Getting to Gender Diversity Survey

Introduction: Getting to gender diversity in 2014

In a recent survey we asked a selection of Australian

People & Culture leaders to comment on what their

focus is in 2014 for improving gender diversity in their

organisations. We asked them to share their plans,

what’s worked in the past, what’s not worked (and

why) and to provide some frank and honest feedback

about what they see as the biggest challenges in

increasing the participation of women in the workforce

at all levels – graduate through to senior leadership.

The questions we asked are supplied on the following

page.

The findings from the gender diversity survey are

steeped in one overriding truth – complex challenges

require complex solutions. The people and culture

leaders who answered our questions have had mixed

experiences with the seemingly endless array of

solutions for increasing the participation of women in

the workforce – particularly at senior levels. And their

focus for 2014 and beyond reflects this.

Fifty-nine percent of respondents believe there is a gap

between formal statements and intentions in leadership

statements and actual practice. Too much talk and

rhetoric and not enough action. The reasons for this are

not clear. Most likely the change process is more

complex than organisations imagined it would be. And

that change takes time.

The findings conclude the barriers to effecting change

are centred around:

• Empty pipelines

• Lack of leadership commitment

• HR championing the cause and not business lines

• An inability to move from awareness to action, and

• Resistance to changing long held workplace practices.

Twenty-two organisations participated in the Macfarlan

Lane Gender Diversity survey and we thank them for

their input and candour.

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1. Does your organisation have a diversity and inclusion policy?

2. Does your organisation have a diversity and inclusion council

or equivalent?

3. Does your organisation have one or more diversity

champions?

4. If yes, what role level are they?

5. Has your CEO (or equivalent) made a public statement or

taken a public position about gender diversity in your

organisation?

6. If yes, in what forum did the statement take place (e.g.

media interview, annual general meeting etc.)

7. What is the percentage of women in your organisation?

8. What is the percentage of women in senior leadership roles in

your organisation?

9. Has your organisation set any targets for gender diversity?

10. If yes, what are they?

11. What are the top five ranking initiatives your organisation is

implementing or continuing to implement over the next

twelve months to improve gender diversity?

a. Unconscious bias awareness training

b. Programs targeted specifically at women’s skills

development

c. Mentoring programs for women

d. Gender neutral talent development programs

e. Required level of female participation in talent development

initiatives

f. Formal selection of and investment in high performing

women

g. Incentive and/or penalties directed at gender diversity

targets or activities

h. Others (please name)

12. Do your people managers have gender diversity

improvement figures and/or activities formally included in

their KPIs or other performance measures?

13. If yes, what are they?

14. What has worked to improve gender diversity in your

organisation and why?

15. What hasn’t worked and why?

16. Does your organisation distinguish between full time

flexible working arrangements (full time hours spread

flexibly in terms at time at the office), part-time working

arrangements (less than 38 hour standard working week)

and part-time flexible working arrangements (less than 38

hour standard working week spread flexibly in terms at

time at the office)?

17. What is the single biggest barrier to gender diversity in

your organisation today?

18. On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being no importance 10 being

business critical) how important do you think improving

gender diversity is to your organisation’s future?

19. What ranking would your CEO/MD give to question 18?

20. Do you perceive a gap between formal statements and

intentions in leadership statements and actual practice?

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The basics

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Fifty percent of our survey respondents have a workforce of more

than 5,000. Typically organisations of this size have evolved

workplace policies and practices. Seventy-three percent of

respondent organisations have a diversity and inclusion policy.

However, forty-five percent have no formal diversity and inclusion

council or equivalent. Interestingly this number jumps back up again

for diversity and inclusion champions – with seventy-three percent

of organisations having one or more diversity champions.

Role level of diversity champion

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Women and women in leadership

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The diversity results we see in the

press on a regular basis were

reflected in the results of our survey.

Nineteen of our surveyed companies

answered this question.

The results are consistent with

market numbers with parity close in

only two organisations.

As can be seen in the graph one

responding organisation has a

workforce of sixty percent women

with less than five percent in senior

leadership roles.

Targets for gender diversity?

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Where a surveyed organisation is

setting targets for diversity – sixty

four percent of respondents – the

measures in place include:

• Anywhere from 10% to 50% at

senior leader level

• Anywhere from 40% to 50% at

Board level

• Graduate intake measures

• In one case senior leaders are

required to have at least one

woman on the direct reports

team within eighteen months

Top ranking gender diversity initiatives

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Respondents named the top diversity initiatives for 2014 as:

1. Gender neutral talent development programs (and ensuring programs

had 50% gender balance)

2. Mentoring programs for women

3. Unconscious bias awareness training

4. Programs targeted specifically at women's skills development

5. Required level of female participation in talent development initiatives

6. Formal selection for an investment in high performing women

7. Incentive and/or penalties directed at gender diversity targets or

activities

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Less than fifty percent of respondents have

diversity targets embedded in Key

Performance Indicators (KPIs). Those who do

this measure a variety of data including:

• Measures for each business unit related to

talent identification, participation in talent

programs, headcount, hires, turnover etc.

