Corporate Britain Gets Creative to Get More Women in Management
A new code of conduct is being introduced by British headhunters in the wake of criticism that the lack of women on their long and shortlists has been one of the main reasons for the lack of women in management and more specifically in the boardroom. The move follows an independent review into Women on Boards by Lord Davies published earlier this year. The main recommendation of the report, available from the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (www.bis.gov.uk), is that all UK companies included in the FTSE 100 should double their shares of female non-executive directors from currently 12.5 to 25 precent by 2015. If the target will not be achieved, mandatory quotas such as those in France may be introduced. UK headhunters may help reach this target by the new self-imposed code of conduct but critics argue that self-regulation is set to fail and that imposed quotas can serve as a greater ‘incentive’ (sic) for both headhunters and the companies who appoint them. The headhunters’ code of conduct, however, is not the first attempt for self-regulation in Britain. 2009 saw the launch of The Law Society Diversity Charter (available from http://www.lawsociety.org.uk), which sought the providers of legal services to implement diversity policies. The free-to-sign Charter also encourages FTSE 250 companies and equivalent public sector bodies to prefer the services of those law firms that have met the set diversity criteria. There are no reports of the impact this charter, or many others, has had.
Lord Davies’ report also recommends that FTSE 350 companies set their own targets and that companies advertise non-executive boards positions to ensure a greater diversity of applicants. The latter recommendation suggests that the pro-active outreach for diversity should be improved. These efforts to purposefully diversify boards may yield more signficant results than headhunter-only action. But there is antoher element involved in achieving diversity goals through recruitment. In a Financial Times article, writer Leyla Boulton presents the experiences of a number of French female top managers who report their own efforts to get noticed to and be in contact with headhunters to have greatly contributed to their career progression. In France, the number of non-executive directors will probably reach 20 percent by the end of the year, up from 2009’s 7 percent.
The slow progress in Gender Diversity over the past years, however, proves that many other aspects are also important when it comes to growing gender diversity – and many may have been ignored in the past. A couple of factors are highlighted in the recently published “National Survey on Women and Work” conducted by Marie Claire and Everywoman. According to the survey of 2,913 UK women, 62 percent said that age is a more important factor for a woman at work than for a man. 78 percent believe that being more attractive helps them communicate with others in the company. 60 and 59 percent said that male colleagues had a bigger chance at getting a raise or a promotion respectively. Conversely, 72 percent of the participants said they had never taken part in a mentoring scheme and the same number do not have one at their work place. Of those who had taken part in mentoring, 60 percent found it beneficial. A more positive result of the survey found that the large majority of women report a good work/life-balance. Karen Gil, founder of Everywoman, commented on the results of the survey by pointing out that real change cannot solely be achieved through quotas and the focus must rather be on nurturing talent from the start of their careers, recognition and repsect, as only these, not quotas, can lead to empowerment.
