Sunday 8th March is International Women's Day!
International Women’s Day shouldn’t be a "let's send an email and call it done” occasion. It’s a proper, sleeves-rolled-up, let's-make-this-count opportunity. Because the businesses that get International Women's Day right are not the ones with the biggest budgets or the most polished campaigns. They are the ones where the people inside them genuinely feel it.
So here are five questions to help you make this one land. Think of it less as a checklist and more as a conversation starter. The kind you actually want to have.
1. Are we bringing brilliant women through the door in the first place?
Let's start with the good stuff. Your hiring process is one of the most powerful tools you have for shaping the kind of business you want to be.
Here is something worth knowing: women are 16% less likely than men to apply for roles they are perfectly qualified for. Which means the talent is absolutely out there. Sometimes it just needs a slightly different invitation.
That might mean refreshing job descriptions so they describe the role rather than an imaginary ideal candidate. It might mean making sure your interview panels reflect the diversity you want to build. It might mean partnering with a recruiter who actively works to present diverse shortlists as standard.
The best bit? When you build a hiring process that works for women, it tends to work better for everyone. Broader thinking, better teams, stronger results. That is a win worth celebrating before the confetti even hits the floor.
2. Do our policies actually fit the lives women are living?
Flexible working is listed in most company handbooks. But there is a difference between flexible working existing and flexible working working.
The magic happens when senior roles are advertised as open to flexibility from the start. When return-to-work pathways treat a career break as valuable life experience rather than a gap to explain away. When parental leave is genuinely available to everyone and people feel comfortable taking it without it quietly affecting how they are perceived.
Businesses that crack this become the ones people actively want to work for. Retention goes up. Recruitment gets easier. Word travels fast. The ripple effect of a genuinely supportive workplace policy is bigger than most employers realise, and it starts with something as simple as meaning what you wrote in the handbook.
3. Are we growing our women into the leaders they already are?
One in five C-suite positions globally are held by women. That number is going in the right direction, and the businesses driving that change are doing something specific: they are sponsoring women, not just mentoring them.
The difference is worth knowing. A mentor shares advice. A sponsor opens doors. Sponsorship means senior people, male and female, actively championing women for opportunities, projects, and promotions. It is the kind of support that actually shifts careers.
Beyond that, the businesses doing this well are asking whether their performance reviews assess leadership potential fairly, whether women are being developed for the next role while they are still growing into the current one, and whether managers are having those conversations proactively rather than waiting to be asked.
Women in workplaces where they feel genuinely included and supported are more likely to go for promotions, recommend their employer, and stay. That is not a nice-to-have. That is a business advantage.
4. What are we actually doing to celebrate this Sunday?
Here is where it gets fun.
International Women's Day is a brilliant excuse to do something your people will remember. A panel conversation with women in your business talking openly about their careers. A skills session for the whole team. A spotlight on internal promotions and milestones from the past year. A donation to a local organisation supporting women back into work. A lunch, a social, a proper moment to mark the day.
The celebrations that stick are the ones that feel genuine. And genuine does not have to mean grand. It means connected to the people in the room.
Some ideas to get you started:
Host a "Women Who Inspire Us" wall in the office, where the whole team nominates someone who has shaped their career, inside or outside the business. Run a breakfast or lunch where the brief is simply: tell us something about a woman who changed your thinking. Create a small awards moment recognising contributions from women across your team during the past year. Partner with a local school, college, or community group to talk to young women about careers in your industry.
Any one of these costs more in thought than in money. And any one of them will mean something.
5. How do we make sure the good stuff keeps going after the 8th?
This is the question that turns a good International Women's Day into a great one.
Track your progress. Set a baseline on the gender split across levels of your business. Look at your pay data. Ask women in your team, directly, whether they feel supported and whether they can see a path forward. The UK gender pay gap still sits at 12.8%, and at current pace the TUC estimates it will take another 30 years to close. That is a number the best employers are actively working to beat, not waiting on.
But here is the honest truth: most meaningful progress starts small. One hire, one policy change, one sponsor who puts their hand up. One business that decides this year will be different to last year.
That is how the number shifts. And that is something genuinely worth celebrating.
At ACR, we have been connecting brilliant people with brilliant businesses for over 25 years. Building inclusive hiring pipelines that bring the best talent through the door is something we care about all year round, not just on the 8th of March.
If you want to talk about how your recruitment strategy can work harder for you, we would love to hear from you.