Closing the Gender Pay Gap: A WACL Toolkit

Closing the Gender Pay Gap:A WACL Toolkit

2.

At the July 2020 AGM, Jackie and Janeannounced a working group on the GenderPay Gap, to reinforce the Club’s mission toaccelerate gender equality both in the sectorsWACL members represent as well as inbroader communications. Of course, the GPGis a measurement tool, it's not a programme toaddress the issue. But we thought we couldraise awareness and make it more personal bylooking at our own situation, and also learningfrom each other.

One of the early decisions we took was tobase the group's work on data. Hence wedecided to benchmark the WACL member’scompanies based on data taken from thegovernment's GPG website. We thencompared the WACL company average withthe overall average of all the companies whoreported and discovered that on twoparameters WACLer organisations were betterthan the average, but on the other two theywere worse than the average. You can see theoverall results of that benchmarking here.

All this underscores that we do have room toimprove our own advocacy in our companiesas well as in the wider world. And indeed, weare likely to be more effective in becomingadvocates for this issue if we work together,learn together and share stories and tips aboutour own experiences, so that we can act asmore effective catalysts and campaigners in

our own organisations. The coaching sessionswere designed to address this.

The response has been incredible. Thehonesty, openness, empathy, advice andexperience that has been shared andexchanged is amazing. We are including it herein this Toolkit pulled together from the sixcoaching sessions we held. It summarizes allthe learning, tips, and stories that have takenplace in those sessions, the slides used, as wellas other resources available.

And we have already had many signs ofprogress! One of the best is that we sprunginto action to support the reinstatement ofGender Pay Gap reporting, creating a petition,wearing t-shirts and campaigning in thepress. And guess what? We succeeded!GPG reporting will be reinstated with a one-offgrace period until October. The person whosummoned the courage to start a discussionwith her MD about the GPG and found anally. The CEO who thought she couldn’tpossibly have a GPG but discovered she did –and put in a plan to fix it.

The founder who benchmarked her companyvs. her parent company and lobbied the parentfor greater action. And many others.As Jackie said, we are best when we ‘Act as aPack’.

We inspire each other, admit our frustrationsand fears, and show each other empathy,support and courage, and celebrate oursuccesses. Together we can – and are - makinga difference. We hope that we will continue tomeasure our WACL GPG every year, and moveever closer to closing it, in line with the spiritand new purpose of the Club, and not have towait another 98 years to do it!

Please use this Toolkit and feel free to share itwith other colleagues. It’s organised as thesessions were presented (see the table ofcontents below), with more resources at theend. We would also welcome additionalresources, stories and feedback. Huge thanksto our committee members Francesca Escery,Alison Lomax, Katrina Lowes, Helen Warren-Piper, Michaella Williams and Cindy Yendelland to Emily Hopcroft, for her work on theToolkit, and to everyone else who contributed.We can do this!

Ann Francke Chair,WACL Gender Pay Gap Committee

Closing the Gender Pay Gap:A WACL Toolkit

3.

Gender PaygapCoaching Sessions:

CONTENTS

Introduction to the WACL GPG Committee

Foreword: Covid-19: Why now and more than ever?

How to successfully influence boardswith Francesca Ecsery

How to Convince that measuring the GPG still matters when your company employs less than 250with Ann Francke

Becoming a GPG advocate: how to influence from the inside when it isn’t your ‘day job’ with Katrina Lowes

Thoughts on how to drive gender diversity in global companies, to get material change withHelen Warren-Piper

How to make the business case for gender diversity and help clients integrate GPG into their business planswith Cindy Yendell

Tackling the gender pay gap reverse mentoring workshop: what senior women can learn from the next generation of senior women with Michaella Williamsand the FUTURES Network

How WACLers can help each other

Additional reading resources

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Introduction to theWACL GPG CommitteeThis working group is about current, concrete, evidence based, action-oriented steps, enabling you WACLers to be better champions of gender balance inside your companies by equipping you with toolkits and facts. This working group is all about the ripple effect. We're trying to spread this out and the committee are all ambassadors for change and are creating this sort of movement within their business. As a committee we understand the fact we can be diverse, but our thinking is not diverse and we formed to challenge and question how inclusive our behaviour is and that our cultureis being supported.

