BUSINESS WARNED DIVERSITY IN THE WORKPLACE
IS VITAL FOR THE FUTURE
The findings of a report commissioned by Durler Consulting on ‘senior women returners’ in the workplace has clearly identified that UK business must rethink its attitude to diversity. With many companies appointing Diversity/Leadership Directors this survey became a timely insight into what the workforce want and don’t want. It clearly highlighted that senior executive women believe that they have a major part to play in their companies’ future, but that open and honest dialogue about flexible working conditions was essential.
Another contributing factor is the traditional attitudes of a company’s relationship with women executives going on maternity leave. The report highlights that this needs to be re-examined and changes made to ensure good engagement with senior women leaders in the future.
The report identified that the long hours that UK companies work is bringing extremely high pressure on work pattern choices for all executives and that flexibility to work when and wherever they want will be important in attracting future high-flying talent. Additional benefits including holiday entitlement selections, sabbaticals, mentoring, coaching and more freedom to perform their job efficiently whilst still delivering against performance targets, will be pivotal in defining new contracts of engagement.
Julian Dawson of Durler Consulting states that women candidates for senior management appointments are now being very selective about the organisations for which they will work. Primarily they look to measure and review a company’s work ethos, gender diversity programmes, family facility policies and returner’s management cover. Men too are beginning to demand more flexibility from an organisation's culture particularly where the partner is the major breadwinner and role reversal for child-caring is an issue.
BETTER DIVERSITY BALANCE INCREASES RETURN ON INVESTMENT
Research revealed that in the FTSE100 list 1 in 10 non-executive posts and 1 in 40 senior posts were held by women. In the US, companies with the highest representation of women in top management achieved 34 per cent better financial performance than companies with below average representation. Diversity in the workplace includes talent differentiation between men and women, cultures and ages. The options of choice proliferate across all age groups and a key conclusion of this research was the need for businesses to heed this ‘wake-up’ call.
The business case is proven by companies that have embraced this cultural change, but resistance by UK traditional thinking organisations could inhibit future success and growth by not attracting the best talent. With a diminishing work force as the population contracts, businesses cannot afford to lose well qualified and knowledgeable senior management be they male or female.
PROFESSIONS AT RISK
In the UK it is the professions that run the highest financial risk by not putting in place adequate maternity management solutions. In the UK 23.9% of trainee barristers and two-thirds of medical students are now female. By 2012 the majority of doctors will be women. The loss of these exceptionally qualified women comes at a high cost if they decide not to return to work post maternity leave. It is estimated that the replacement period can stretch to as long as eighteen months. The cost to a company could run at three times a year’s salary with bonuses, search and management costs. Most of the women interviewed in the survey were at director level earning over £100k.
In the city, women felt that the whole culture surrounding maternity leave needed re-addressing and 75% of those interviewed declared feeling very vulnerable and unsure that the same job would really be there when they returned to work, with their best clients being re-assigned to other executives. They felt that flexi-working or job sharing was deemed not practical both from a performance and financial perspective.
REDEFINING EXECUTIVE CONTRACTS
According to Simon Whysall, a Senior Solicitor in Denton Wilde Sapte LLP’s leading Employment and Benefit Practice, the current legal framework is focused upon childcare but this is an ever-evolving area. New changes, being introduced in April 2007, will widen the right to maternity leave, encourage greater involvement from fathers and expand on the existing flexible working options. Employers recruit on a wide variety of contracts, however the crucial issue is for organisations to ensure that the documentation is legally compliant and correctly records the agreed terms and this encompasses the letter of appointment and the final contract with all the necessary support procedures to be in place at the same time. This is a complex area and the report highlights that senior executives are looking for working contracts that support their current needs.
Durler Consulting and Denton Wilde Sapte LLP have responded to the findings of this research by launching a new consultancy service which helps companies to undertake, analyse and implement ‘model contracts’ which offer diversity benefits across the board. The findings of the report suggest that adopting a new approach along these lines could aid staff retention.
The full report can be downloaded from www.durlerconsulting.com
BUSINESS WARNED DIVERSITY IN THE WORKPLACE IS VITAL