Employee engagement company Reward Gateway is supporting International Women’s Day by encouraging all female staff to take the afternoon off to take part in educational and volunteering work.

Reward Gateway has achieved a 50:50 male-to-female ratio, as well as no gender pay gap and volunteers all information in regular diversity reports. However, for millions of women globally, this kind of equality still isn’t the case and in a show of solidarity, the company is preparing itself for International Women’s Day and the A Day Without A Woman initiative on Wednesday 8 March.

Glenn Elliott, founder and CEO of Reward Gateway said: “Our mission is to make the world a better place to work and as such, I’m encouraging all 175 women at Reward Gateway to take 1pm to 6pm off on Wednesday to stand with women who have no access to safe, fairly paid work.

“Everyone at Reward Gateway benefits from a diverse and strong workforce. We all want to stand strong and show that even though we maintain healthy gender equality, we absolutely support those that are still facing this struggle.”

Reward Gateway, which has seven offices across the globe, will be organising both educational and volunteering activities in each location, in the afternoon of International Women’s Day for female staff. Its female employees can also choose to volunteer in their own way for the afternoon.

As set by the A Day Without A Woman initiative, the men of Reward Gateway will be encouraged to support the initiative by avoiding shopping for one day, except at businesses owned by women or minorities, and wear the colour red. Furthermore, the men of Reward Gateway can join the women in taking a volunteering afternoon but will be encouraged to take their leave on a different date so that they can stay and cover all the amazing women who won’t be at their desks.