Time to Recalibrate
Is paid parental leave the Incentive you need to Transition into Tech
Is increasing the number of women on boards the magic bullet for gender equality?
According to WGEA 2021 report, “Increasing the share of women on boards leads to better outcomes for gender equality …across a suite of metrics”.* In fact they found that a board of 50-50 has led to a 6.3% reduction in the gender pay gap for full-time managers.
Why does this make a difference?
According to Paul Zahra Australian Retailers Association CEO, and judge for the Gender Equity Awards,” If you take a look at retail, women contribute around 75% of consumer spending and make up 57% of our workforce, yet only occupy 27% of board positions at Australian retailers. For a business to truly achieve gender equality, the leadership needs to come from the top and companies need to ask themselves if their executives are a reflection of their broader workforce and customers, and if not – why not?” He sees the results across the entire retail industry and he agrees that “Gender equality comes down to leadership, and the best action corporate Australia can take is setting and maintaining a 50-50 representation of women on company boards.”
And if we take Australia as a whole, whilst some businesses are taking action, there is still a long way to go. Many of the companies claim the problem is the lack of talented women who can contribute to boards.
We asked another judge, Jo Plummer, experienced board Chair, whether she felt this was an adequate excuse.
“Like with most change, it requires the courage to think and act differently. It’s often the embedded systems that hold us back when it comes to creative thinking and like with little red cars, once you see one……they’re everywhere! I was speaking with an experienced female recruiter regarding ASX directorships just two months ago who told me their clients would only likely consider candidates with C-suite experience*#@! We know that is a very small pond to fish in and is unlikely to address gender equity across ASX directorships. Great female talent exists in all sorts of crevices which we must be prepared to explore.” A very small pond indeed with only 18 CEO in ASX listed companies as of 2021. She went on to suggest that skilled CEOs were to be found in our entrepreneur community running medium businesses.
From the recruitment perspective yes, good talent is hard to find, especially if you are looking for a tick box solution. There are many capable women out there that could do a brilliant job as board directors, however, all too often firms are insisting they have ASX, C-suite experience. It is the next bias to look for board directors who reflect the existing team, rather than reflect their consumers & stakeholders. Sharon Crain, Managing Director, Open Door Recruitment and Development has this challenge every day as she focuses on female recruitment. Her advice is to businesses looking to find more female board members need to “make a conscious decision to change and be willing to compromise to achieve that change”.
Encouraging open-minded thinking is one-way boards can open themselves up to more diversity which has been proven to lead to better profits and business success.
If you know of other activities or companies that are driving gender equality we encourage you to invite them to enter Recalibrate: Gender Equity Awards to determine what are the best practices for businesses of all sizes. We want to know who the individuals are making a difference, and to celebrate their achievements. The goal is to speed up gender equity by raising awareness of great behaviour and sharing best practices.
The Awards close on 30th August. https://aij.dzr.mybluehost.me/website_40de3b07
Gender Equality v’s Equity, what’s it all about?
There is a lot of confusion over equality and equity, especially in relation to the gender discussion.
I think we would all agree that in Australia women are not equally represented in government or in leadership. In a record shift, we now have 37% women in the house of representatives and 48% in the senate.
Women are not equally paid with the gender pay gap sitting at 13,8% on average based on the WGEA report in March 2022, which means a $13,000 difference on average per year. And that’s the reality of the situation.
Equality is being managed in many organisations with a focus on equal pay for equal work. This is especially happening well in the heavily regulated industries like mining where the pay gap sits at 4-5%. Whilst in professional services, science and technology where jobs are defined around experience, portfolios and networks there are many more reasons to differentiate, and we see the pay gap as high as 24%.
By comparison, Equity is about giving resources to enable everyone to achieve the same goal. This might be about allowing a woman to become a partner in a law firm whilst working part-time hours. It might be about providing the resources to increase the number of women in C-suite positions. To stem the leakage we see equal numbers at entry levels down to 18% at CEO.
Liberation seems very distant but this is about removing the systemic issues that see women underpaid, under-supported and unpromoted.
What we need to know is what practices and actions make a real difference?
Is it a culture where everyone is trained to overcome bystander mentality, where opinions are encouraged and all ideas are heard?
Or is it about flexibility where people can contribute to the organisation at times that suit them enabling them to work around their many carer responsibilities?
This and many other questions we are working to discover with the Gender Equity Awards- recalibrate. Why equity you might ask? Well because there are about 100 years of equity action we need to do in order to achieve equality. So if you know organisations or individuals making a difference please nominate them for the Gender Equity Awards.
Entry is easy taking about 8 minutes for organisations and 5 minutes for individuals https://aij.dzr.mybluehost.me/website_40de3b07/