Business, Innovation and Skills CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Women 1 st

1.0 Introduction

Women 1st was established in 2009 as a thought leadership initiative run by People 1st, the sector skills council for hospitality, passenger transport, travel and tourism. People 1st is a registered Charity.

1.1 About Women 1st

Women 1st wants to help women achieve their career ambitions and increase the number of women on boards. We have already helped over 800 women through our dedicated mentoring and training programmes and our focus is to work with employers to develop and implement a gender diversity strategy that will empower female talent at all levels within our footprint.

Our mission is clear. We want to develop and empower talented women and strive for a better balance of men and women in leadership roles. Gender-balanced teams have a wider range of skills, are more productive, creative and innovative and, ultimately, deliver a better performance.

1.2 Strategic Goals

Our strategy is focused on the following five key strategic goals:

To elevate women leaders by challenging the industry to reach a greater level of gender balance in their senior roles.

To advance women into leadership ranks by building a pool of talent for the senior team and board room.

To ensure a culture shift in businesses, to be able to better harness and retain female talent.

To have at least one female candidate on the shortlist for every board/executive team positive by 2015.

An improvement of gender balance in the top two tiers of organisations across the sector by 2015.

1.3 Areas of Expertise

To achieve our strategic goals, Women 1st has established a range of offers and programmes focused on gender diversity and women in business, these include:

1.3.1Training—our continuous professional development programmes transform women’s leadership capabilities and give them the skills to take the next step in their career.

1.3.2Mentoring—we give women access to personal advice and guidance from senior leaders they would not usually have access to.

1.3.3Events—The annual conference and regular networking events bring women together to make valuable connections and be inspired by dynamic speakers. The purpose is to facilitate and enable women to network, share ideas and stories that will inspire them in their personal and professional lives.

1.3.4Shine Awards—our annual Shine Awards shine a light on the women that are making a difference in our industries.

1.3.5Top 100 Club—We have established a growing network of influential women to act as role models and ambassadors for future female leaders.

1.3.6Individual membership—This offer provides our network with access to discounts for training, mentoring and events.

1.3.7Corporate membership—Enables an organisation to become an employer of choice for women.

1.4 Our Success

The following potted history describes the Women 1st journey and highlights the success we have achieved along the way:

October 2009—Women 1st is officially launched with the support of Cherie Blair.

November 2009—Women 1st hosts its first networking event with successful businesswoman and author, Judith Leary-Joyce. The first trainees enrol on the Step Up and Women 1st Mentoring programmes.

May 2010—UK Commission for Employment and Skills research shows that nine out of 10 participants on Women 1st training programmes have improved their skills and confidence in the workplace.

August 2010—Women 1st launches the Female Chefs’ Development programme, with the support of Michelin-starred chef, Michael Caines.

November 2010—Women 1st releases “The Case for Change” report on women working in hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism. The report reveals that 310,000 women leave the industry each year, costing businesses over £2 billion in replacement recruitment and training.

November 2010—Women 1st announces a deal to take over the Shine Awards and opens nominations for the first Top 100 Most Influential Women in Hospitality, Leisure, Travel and Tourism list.

March 2011—Women 1st unveils the Top 100 Most Influential Women and winners of the 2011 Shine Awards at a ceremony hosted by broadcaster, Gaby Roslin.

July 2011—The Women 1st programme is extended to support women working in the passenger transport industry.

March 2012—Women 1st announce the creation of the Women 1st Top 100 Club of influential women in hospitality, passenger transport, travel and tourism and calls for nominations.

March 2012—Total number of women trained through Women 1st programmes reaches 800.

June 2012—Women 1st holds its first conference, hosted by Carla Buzasi, editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post UK. Key note speakers include Jill McDonald, CEO of McDonald’s UK, and former BBC One controller, Lorraine Heggessey.

June 2012—Women 1st reveal the winners of the 2012 Women 1st Shine Awards and induct 30 women into the Women 1st Top 100 Club at a ceremony hosted by broadcaster, Emma Forbes.

