| Vive La Difference |
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Vive la difference
The purpose of recruitment is to get the best people into the right jobs. Companies that get it wrong pay the economic price. We are all prone to unconscious discrimination however spotless our credentials and this can interfere with our ability to make rational judgements about a candidate’s suitability. Yet so many organisations lack procedures that will enable them to make those important decisions objectively. Alan Sugar throwing women’s CVs into the bin is probably just the tip of the iceberg. How does he know that they are women’s CVs anyway? Why is all the personal data not removed before sifting so that an objective assessment of the individual’s abilities can be made, free from conscious and unconscious discrimination. However just for once we have a thing or two to teach our cousins on the other side of the pond. In the USA, the widespread practice of maternal profiling, building up information on a woman’s age, marital status and family commitments, has resulted in mothers being 79% less likely to be hired compared with non-mothers with equal employment experience. This practice is illegal here. Our equality legislation has existed for over 30 years to level the playing field, protecting minority groups. Yet recent press reports indicate that wide scale structural discrimination still exists for women and probably other minority groups as well. Lets step back from all these emotive issues and calmly get back to basics. If the purpose of recruitment is to get the best people into the right jobs then maybe we should turn the issue on its head and ask the question, “Why is employing women good for business?” In answering this question my thinking is, of course, influenced by my work as a women’s development consultant. So in researching this article, to avoid bias, I put this question to a group of engineers at one of my client sites. They backed up my ideas and reassured me these are mainstream concerns in big business. So these are the hard facts telling you just why women are good for business. Financial success. There is already significant evidence from the USA that companies with more women on their boards are financially more successful. However, just parachuting in senior executives will not deliver the goods. There needs to be an organisational culture that supports women at all levels, providing flow through of talent to the top. Competitive advantage. This is about diversity, creativity and competing for talent. Some of the most successful companies are those that get the closest to their customers and to their suppliers. This means reflecting the diversity of your customer base in your organisational diversity, a practice commended in the book Funky Business. This is starting to be recognised with, for example, the all female design teams now found at some car manufacturers. Most organisations are a long way from having the population gender ratio (about 50:50) at all levels. Improved productivity. Anyone involved in recruitment at any level today will tell you of the war for talent in which they are engaged to secure the most able recruits. However, for many companies, and maybe Amstrad is one of them, there is a blind spot where they are overlooking the fuller contribution that could be made by half of their workforce, especially in more senior positions. This amounts to a shocking waste of talent for UK plc. The Equalities and Human Rights Commission commented on the problem saying that, "Productivity in Britain is suffering because women's skills are not being used to the full." We need to be aware that we will lose the global race for success if we do not focus on getting the best return from all our staff, whatever their gender, ethnic background, age or physical ability. Future proofing. The demographics are changing and we are already suffering a recruitment crisis where there are not enough qualified men to fill vacant positions. Women, older workers and minority groups represent the future labour market growth. Ignoring this now will lead to playing catch with your competitors as they surge ahead in the new economic future. In industries such as engineering the problem is so acute that we are bringing in foreign talent. Addressing this with schemes to attract more young women into relevant degrees doesn’t give a payback until several years in the future. Shorter-term gains will be delivered through mentoring schemes for women such as that offered by SEMTA. Successful leadership. With the passing of the command and control culture in most organisations, emotionally intelligent leaders are on the new front line of management. They are able to deal with difficult employees, conflicting opinions at board level and the 21st century workplace culture of change, whilst maintaining equilibrium. They have a strong sense of self and provide consistency, doing the right thing at the right time. People skills, empathy, building relationships and self awareness are key EI skills where women are, on average, more adept. As it is now patently obvious that legislation is not delivering what business needs for success, we must focus on change from the inside, developing women’s abilities to function and succeed within the existing frameworks. When faced with recruitment strategies that don’t even get them through the door they need to be working very hard to carve out their own niche and to turn the tables so that the headhunters are calling them. In my experience of working with women at all levels in both the public and private sector, I have found that from the top to the bottom they repeatedly exhibit a chronic lack of confidence. This acts as a brake on their wider promotion through the ranks, hinders their ability to market their abilities adequately when job seeking and prevents them gaining recognition of their achievements on a day-to-day basis. On single gender training programmes they are ready and relieved to talk about this in an atmosphere where they know they will be understood. We can then start to encourage self belief, self reliance and the host of qualities required to put more into their workplace and achieve their full potential. If your recruitment isn’t delivering the talent that you need you should look to the talent you already posses. Personal development programmes are often the first step taken by organisations to start to address inequities and the cohort of women from these then form the vanguard, driving forward new initiatives. This is happening in the public sector, driven by government targets, but the commercial sector is lagging about five to ten years behind in their investment in development for women, older workers and minority groups. Hugely significant results can be achieved, drawing out the 'people potential', helping individuals see their true worth and removing self-imposed limitations and perceptions. Supporting these by the development of internal and external networks and mentoring programmes can embed the positive change in the new organisational culture. Overcoming the unconscious prejudice can sometimes take a little longer. What was your picture of my group of engineers? Scruffy, beer-swilling men with greasy hands and overalls? They were in fact all women, gathered in a wine bar in Barrow.
Dr.Sue Hewitt This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Dr.Sue Hewitt PhD is a Licensed Springboard Trainer, Licensed Spring Forward Trainer, Licensed Fresh Steps Trainer, Holder of Certificate in Training Practice (Distinction), Associate Member of the CIPD, a Licensed Simplicity Trainer, coaches Emotions and Behaviour at Work (EBW) and emotional intelligence assessment, as well being a trained NLP Master Practitioner.
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