Ann is Chief Executive of theChartered Management Institute.She started her career at Procterand Gamble and has held seniorexecutive positions at Mars, Boots,Yell and BSI. In 2019, Ann wasawarded an OBE for services toworkplace equality.Ann is an expert on genderbalance in the workplace andspeaks frequently in the mediaand conferences on this and othermanagement topics. Her book ongender balance - Create a Gender-balanced Workplace, waspublished in September 2019.Ann also authored the ‘FinancialTimes Guide to Management’ andhas been named in the top 100women to watch in the 2015Female FTSE Cranfield report.She was awarded the MemComaward for outstanding leadershipof a UK professional body in 2016.Ann holds several Board positionsand five Honorary Doctoratesfor her work in management andleadership. Ann and her husbandlive in West London; she hasone daughter.

Ann Francke OBE CMI CMgr

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5.

Ann is Chief Executive of the Chartered Management Institute. She started her career at Procter and Gamble and has held senior executive positions at Mars, Boots, Yell and BSI. In 2019, Ann was awarded an OBE for services to workplace equality.Ann is an expert on gender balance in the workplace and speaks frequently in the media and conferences on this and other management topics. Her book on gender balance - Create a Gender-balanced Workplace, published in September 2019. Ann also authored the ‘Financial Times Guide to Management’ and has been named in the top 100 women to watch in the 2015 Female FTSE Cranfield report. She was awarded the MemCom award for outstanding leadership of a UK professional body in 2016. Ann holds several Board positions and five Honorary Doctorates for her work in management and leadership. Ann and her husband live in West London; she has one daughter.

Ann Francke OBE CMI CMgr

Francesca is a Portfolio Non-Executive Director with expertise in Marketing and30+ years’ experience in directing in both blue-chip companies and start-ups inthe Digital / Retail / FMCG / Leisure Travel industries and works as a Mentor toseveral digital entrepreneurs and senior executives. Currently, Francesca is aNon-Executive Director on 4 boards, F&C Investment Trust plc., Air France,Marshall Motor Holdings plc. and The AIC.She Chairs the ‘NED Talks’ workshop program for Senior Women at WACL ltdand she works as a Mentor where her clients are predominately senior leadersfacing a career junction, women who want to be NEDs but also start-ups in theconsumer tech arena. Previously, she has also served on the Boards ofShare plc, Good Energy Group plc and We Are Vista ltd.Francesca is passionate about all matters relating to women in the workplaceand gender equality. She devotes considerable time to mentoring andfacilitating career development opportunities for women as well as activelypromoting the commercial benefits of gender equality at work to relevantaudiences.A graduate of Geneva University in Political Science and InternationalRelations, Francesca also holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. Shespeaks 6 languages: French, English, Portuguese, Spanish and Hungarianfluently and Italian conversational. She is a British and Hungarian citizen, livesin London and Provence with her husband Tim.

Francesca Ecsery

Katrina leads customer and partner co-creation forVodafone Global Enterprise working together with someof the largest organisations in the world to find ways thatnew technology can improve our lives. With more than 25years’ experience in high tech, communications, andhealthcare industries, she has a strong track record ofinspiring change, driving transformation programmes andfinding more effective ways to reach and engagecustomers. Having worked in client and consulting globalroles, Katrina mentors women in several countries, is apassionate diversity champion and StonewallLGBTQ+Ally.

Katrina Lowes

Michaella Williams is a Business Director at GenerationMedia, an independent media planning and buying agency,which specialises in communications with children, youngpeople, and families. In addition, she is Head of CPD andTraining whereby, she strategically supports the wider teamto be the best they can be via their learning anddevelopment. She also leads the Diversity & InclusionCommittee set up in 2020 to educate, celebrate, andempower the team, clients and partners on all things D&I.Prior to this, Michaella graduated seven years ago fromBournemouth University where she studied Communicationand Media Studies. Most recently she won a Patricia Mannand WACL Future Leaders 2020 award whereby, she wasrecognised for “being a pioneer who lit up the room”. Sheused the bursary to very recently complete a Certificate inCoaching accredited by the Association for Coaching. In her‘spare time’ Michaella plays semi- professional football as adefender for Dulwich Hamlet FCW.

Michaella Williams Business Director at Generation Media, recognised with

the Patricia Mann award in the class of 2019/2020 Future Leaders Award winner, run by WACL

6.