Women 1st will be launching a new book in early 2013 titled “The Little Book of Diversity—A practical guide to supporting women in the workplace”. This book provides a detailed review of the current challenges that exist in the area of gender diversity and also provides a practical guide of how organisations can address these challenges in a positive and lasting way.

2.0 The Case And Recommendations

2.1 Gender equality

Do the Gender Equality Duty and the Equality Act go far enough in tackling inequalities, such as gender pay gap and job segregation, between men and women in the workplace?

Inequalities that exist in the workplace are difficult to address and resolve, the current acts need to be enforced this is challenging when there is limited visibility of pay grades and recruitment practices. As firms are accounts are audited one suggestion would be a review of salaries and recruitment practices within annual audit reports.

What steps should be taken to provide greater transparency on pay and other issues, such as workforce composition?

A general requirement for organisations employing over 250 to report workforce composition, pay scales, providing a breakdown of salaries for men and women across all pay scales.

Organisations can start addressing this by:

A scoping exercise which should be conducted, either through an internal questionnaire or facilitated focus groups, that enables the organisations to survey the opinions and thoughts of staff thus giving management an insight as to how big the problem might be.

Results should be shared and communicated to all in order to provide greater transparency on pay and other issues within the organisation.

A full diversity analysis should then be conducted by the HR and finance function of the organisation. The analysis should consider all areas including job role, remuneration and working hours.

Targets should then be set that describe the gender equality outcomes that the organisation wants to achieve with specific and tangible milestones and timelines.

A transitional plan should then be developed that addresses the gap.

The plan should be filtered and communicated to the organisation.

Annual budget should be revised to allow pay gaps to be addressed and rectified, if required.

Cultural workshops starting at the top and feeding down the gender diversity culture.

2.2 Economic pressure

What has been the impact of the current economic crisis on female employment and wage levels?

With any economic downturn, employers will generally feel the pressure to retain and keep talent whilst employees will lean towards security and certainty at any cost.

What this means for female employment is that women will often stay in a position because it provides financial security and often, women will “feel” grateful that their role still exists which subsequently means that they will generally not ask for a pay rise or review, until economic pressures have calmed.

This cycle creates many problems for organisations such as inertia and a decrease in productivity and employee satisfaction. The advancement of gender equality becomes less of a priority as women will gravitate to holding their position until the pressures have subsided. The scary fact is, internal and external pressures will always exist in industry and business therefore we need women to overcome and overstep economic pressure and believe that they have a right to ask for what they think they are worth. This can be resolved through positive coaching and mentoring of female talent.

2.3 Gender stereotyping

How should the gender stereotyping prevalent in particular occupations, for example in engineering, banking, construction, and the beauty industry, be tackled?

Attracting women and men into non-traditional roles continues to be a challenge, through our work we have been working to encourage women into the non-traditional role of bus driving. To tackle this issue we have developed “Step on the Bus” which is a unique pre-employment programme designed to give women—particularly those who have been unemployed for a number of years—the skills they need to pursue a rewarding career in the bus industry, and help the industry address a major gender imbalance in its workforce. The success of the Step on the Bus programme is largely measured on the number of women who complete the training, and the percentage who subsequently find work as a result of their training. 100% of the learners in the past three years have completed the programme, and 60% have found work in the bus industry as a result.

Given the success in this approach we are expanding activities to include aviation, taxi and rail industries. Only 28% of the passenger transport industry is female.

Bus companies traditionally find it difficult to attract women into driving jobs. Just 8.2% of bus and coach drivers are female. At the same time, the industry is becoming increasingly reliant on an ageing workforce—the average age of a bus and coach driver is 48. Attracting new talent is crucial if the industry is to grow in the future.

