qualtrics.com.

Press Contacts
Julia Giona, Qualtrics
+1 (415) 828-4775
[email protected]

McKenzie Haggard, Method Communications
+1 (801) 850-3624
[email protected]

¹ https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/reports/2017/05/21/432758/womens-leadership-gap/

^² https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2016/wp1650.pdf

SOURCE Qualtrics