The future of family-friendly workplaces is here.
In May 2025, UN Women, LeadWomen and TalentCorp officially launched the inaugural Malaysia WEPs Corporate Action Lab (WEPs CAL) Innovating the future family-friendly workplaces at the Majestic Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. This inaugural Lab is an initiative under the UN Women Gender Action Lab: Innovation and Impact for Gender Equality in the Asia-Pacific, supported by the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). This occasion makes Malaysia the first of four CALs to be launched this year.
What is the WEPs Corporation Action Lab?
The WEPsCAL is a 6-9-month cohort-based learning and innovation programme to support a group of committed companies to design, pilot test, and track results of solutions to address specific thematic areas of the WEPs based on the local market and business needs. Through the Corporate Action Lab, UN Women leverages tailored tools and resources to facilitate benchmarking, action planning and results tracking. Leaning into the definition of ‘lab’, WEPsCAL provides companies with the opportunity to experiment and develop new strategies and solutions to fit their own unique needs and gender equality goals, ultimately contributing to increased business productivity and innovation, brand recognition and talent acquisition and retention, as well as broader inclusive economic growth.
What is the CAL focus in Malaysia and who is participating?
In line with the Malaysia MADANI Economic Framework to increase women’s labour force participation rate in Malaysia to 60% by 2033, the Malaysia WEPsCAL brings together a cohort of businesses to develop and pilot-test new solutions to the challenge of increasing women’s participation and retention in the workforce by implementing family-friendly workplace policies and practices.
While the Malaysia cohort may work across all areas of the WEPs to build more family-friendly workplaces, this Lab specifically aligns with Principle 2 Treat all Women and Men Fairly are Work without Discrimination.
The following WEPs signatories have committed to join the first Malaysia cohort: AirAsia, FGV Holdings Berhad, Grant Thornton Malaysia, HAYS Malaysia, Kiddocare, Mastrak, Micron Memory Malaysia, PEOPLElogy Development, QSR Brands (M) Holdings, Sagemaker Asia, and Wipro Unza Malaysia.
Why Does This Matter?
Creating family-friendly workplaces is essential to increasing women’s participation in the workforce and building more inclusive, resilient economies. In Malaysia, a 2018 study by Khazanah Research Institute found that almost 60.2% of women outside the labour force cited housework and family responsibilities as the reason for not being in paid employment, compared with only 3.6% men. Similarly, 31.5% of women were underemployed, meaning they worked less than 30 hours weekly due to house chores, compared with only 4.1% of men.1
When businesses adopt practices that support caregiving responsibilities for all employees, including men, it not only enables women to return to, remain in, and thrive in the workplace—it also drives economic growth, social cohesion, and broader societal well-being.
Public-private collaboration is key to developing scalable, practical solutions that empower women, break down systemic barriers, and ensure that gender equality contributes to national and regional prosperity. The key WEPs implementing partners for the Malaysia CAL are LeadWomen and Talent Corporation Malaysia Berhad (TalentCorp). As the national agency under the Ministry of Human Resources, TalentCorp drives Malaysia's talent strategy and supports women in the workforce through its WANITA MyWIRA unit (Women Programmes), . Its signature Career Comeback Programme (CCP) will be a core component of the WEPsCAL.
The WEPs CAL in Malaysia marks a major step toward gender equality in business, enabling companies to assess their status, test innovations and track progress, and advance more effectively.
What is next?
Following the launch, the WEPs CAL cohort joined an intensive Ideation Workshop to share best practices, use UN Women tools for assessment and action planning, and co-create solutions to pilot over the next seven months. WEPsCALs will soon launch in Cambodia, Indonesia, and the Philippines focusing on inclusive leadership, women in technology, and family-friendly workplaces, respectively
At the regional level, UN Women is introducing the ‘Asia-Pacific Sustainable Finance Systems Lab’, partnering with stock exchanges to make financial markets more gender-inclusive. Regional Systems Labs (RSL) are long-term, multistakeholder initiatives (1-3 years) to co-create and pilot solutions to address systemic gender equality challenges. Stay tuned for more information on the Sustainable Finance Lab.
Supported by the Government of Australia in its initial 4-year phase, the Gender Action Lab (GAL) aims to evolve into a long-term, multi-stakeholder and multi-donor platform driving gender-transformative action across Asia and the Pacific. Looking ahead to 2030, programming modalities smay expand to include further thematic WEPsCALs, RSLs, policy labs, action research, entrepreneurship accelerators and innovative private sector partnerships.
For more information and to enquire about partnering with UN Women through GAL, please contact us at genderactionlab@unwomen.org. Learn more about the Gender Action Lab in the introductory brief here.