Over the four years that it has been running, it has become clear that the programme has the capacity to change lives, as well as women’s perceptions of a career in a traditionally male-dominated industry. Reasons why women are failing to break into the industry include a lack of confidence in applying for roles in a male-dominated and potentially unfamiliar industry, the fact that many simply do not consider it as a career option and misconceptions about the bus industry and the jobs it offers.

The programme consists of industry-specific training, including CPC (Certificate of Professional Competence training and testing, which all bus drivers in the UK are legally required to complete) and vital soft skills such as confidence building, interview techniques and employability skills. Women who complete the course move onto a work placement with a local employer, where they gain genuine work experience and learn about the bus company. If they complete this stage they are given a guaranteed interview and, if successful, start work with their employer.

We find that running women-only courses creates a “safe environment” for learning, and learners quickly gain confidence. We encourage them to think about the skills they have already gained in their life outside of work, from running a home to managing their children. It soon becomes clear that they have lots of qualities employers look for, like time-keeping, negotiating, organisation, managing difficult situations and financial skills.This new-found confidence allows them to show their true ability in an interview.

Many of the women on the programme have been unemployed for over a year and their confidence is at rock bottom, so even attending is a huge step. Getting a job as a bus driver is something most of them would never have imagined possible—when they go on to secure employment, it’s a massive achievement for them.

Many of the learners have found their lives transformed as a result of the training. One such example is Virginia Floyd, driver for Transdev Harrogate and District.

Virginia’s approach to her work, and to her development, impressed her employers during her work placement and soon after she was offered a job as a trainee driver. She has now carried out her passenger carrying vehicle (PCV) training and passed her PCV driving test.

Virginia said: “I am very grateful for this opportunity and I love my job. It was strange at first working in a male-dominated environment, but with the training I had already received and the support of my training manager, I have gained confidence in my work.”

Virginia says her family and in particular her children are very proud of her.

Keith Roebuck, business director for Harrogate and District Travel, says: “The women who have moved onto full employment have quickly adapted to life on the buses. They have found it personally satisfying with a real sense of achievement.”

Another learner that has seen a huge difference to her life is Miranda Anderson, driver for Trent Barton buses in Derby (learner testimonial at the end of this submission). Miranda truly found her vocation in life through the programme and, earlier this year, stood up in front of over 100 senior industry figures at a People 1st event—from CEOs to managing directors—to talk about how the positive impact the programme has had on her and her family. This is something she never could have imagined having the confidence to do previously!

The Step on the Bus programme gives its learners clear opportunities in an industry that they may well have never thought of as an option before. Many of the women who started the project had little confidence, but they have now realised their potential and have jobs in the bus industry.

The programme not only has a positive impact on the learners themselves, but on their families. As well as helping them become more financially secure, a number of participants have commented on how proud their relatives have been to see them return to work, and how their children now see them as positive role models.

Organisations all need to take a view on tackling stereotyping in business, research by Catalyst1 found that women are stereotyped as “taking care” and men are stereotyped as “taking charge”. “Taking charge” skills are seen as those required for board and executive positions and so women are not actively considered for these roles.

While men are considered “default” leaders, women are considered “atypical” leaders. These stereotypes can result in certain career paths unconsciously being seen as more suitable for women, such as HR or other support roles.

Tackling bias in organisational culture can be adopted through a range of activities including training and support for employees on the concept of unconscious bias.

Organisations and industry can implement certain strategies to address gender stereotyping. Some of these include:

Raising awareness of unconscious gender bias—introduce unconscious bias training to raise awareness of stereotypes and assumptions and the impact this has on our decisions and behaviour. This may include for example:

Raise awareness of common biases, stereotypes and gender myths.

Highlight examples of bias in the workplace using specific examples.

Raise awareness of how these can limit and affect decisions.

Raise awareness of and help people to identify their own biases and assumptions.

How to manage and minimise personal biases and the impact they can have in recruitment, promotion and appraisals.

Cultural shift—start with the most senior levels in the organisation and anyone making recruitment or promotion decisions first, and then roll out to all staff. Encourage staff to highlight any examples and take action.