• Ratio of males to females in the

professional roles

• Percentage of females in a business unit

and percentage of female leaders

• Targets for retention of identified talent

• Not less than a two percent increase in

representation of women for the divisional

heads and other group executive members

Key Performance Indicators

What has worked to improve gender diversity in your

organisation and why?

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All of our surveyed organisations, bar one (who responded: ‘it's not working’) have seen some initiatives

make some improvement in gender diversity. Here’s a snapshot of where they see the most traction:

Targets, Data and Measurement – the old adage ‘you can’t manage what hasn’t been measured’ rings

true – the only way to know if progress is being achieved is to have a start point, implement targets and

measure outcomes.

Leadership Commitment – anywhere an organisation’s CEO/MD and executive leadership team (as well

as line managers) are wholeheartedly on board and actively promoting the criticality of gender diversity

will enjoy greater change.

Awareness Raising – ensuring the whole workforce (men and women) understand their own natural

biases and the context and reality in which women are excluded.

Mentoring and Other Development Programs – there is an absolute need for gender specific programs

which support skills development, confidence and strategy building.

Grass Roots Engagement – rather primarily focussing on women beginning to progress to leadership

positions, effective outcomes are seen when companies are focusing on their graduate intakes and junior

women.

There is a place for all these approaches – in fact an integrated approach is essential – implementing any

of these in isolation will not effect change.

What hasn’t worked and why?

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There is no magic silver bullet mix of programs, culture and initiatives which automatically result in

greater gender diversity. Inevitably there are failures. Listed below are what our surveyed respondents

view as the most common failings of gender diversity initiatives.

Funding commitment – lack of financial input in to creating an integrated approach to improving gender

diversity.

Leadership and Management Disinterest – a gender diversity program cannot hope to succeed if an

organisation’s leadership group is not on board. Simple.

Lack of Commercial Business Case – the argument for the economic imperative for organisations to be

gender diverse needs to be made – especially to the bean counters and other senior leadership. Until the

economic argument as well as the moral argument is won there can be little progress.

Inflexible Work Practices – traditional workplace rules need to be thrown out the window and new and

innovative practices tried and tested. They won’t all work, but if we keep doing the same thing, we’ll

keep getting the same results.

Hope – this one’s a doozy, because if wishes were horses, there’d be a quid to be made in chaff these

days. Aspirational statements not backed with real commitment does not work.

Gender Specific Programs – a controversial entry in to this list. Sometimes a circuit breaker is providing

effective career development skills specifically in selected cohorts of women.

Targeted Recruitment – in isolation this tactic lacks results. The inflow of talent may be matched with an

outflow of talent.

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Flexible working arrangements

Our survey respondents are offering flexible working arrangements as

demonstrated below.

What is the single biggest barrier to gender diversity in

your organisation today?

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Five clear themes emerged in the answers to this question.

Pipeline – many organisations want to appoint women to roles but they simply cannot find them. For

example, engineering degrees still only have 10% enrolments from women1.

Leadership commitment – the visible hearts and minds determination from the top to effect change is

still not apparent.

HR vs The business – HR can provide skilled advice and talent development ideas, but senior line

leaders need to own the diversity objective: it cannot be handed to HR.

Unconscious bias – although awareness training has been de rigueur for many companies over the past

few years – taking the next step to implement practical initiatives to combat that implicit thinking hasn’t

taken place.

A need to change the rules – flexible, progressive working arrangements cannot be formed with a

cookie cutter. Not all scenarios and situations are right for all people or all organisations.

Until we can understand the barriers we cannot hope to create the solutions.

1http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/women-australia

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Real and long lasting change comes from

the top. If the leaders in these

organisations are not on board – hearts

and minds – then progress will continue to

stall.

The sentiment in the final two questions of

our survey was revealing.

First responses showed that generally

gender diversity is seen as important to

future of organisational success. Most

organisations rated its importance as

between seven and ten.

Many organisations guessed their CEOs

would rate about the same. Alarmingly

though there were a significant percentage

(almost 50%) who stated their CEO would

give gender diversity lesser importance – in

several cases by a significant proportion.

Alignment