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International Women's Day 2021: Achieving an equal future in a Covid-19 world

UN Women announced the theme for today’s International Women’s Day as being “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world”. This year’s theme celebrates the tremendous efforts by women and girls around the world in shaping an equal future and recovery from the COVID-19 global pandemic.

In a recent article, UN Women stated that this year’s theme is also aligned with the priority theme of the 65th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, “Women’s full and effective participation and decision-making in public life, as well as the elimination of violence, for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls”, and the flagship Generation Equality campaign, which calls for women’s right to decision-making in all areas of life, equal pay, equal sharing of unpaid care and domestic work, an end all forms of violence against women and girls, and health-care services that respond to their needs.

Around the world many women have stood, and continue to stand, on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis, as health care workers, caregivers, innovators, community organizers, full-time mothers turned teachers, and as some of the most exemplary and effective national leaders in combating the pandemic.

This year’s International Women’s Day theme of ‘women in leadership’ means a lot to us at En Avant. As two women working in partnership for over seven years, we firmly believe in the importance of women ‘having a seat at the table’. Having worked mostly in the financial services sector it is no surprise that there has rarely been a large number of women at Board or Executive level, no matter where we have worked, although this being said, it has been refreshing and promising to see the vast increase in female staff members within this industry. It would also be unfair not to point out the initiatives that are beginning to be put in place to ensure further equality within this industry, as well as many others. From B Corp certification looking at the diversification of a business through to female initiatives popping up left right and centre from both an internal and external perspective.

In addition to this, we are incredibly proud to have worked with a number of strong female leaders, and have had exposure to supporting female entrepreneurs, family heads, mothers, supportive wives and thriving female rising generation members.

Having worked as a Head of Marketing for over 13 years in a strongly male dominated world, Co-Founder of En Avant, Nicola Roigard, offers this view,

“There is more acceptance now than ever that women bring different experiences, perspectives and skills to the table, which is only natural. Female leaders worldwide have been known to make valuable contributions to decisions, policies and laws, as well as, more often than not, offering the compassionate delivery of communications in order to ensure the success of their efforts.

I may be biased, but as a proud New Zealander, it has been clear that throughout the Covid-19 pandemic there have been moments of advantage and success by countries that are women led, New Zealand being one of many examples, such as other heads of government in Denmark, Ethiopia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, New Zealand and Slovakia. Their speed, decisiveness and compassion enabled an effective initial response which was globally recognised.”

It is our belief at En Avant that female leadership can come in all shapes and sizes, from the importance of the role of a mother imparting family values upon the next generation and creating a nurturing environment in which for her wider family to flourish, through to female entrepreneurs and family business ‘heads’, who continue to innovate, inspire and progress their respective businesses.

The theme for this years’ International Women’s Day is incredibly strong and reflects the ever-developing world in which we live. Today, we join the world in celebrating International Women’s Day and fully support the vital work being undertaken by the UN, as well as their theme for this year.

Additional information related to the United Nations Observance of IWD 2021 is available on UN Women’s website.

[1] As of 8 November 2020. These data are compiled by UN Women based on information from UN Permanent Missions; only elected Heads of State are taken into consideration

Source: UN Women: https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2020/11/announcer-international-womens-day-2021

Why outsourcing, why us?

The number of businesses and individuals that are outsourcing some of their essential and non-essential functions to third-party companies are rising globally, to save on costs and streamline efficiencies and also save what is considered to be one of the most important assets of all, time.

Even prior to Covid-19, outsourcing marketing and other functions such as project management were considered to be a common approach, with outsourcing areas such as operational elements becoming increasingly prevalent in recent times for many start-ups and larger firms. However, this year’s pandemic has offered times of uncertainty and hardship for many and has pushed people to cut back on costs to ‘steady the ship’. This means that marketing (and other teams) budgets and teams have been either cut back or cut all together, meaning that the only way to continue moving forward with existing efforts is either to add additional workload to existing staff or diversify and outsource business functions to cost-effective third party contractors.

In this ever-changing world, we have witnessed that individuals and businesses are not only busier than ever but are pushing themselves hard to keep up with the likes of increasing digital trends in order to compete during the pandemic. There have been few businesses that have cut back efforts and instead have faced additional workload to continue to drive performance, which is both unsustainable and inefficient. These circumstances, teamed with the inability or unwillingness to commit to long-term staffing and budget requirements, is where outsourcing comes into its own.

Earlier this year, Capital Counselor, produced the following intriguing top outsourcing statistics:

In 2019, the worldwide outsourcing market was worth $92.5 billion.
The top reason for outsourcing (59%) is to save money and cut costs.
Around 300,000 jobs are outsourced by the US annually.

Around 37% of small businesses use outsourcing to handle at least one of their business processes.

With demands for outsourced marketing services increasing but the above mentioned challenges not seemingly budging any time soon, En Avant’s overall purpose is to act as an extension of you or your existing team(s) or to act independently on your behalf, providing several advantages for your business, which include:

Saving time. Our time is Your time.
Saving on costs and effectiveness.
Costing you less to deliver a better return on investment (ROI).
Giving you access to a broader pool of expertise.
Enable you to set a scope of work and budget, moving forward in a way that you are comfortable and confident with.

Additionally, there are several reasons outsourced marketing can be beneficial for businesses. Examples include:

You don’t have the expertise in-house.
You already have too much to do without taking on marketing or concierge activities.
You want to reduce spend on larger marketing firms or avoid hiring in-house.
You want to better position your business to achieve higher results and returns.

All businesses have different requirements and En Avant offers a private and personal approach, providing bespoke marketing and concierge services, ‘filling in the gaps’ in a way that businesses and individuals can trust and can tailor marketing packages to fit almost any budget.

For us, we owe a lot to the individuals and experiences that have shaped us throughout our lives and careers and believe that strong values and ethics, along with trust and dependability, are the key to success in our line of work. We take pride in everything that we do, from our strong relationships with clients and partners, through to delivering the final product and treating every opportunity as a new experience in which to immerse ourselves.

International Women's Day 2021: Achieving an equal future in a Covid-19 world

Why outsourcing, why us?

Let’s push things forward. Together.

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