Cindy YendellFounding Partner

at Leonardo Advisory

Helen is currently the General Manager of Mars PetNutrition UK which makes some of the best loved petfood brands including Pedigree, Whiskas and Dreamies(insert any brands you want). Helen joined Mars in April2018. Since joining Mars Pet Nutrition UK as SalesDirector, Helen has made a significant contribution to thebusiness by strengthening relationships with keycustomers. Helen started her professional career at P&Gas a Sales Graduate Trainee and quickly progressedthrough a variety of increasingly senior roles that led herto Marketing & R&D Director Premier Foods Plc.Helen is extremely passionate about diversity andleadership development. She has strengthened the UKPet Nutrition Women in Sales Leadership program andspeaks publicly within and outside of Mars on the topic,being a member of both WACL and LEAD. She is a fellowof the Marketing Academy and a mentor to the MAscholarship programme. Helen is also a passionateadvocate of the Mars Pet Nutrition UK purpose – makingsure that A Better World for Pets is lived by all Associatesand understood outside of the organization. Outside ofwork Helen lives in Farnham Royal, Bucks and has twochildren - Ruby and William. In her spare time, she enjoyskeeping fit and spending time with her family.

Helen Warren-PiperGeneral Manager at

Mars Pet Nutrition UK

Alison is a digital veteran having started in the days ofdial-up Internet, working for government departments,M15 and Foreign Office, before moving to theadvertising world. Whilst at Tribal DDB,she was Head of Media on Volkswagen’s digital brandstrategy as well as launching The National Lotterybusiness on the Internet, mobile and interactive TV. Shewas then Head of Digital Client Services at BeattieMcGuinness Bungay (independent creative agency)before joining Google 10 years ago. Alison has had avaried career at Google, having led the Creative agencyteam, the Brand specialist team and is now ManagingDirector of Lifestyle Retail sector. Alison is a DEIChampion, a proud feminist and member of WACL(Women in Advertising & Communications London) andExecutive sponsor of the EMEA Trans community atGoogle. Outside of work, Alison is married to Jim,a film Producer with two highly spirited daughters, Livy(15) and Freya (11) and through watching their Saturdaymorning football matches has (late in life) become verypassionate about football and taken on a role as aTrustee at Berkhamsted Raiders Football Club leadingthe girl’s strategy.

Alison Lomax Google, Managing Director of

Lifestyle Retail Sector

Cindy is a Founding Partner at Leonardo Advisory, a Londonbased advisory firm that helps CEOs and their Executive teamsconnect their organisations’ purpose, strategy and culture,turning culture into competitive advantage. It providesstrategic counsel to public and private sector organisationsincluding TfL, BBC, Crossrail & KPMG to name a few. Cindy isan energetic and passionate business leader, driven by herdesire for organisations to “take culture as seriously asstrategy”. She has founded two successful advisory firms, oneof which she sold to Omnicom in 2009. A senior advisor with25 years’ boardroom level experience. Cindy has advised globalleaders and their organisations on some of the most high-profile culture changes of the last two decades, and currentlyworks with UK and multinational organisations, particularlythose needing to undergo cultural change to achieve the nextlevel of business performance. Cindy believes that it is notdiversity per se that produces competitive advantage, becausean open and inclusive culture is required to activate thebenefits of diversity, and this is more difficult than tickingdiversity boxes.Too many companies want their diversity numbers to change –but not their culture. NED of King’s House School EnterprisesLtd (2018 – Present) Cindy is married to Rob and has twoteenage children. They split their time between West Londonand North Cornwall, where she can be found most days runningalong the coast - albeit 1km behind her daughter!

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Covid 19: Why now more than Ever?

FOREWORD

The economic and social impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has had aregressive impact on gender equality in the workplace with some ofthe key challenges detailed below:

A disproportionate share of the household chores and childcare burden

has fallen on women, with working women currently spending an avg. of 15 hours a week more on unpaid domestic

labour than men.

Over 133, 000 more women have been furloughed than men with women already

making up 70% of all low paid workers in the UK.

Women make up 39% of Global employment but account for

54% of overall job losses.

(Beauty for example) 7% difference between men and women as to how well they feel supported in their

roles during the crisis.

Increased unpaid labour at home;

More likely to give up or lose their jobs

More likely tobe furloughed;

Greater impact on female dominated jobs and industries

Female directors are more likely to see a

withdrawal of support;

5.4.3.

2.1.

8.

How to successfully influence boards with Francesca EcseryAs a Non-Executive Director you may think that you can’t really influence thecompany on GPG reporting or progress on D&I initiatives but that has not been myexperience. You don’t have the levers to do any of the heavy lifting but as a NEDand role model you definitely can influence outcomes. I wanted to share some ofmy tips and stories in case it can help you do the same.