Business case—ensure the business case for addressing unconscious bias is understood and that the benefits of retaining and progressing productive staff are clear.

Policies and procedures—review policies and procedures for any biases, especially recruitment, succession planning, working hours/schedules, pay policies—take action where any biases are identified. For example—review job adverts and descriptions—do they use language or images that are unconsciously biased against women?

Support and recognition—openly support women working more flexibly and tackle any negative comments. Ensure women’s achievements are recognised and promoted, especially those who may be working reduced hours to address assumptions about competence or commitment.

2.4 Flexible working hours

What more should be done to promote part-time work at all levels of the workplace and to ensure that both women and men have opportunities to gain senior positions within an organisation while working part time?

The main observation that we see in our industries is that there is plenty of part-time work and the potential of flexible hours at junior levels. However flexibility is much more prevalent in junior roles, and does not seem to translate as you move further up an organisation.

Workplaces need to establish and make available high-quality, part-time career options for women in their workforce. Here are some strategies organisations can adopt:

Assess the feasibility of commercially viable flexible working patterns through a Flexible Working Assessment. The assessment exercises should adopt a guiding principle that all flexible options need to be commercially viable and have minimal impact on the business or clients.

Conduct a series of workshops to explore:

Which flexible working options work for different areas and roles in the business?

What forms of flexible working are realistic and commercially viable in certain client facing roles?

What business implications need to be addressed to ensure successful implementation?

Secure senior management sign off for a pilot adopting flexible practices in an area of the business.

Develop a positive action campaign to increase the number of female role models in.

The outcome of this should create a positive shift in the attitude of senior management and should also result in the identification of part-time working options which are commercially viable and will improve retention for the organisation.

2.5 Women on boards

To what extent have the recommendations in Lord Mervyn Davies’ Report “Women on Board” (published in February 2011) been acted upon?

The Davies report has but diversity on the business agenda, while it takes time for the recommendations to be implemented given the lack of women in senior positions. Through our network, organisations are now planning for the future and starting to develop diversity strategies, implement mentoring and coaching for women, putting in place networks to support women in their career development.

There is a strong business case for balanced boards. Inclusive and diverse boards are more likely to be effective boards, better able to understand their customers and stakeholders and to benefit from fresh perspectives, new ideas, vigorous challenge and broad experience. This in turn leads to better decision making.

There are business and social justice arguments for improving women’s representation in senior management.

Why are there still so few women in senior positions on boards, and what are the benefits of having a greater number?

There are still so few women in senior positions on boards. We believe the following barriers exist that are preventing women’s advancement to senior roles:

The talent pool for senior positions is currently small but growing.

Recruitment practices are undertaken via networking.

Dominant masculine organisational culture.

Preconceptions and gender bias/unconscious bias.

Lack of networking and exclusion from informal networks of communication.

Lack of visible women in senior positions.

Difficulty combining work at senior level with caring responsibilities.

52% of the Women 1st online survey respondents think that it is more difficult for women to move into senior management roles in the sector than men.

The benefits of having a greater level of women on boards and achieving gender balance at senior levels include:

Improved business performance, (women make 85% of the spending decisions from holidays, cars, to utility providers and property)

Reduced risks and costs

Better decision making

Better understanding and responsiveness to customers

Access to the widest talent pool

“Having at least one female director on the board appears to cut a company’s chances of going bust by about 20%. Having two or three female directors lowers the risk even more”.

McKinsey & Company, Women Matter: Gender diversity, a corporate performance drive, McKinsey & Company, France, 2007.

“Research has shown that the Fortune 500 companies with three or more women on the board saw more than 73% higher return on sales, 83% higher return on equity and 112% higher return on invested capital than those with the fewest female board members”.

Catalyst, The Bottom Line: Corporate performance and women’s representation on boards, Catalyst, New York, 2007.

24 December 2012