Gender equality will be a major issue in 2013. The Workplace Gender Equality Act, passed by Parliament in November 2012, will put it front and centre for all businesses. From April this year, companies employing 100 or more will have to account for how much women earn compared to male colleagues and what sort of flexible working arrangements they provide.
Now this is not a social justice issue. It’s about business performance and it’s critical for the IT industry which is now being squeezed by a profound skills shortage with the National Broadband Network coming in.
A report from the Australian Computer Society to the government last year found the number of students obtaining IT qualifications in public education between 2002 and 2010 fell from 74,000 to 46,000. University enrolments in IT courses were in decline across the major states. A recent survey by the Australian Human Resources Institute put staff turnover in IT at 20.6 per cent. That compares with 18.5 per cent across all industries.
Clearly, resellers that find ways of recruiting and holding on to the best will be in a stronger position and they are in a better position if they don’t ignore half the workforce. It’s critical at a time when IBM’s Virginia Rometty and HP’s Meg Whitman both have come on board as CEOs of their respective companies.
So how should companies do it? Instead of starting with a gender audit, the first thing leaders need to do is look at their strategy and do a skills audit. What skills does the company need to better serve its market and outperform competitors? Do they need to beef up sales? Is more expertise needed in marketing? Should the company be focusing more on developing intellectual property? Are the IT systems up to scratch?
A proper skills audit has to be unbiased. Gender, ethnicity, age or whether or not the person is physically challenged are irrelevant. Irrespective of the diversity question, it’s about getting the best skills for the organisation to deliver strategically.
If the skills audit is unbiased, more highly trained women will become senior managers. The bottom line here is that the company is not fishing out of the same pool which leaves them open to everyone’s skills. And if they have a customer base where the majority of customers are female, or where women are making the majority of the spending decisions, then it makes sense to have that perspective in senior management.”
Companies can then follow that up with gender audits and pay audits. That identifies any disparities that flow on from the skills audit. Pay audits can be done easily by HR departments at the push of a button. These have to follow on from the skills audit.
Significantly, a company can only do a skills audit if it is very clear about its strategy. The business leader has to know where the company is going.
Doing a skills audit will allow the company to set down a target for the number of female employees it needs, and the number of female managers.
There are other strategies. The most obvious is having flexible work arrangements. Women place greater importance on flexibility as it allows them to balance work and family demands. A flexibility program is more likely to attract talent. The programs can include variable start and finishing times, working from home schemes, study leave, phase-in retirements and systems that allow people to purchase annual leave.
There are also schemes that allow people to accrue 12 weeks over three years and take three months leave. Increasing maternity leave is another approach. Some companies, like engineering firm Parsons Brinckerhoff, increased their maternity leave from six weeks to 16 and it is now regarded as a good employer for women. The firm estimates that 29 per cent of its managers are women.
One of the problems with flexibility schemes is that many managers struggle with the idea of managing someone who isn't there all the time. For many of them, it’s a case of out of sight, out of mind.
What they should be doing instead is looking at outputs rather than inputs, what people deliver rather than how they deliver it. Managers actually need to negotiate what sort of flexibility is required. If a woman returning from maternity leave, for example, tells the company that she wants to work three days a week, they need to work out exactly what that means. They need to work out who is going to do what when they’re not there.
It’s also important to maintain extra communication with people on flexible packages so that they don’t feel out of the loop. They can do that with regular meetings. Alternatively, they can use Skype or do it by email, text and instant messaging. They need to do that at least once a week so that employees are kept in the loop. Career strategies also need to be part of those discussions.
Other approaches include mentoring and leadership development programs where women are given stretch roles that they normally wouldn’t do. According to one academic study, aspiring leaders who have been mentored adopt a greater self-belief in their abilities to lead. Identifying a female talent pipeline for key senior leadership roles, pay equity reviews and having policies that ensure that the final short list for senior leadership positions includes one female and male candidate would also work. So would quarterly reporting to the board on gender diversity targets.
Again, this is not about social justice. Having more women on board means the company is better equipped to serve its market.
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