In one of the businesses, Iserved on the board of, we didnot need to report on GPG but Imanaged to convince the boardthat it was ‘a good idea to do itso that we make sure that we asa board are happy with whatthe GPG will tell us (as opposedto putting our head in thesand). Plus if we are not happywith the GPG report results wecan always choose to dosomething about it’. The simpleact of reporting meant that thisnew awareness percolatedthrough the organisation andimpacted in small ways in allhiring and promotion decisions.We also promoted a female Csuite I had been mentoring ontothe board (with theaccompanying pay and rewardpackage) which reduced the

company’s GPG substantially.Bias is everywhere evenamongst the staunch feministsso always be alert to theunconscious bias in yourdecisions. On another board Iwas on, we found that therewas no GPG (mainly because itwas led by a female CEO,female CFO and a 50/50board). We congratulatedourselves for the results andwhen we decided we neededan additional NED on the boardwith a rare expertise we werenot particularly mindful ofgender in our brief as whoeverwe hired was going tilt thebalance anyway. Weinterviewed three candidates onthe short list and were about toappoint one of them butstopped ourselves when we

realised that the short list wasall male. We asked the headhunter to go back and findfemale candidates to balancethe shortlist as we would nottake a decision from anunbalanced list. After a shortprotest saying ‘there are nowomen anywhere with thisexpertise’ the head hunter didfind two women. Weinterviewed everyone and hired,what we deemed to be, thebest amongst the fivecandidates. It happened to beone of the women. Moral of thestory: Keep your biases in checkor you will miss out onhiring/promoting the bestpeople.

PDF available here.

1. The regular act of ‘Just reporting’ on GPGnarrows the gap (as it raises awareness andinfluences hiring and progression decisions)– make sure you have the data.

2. Find allies or develop them (byunderstanding and addressing barriers tosupport – real or perceived).

3. Promoting and hiring women into the topranks (board) is the quickest and mosteffective way to narrow the GPG.

4. Make sure that there is an action plan andincentives attached to your D&I/GPGtargets and ensure that it starts at the verytop and is cascaded throughout theorganization

Key Outtakes:

9.

How to Convince that measuring the GPG still matters when your company employs less than 250 with Ann Francke

CMI’s story: As a big gender advocacyorganisation with a female CEO and COOand a 50/50 balanced exec team Iassumed we did not have a gender pay gap.I was wrong! Turns out we had a GPG medianpay gap of 35%! And the reason was we area 70% female business and when we lookedat our data by quartile, we discovered thatthe bottom two quartiles wereoverwhelmingly female, and they were lesswell paid. So, we did three things: Firstly,we looked for ‘unsung heroes’ and promotedthem. These were women who were doinga great job, but perhaps had been onmaternity leave and worked part-time, beenwith the organisation for many years and/orhad or not gone for internal promotions buthad taken on more responsibilities over timein their current roles. I asked my exec teamto look for examples in their areas and theyfound them readily, all were deserved. Andthe positive impact on morale was palpable,as not only they, but also their colleaguesrecognised it was the right thing to do.Secondly, we resolved to hire more men intoour bottom two quartiles to even out thenumbers in the future. And finally, we insisted

that every role we hired have a gender andethnically diverse shortlist. The result:OurGPG was reduced to less than 10%.Michaella Williams: Although passionateabout equality, and the appointed ‘DiversityChampion’ for her firm, a 40-employee sizedcompany, Michaella felt uncomfortable raisingthe GPG issue at work. Her company hada culture of not being very transparent aboutpay and bonuses, so she was hesitant toapproach her MD as she “was aware of goingagainst the grain” of the business culture,especially as she is aiming to be promotedto a leadership position. She was alsoconcerned and didn’t want to be seen as theperson “that’s pushing everything equalitybecause I’m a black, gay, female.” But thegood news is, the WACL campaign gaveher the courage to raise the issue with her(female) MD and the MD was very supportive!Other WACLers reinforced Michaella’sexperience and applauded her courage.Jan Gooding commented, “I think all of us arefinding this difficult.” She then shared thatshe also struggled to raise the issue at herFTSE 100 role as Inclusion Director andunderstood Michaella’s hesitancy. So, Jan

befriended the Payroll Director, so she knewwhat was doable before she went to theboard to request the analysis on the paygap - and she discovered they’d already donea dummy run the year before! So, she knewit was doable and she made an ally.

