According to the International Labour Organization, many Asian economies are finding it difficult to respond to the skills needed for the workforce in this era of globalisation, emerging technologies, and changing nature of work. Inevitably, historically marginalised groups like women are more at risk of losing out as a result. In Singapore, official statistics show that fully employed women aged 25 to 54 earned SGD 0.86 for every SGD 1.00 earned by their male counterparts.
However, despite this, organisations can actually leverage this current moment to drive inclusivity, and ultimately, grow the business. Tapping automation and low-code technology can provide impetus to cushion the impact of talent shortages, while making the business more efficient and resilient.
Rethinking an equitable and diverse workforce
In male-dominated fields like tech, women often lack the opportunities to make their mark on the sector, which can hamper business growth in the long run. For instance, McKinsey finds that advancing women’s equality in Asia Pacific could add USD 4.5 trillion to their collective GDP annually in 2025.
This underscores that business success today rests on more than just products or services. Diversity, equity and inclusion is now an increasingly important factor too, and this is reflected in Singapore as well. Low code/no-code technology reduces the level of expertise required for women to use technologies, enabling them to engage in more strategic tasks and carry out their work with greater ease.
From beefing up security in digital banking apps to releasing advanced e-commerce apps, low-code/no-code platforms can widen access and equip an individual that understands the business intimately with the tools to improve processes and create value.
Used this way, low-code technology increases productivity and will also demonstrate the company’s commitment to employee growth, and consequently, boosts talent retention.
Innovation and technology for gender equality
Encouraging women to study STEM subjects is just one way to develop a strong talent pipeline. As technology continues to evolve and IT teams need to go through a shift, the skills required to keep up with changing business demands are likewise evolving rapidly.
The under-representation of women in the tech sector, if not addressed, will further entrench talent gaps, at a significant cost to the business. With the rise of the citizen developer, learning the ropes of new tools has also fundamentally changed. By giving women exposure to low-code platforms and automation, this specific challenge can be ameliorated.
Low-code and the rise of citizen developers
Traditionally, low-code solutions were ruled by technocrats: coders, developers, and IT experts that possess the skills to build applications, automate workflows, and solve technical business problems. This resulted in a generation of citizen developers who were capable of developing complex applications, and widgets using visual drag-and-drop interfaces.
The simplicity of development using these interfaces has driven the popularity and growth of low-code platforms, and according to Gartner, the market for this technology is estimated to be valued at USD26.9 billion this year, a 19.6 percent increase from 2022
Low-code development levels the playing field
Low-code solutions also break technological walls by enabling citizen developers, including women, to harness advanced technologies that they were previously locked out from. Now, technologies such as artificial intelligence, digital workflows and cognitive capture are accessible to them through low-code platforms. Utilising these tools, citizen developers can bring greater efficiency and speed to internal processes.
By encouraging women to take up low-code development, businesses can accelerate productivity, efficiency and returns on investments, by giving their innovators and non-technical business users modern capabilities to deploy task automation, build workflows and process documents. At the same time, women are empowered to carve their own path in tech.
Low-code technology allows women to overcome historic barriers to entry, enabling them to carve their own path in tech, as well as bring organisation-wide transformation to business processes that reduce manual work and errors.
Most importantly, empowering women exposes the business to a more diverse outlook, and that in itself is proof of the business value of gender equality. Embracing it positions businesses to flourish and achieve true digital transformation.
About the author
Irene Hwa is Senior Director, Field Marketing Asia-Pacific with intelligent automation provider Kofax.
She has more than 20 years’ experience across global technology and telecommunications companies in Europe, the Middle East, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific, including extensive roles in stakeholder management, customer-centric marketing planning, marketing intelligence, media relations, campaign execution, and marketing performance management.
She boasts a successful track record in developing and implementing marketing strategies and campaigns on a local and regional level, and is familiar and sensitive to cultural differences in marketing strategy and execution for global organisations in the Asia-Pacific market.
