I just put down the phone to a female C-level candidate after discussing diversity in the work place and how she had seen, over her 20 year career, the scales tip towards a slightly more even balance of male & female leaders, in Technology. She agrees with this article published by Deloitte, that the UK are quickly catching up with countries like Norway and France.
As Nick Owen, chairman of Deloitte North West Europe, positively points out in the article, in businesses where women hold the top leadership positions, they are more likely to have women sitting on the board.
At Lawrence Harvey (trading style of LHi Group Ltd), this is something we also acknowledge as recruitment can be seen as a male dominated industry. Our lack of females at board level led us to launch our own diversity initiative called W.I.N (Women's Inclusive Network) which sees women in LHi hosting regular events and focus groups discussing experiences, challenges and successes as females in the workplace. The initiative was born out of a desire to support and promote females within our business so that they could see the potential to develop in to leadership positions and hold seats on our board. For more information on W.I.N see our short video below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdxU9Ev-chM
Like with us, positive change towards diversity in the workplace must start with the business' culture. The Deloitte article gives a great summary; "Focusing on culture will enable UK businesses to provide a working environment where people are able to succeed, and are judged solely on the value they bring".
I am really excited to see what the future holds for the next generation of women leaders in technology AND recruitment...
Companies with a female CEO or board chair have almost twice as many women on the board as companies led by men. Deloitte’s Women in the Boardroom report, which tracks the efforts of 64 countries to promote boardroom gender diversity, found that 29 per cent of board positions are held by women in companies with a female CEO. This compares to 15 per cent in companies with a male CEO.