PDF available here.

1. Treat it like a business Issue - know the business casefor gender balance. (Better financials; better employeeengagement and culture; easier to attract and retaintalent; better reflection of customers; reduced risk).Remind people gender balance benefits everyone-including men. Always lead with this when discussingwith stakeholders.

2. Know your own organisation’s data, especially byquartile. (You likely have a ‘Glass pyramid’: 50% ormore women in the bottom quartile; 75% or more menin the top quartile- and if you do nothing it will staythat way). So, find out your ‘story' and barriers, whereare you failing to promote or hire in women? Whichquartiles? / Which functions? / Which divisions? Why?Supplement the data with listening to employees’stories from those areas. Then propose a plan to fixyour specific problem.

3. Use best practices. Set targets, review promotion andhiring processes, monitor and reward progress.Sponsor talented women. (Women are over mentoredand under sponsored). Embrace flexible working andmeasure results not presenteeism. Call out badbehaviour - if you don’t, you are complicit innormalising it. And remember, if you arepromoting/hiring more women in upper quartilesyou're not ‘gaming the system’; you are levelling upan unlevel playing field.

4. Find allies and benchmark. Enrol the CEO, boardmember and /or other Senior Directors and colleagueswho want to fix this and bond together. If you are partof a larger organisation, compare your results andplans with others who are also part of it. Shareexperiences and lobby together to propose solutionsto the parent company. Create transparency of data forall subsidiaries in your parent group or do it informally.Talk with other WACL members, perhaps those insimilar sectors, and compare notes and progress.Ask outside experts to come in and talk with your

management team to get them onside and be criticalfriends and challengers.

I wanted to run this session because the vast majority of UK businesses are smaller than 250 employees and not legallyrequired to report their GPGs. So if we are going to make real progress in closing the UK’s GPG we have got to get morebusinesses knowing about and measuring their gender pay gap. Also, there are a lot of agency businesses in WACL whoare under 250 employees but part of larger parent companies and I want to encourage them to understand and reporttheir own GPGs and not just rely on the parent’s figures. Finally there is data that suggests that many SMEs don’t thinkthey have a gender pay gap, but in fact they do. So, raising awareness of this issue by getting them to examine their ownpatterns is really important.

Key Outtakes:

10.

Becoming a GPG advocate: how to influence from the inside when it isn’t your ‘day job’ with Katrina LowesIt’s twenty-five years since the Beijing declaration of women’s rights imagineda world where every woman and girl can exercise her freedoms and choices, andrealize her rights, such as to live free from violence, to go to school, to participate indecisions and to earn equal pay for work of equal value. Well, here we are, twenty-five years later and we’ve made relatively slow progress.

I’m lucky to work in an organisation like Vodafone that not only believes that diversityis important to future success but is actively changing how we work. We have brilliantDiversity Champions, HR experts and support networks, but there’s still so much tobe done.

So, a group of us set up the Vodafone Women in Business Network. 2,200 womenacross the world sharing knowledge and supporting each other. Raising awareness ofdiversity issues and encouraging development. Advocating for change. Leading byexample because we have strength in numbers. As advocates, we can encouragechange from the inside. We can educate, raise awareness, and accelerate change.We can make sure we have balanced recruitment shortlists and address pay gaps inour own teams. And as WACL Advocates, we can support each other, because WACLdefinitely has strength in numbers.

PDF available here.

Continued…

11.

The Pandemic’s Impact on Working Women inEight Studies, Becky Deo, Vodafone Business“When your partners are men, how do you make the financial case to address equal pay? I feel like I’ma lone voice.” You’re not a lone voice – WACL Advocates are here to support you.Katrina Lowes - At one of my end of year reviews, my boss pointed out to me that, compared to mymale colleagues, I was always too tough on myself. I’d mark myself down if I hadn’t fully achieved anobjective, whereas my colleagues would mark themselves up, if they were close enough. He coachedme about my language, the way I see my performance and to be aware of how my peer grouppresented themselves. I’m now conscious to look for similar behaviour in the women I lead.

Read more in this PDF.

