Mentoring and flexible working are key to boosting number of women in senior roles
QAS the co-founder of a relatively new but growing SME I have become increasingly aware of hints of gender disparity at the more senior levels. My experience over the last few years has suggested that more men are reaching senior management and board positions, and while one of the primary reasons for that is simply that more have applied for these roles, I am very cognisant of the fact that I have a responsibility to ensure equal opportunity for my employees. As the business grows I want to look into what we can do to bring more of our female workforce through to senior level?
AThis is a great question to receive from the person at the highest level of an organisation, because all too often businesses lack a sense of accountability on this. We need more women at the boardroom table, but they can’t get there on their own. Women make up roughly 50pc of the population, yet lag behind in terms of representation at the top levels of industry.
Is it true a woman must be better than a man to get that vacant seat at the boardroom table? Is it more about who you know than what you know? Or is it about who knows what you know?
We regularly read that women in senior positions result in improvements in productivity, profitability, innovation and culture of an organisation.
In the US there is strong investment growth in companies that advance gender equality as part of their culture.
Gender lens strategies that invest in public market securities rose from around $100m in 2014 to over $900m by the end of 2017, making it one of the fastest-growing areas of sustainable investing.
Yet the advance of women to senior positions is painfully slow. A recent Institute of Directors in Ireland survey illustrates that it remains difficult to get access to the boardroom if you don’t have contacts at that level. Only 19pc of respondents were appointed to boards through independent recruitment — 42pc were directly approached by a member of the board or by the whole board, and 67pc knew up to three or more people on the board before they joined it. It is likely that such appointments could lead to group-think where the majority of people around the table are from similar backgrounds and are in the same age bracket with a resulting lack of diversity.
It is clear that it will require planned and deliberate actions to increase the profile of women.
Mentoring programmes, where both men and women encourage women to apply for senior positions, are key to creating a pipeline of women with the experience and confidence to take on roles.
This support can include ensuring access to training and to opportunities to demonstrate ability by leading project teams. Women are less inclined to talk about their achievements than male colleagues and are more likely to share the credit for a successful project. It is important that others in the organisation ‘know what that woman knows’ so that they can champion her.
Flexible and parent-friendly work environments are key too. Organisations like AIB that offer two weeks’ paid paternity leave for parents and have programmes to ease employees’ transitions, provide valuable support.
This can be of particular benefit in more senior roles, where many more women than men have partners who work full-time. Gillian Harford, head of diversity and inclusion at AIB, revealed that it has achieved 27pc female participation at board level, almost 40pc at senior management level and 55pc at general management/supervisory levels.
This has been achieved through a combination of raising awareness, improving talent pipelines, creating more agile workplaces and minding the gap integrating careers and family absences.
The ideal non-executive director has a good sector and senior management experience. It is critical that women have solid experience at senior management level, and smart organisations go the extra mile to nurture female talent.
Women candidates for senior management and boardroom positions must be seen to be of equal status and potential to men. They should be judged on merit. However, it will take affirmative actions to create a pool of women ready and experienced enough to take up these roles. Quotas, mentoring programmes and flexible-working environments will help. These initiatives must be led from the top and practiced at all levels of management if they are to be successful.