We asked four WACL members and gender pay gap advocates for their advice:1. Have the courage to identify andtalk to the person (or couple ofpeople) who will be most influentialon whether the company reportsgender pay gap (verses working it upthe chain). Be clear with yourproposition – the benefits to companyreputation and growth and listencarefully to their views. It may takemore than one conversation, but trulyunderstanding the barriers (e.g.,resources) and the decision makers willgive you a much better chance ofsuccess. Syl Saller CBE, NED

2. Don’t confuse pay gap with role gap– it’s easy to push back and say we paythe same, regardless of gender for thesame job. Some jobs are rated morehighly than others – e.g., the ability to

lift heavy boxes in a warehouse versuscustomer service frontline.Predominantly male versuspredominantly female. Teachers versusBook Keepers, Builders versus Nursesetc. The problem starts at the masslower scale and not just the lack ofwomen in senior roles. But gettingmore women into senior positions isalso important, of course, and requiresa complex amalgam of all the things weknow about: bias training; flexibleworking; female networks; malesponsors, as well as all the confidencebuilding we need to do to supportfemale talent to ask for promotion onpromise not proof.Stevie Spring CBE, Chairman BritishCouncil; Mind; Coop Remco; KinoMo

3. Find a male champion/mentor tosupport you in the business - ideallyat a senior level – it really helps topromote the message that it is aboutequality for all from everyone. Usuallybest to try men with daughters first,makes the issue much more personal!If you are in the position to do this -ensure that no one is ever financiallypenalised for maternity leave and leadby example by promoting women orgiving pay rises to women whilst onmaternity leave and absent from theoffice that would have happened if theyhad been at work.And finally, a simple one, bring theoutside in to help - to help supportwhy this is so important. Academics,clients, journalists. Show the value tothe business and reputation so it is

seen as a critical business imperative,not just a personal mission.Karen Buchanan, CEO,McCann Manchester

4. You can’t manage what you don’tmeasure so it’s important to knowwhere you are and then work onmaking it better. However ghastly thestart point data is. It’s the first step tomaking a plan to reduce and eliminateit. It is always worth measuring it.In most companies it boils down toneeding to have more women at thetop and looking at the data in granulardetail, by department, to address that.Bonus gap is just as important – andrevealing!There is tons of confusion betweenequal pay and gender pay gap which is

SO important to clarify when sharingthe data with your staff. Equal pay hasbeen law since 1970. The GPG isa snapshot of the average pay of menand women in an organisation. Mostpeople (even managers) don’tunderstand the difference.And we must remind people this takestime. When the legislation came in, theidea was to eliminate the GPG ‘in ageneration’. That last bit has beenforgotten and people are looking fora quick fix. This is not easy in a largecompany. This is about year-on-yearimprovement. This government needsto show it is committed to women.Dame Cilla Snowball, Portfolio Director

12.

Thoughts on how to drive gender diversity in global companies, to get material change with Helen Warren-PiperHi everyone, what I wanted to do in this section was bring some data and facts to the impactthat Diversity can have on business results: i.e., share the proven case. The fact is that it’s abusiness imperative! Gender diversity on boards drives better EBITDA results.There have been 3 studies by McKinsey: Why Diversity Matters (2015), Delivering ThroughDiversity (2018), Diversity Wins: how Inclusion Matters (2020). Latest data set included:15 countries, more than 1000 large companies and includes ‘social listening’. The analysis thatI share, confirms the strong business case for both gender diversity and ethnic/culturaldiversity in corporate leadership. Companies in the top quartile for Gender diversity onexecutive teams were 25% more likely to have above-average profitability, than those in thebottom quartile. And those companies who have more than 30% women executives, weremore likely to outperform companies where the range was lower (10-30%). I share this dataand some of my own personal experiences. And finally - in this section, my ‘Hot Seat’ guestis Jane Wakeley Mars CMO. Jane shares some of her amazing stories from her journey.

When I joined Mars, I joined asVP Sales for the UK business.I inherited a Senior Sales team,all white males, with a lot ofbravado, all be-moaning ‘lack offemale talent’. When I looked atthe organization, I noticed manystrong females, three inparticular. Successful womendon’t look or operate like men,these three seemed to have lessconfidence, were quieter, butalways delivered. When I askedthe guys, they said things like…‘Ah her, she’s not up to it’,

‘they’re not interested’, ‘she’shappy at that level’, ‘they don’thave line managementexperience, so can’t do the job’,‘she’s got kids and so doesn’twant a more stressful job…’.Now,the data shows (McKinseydiversity study), that careerprogression is driven in equalmeasure by talent, ambition andopportunity and I noticed thatthese women ‘seemed’ to lackambition.So, I forced them (the men)(because I could!!!) to take a

chance and this is what we did:Promoted one to AccountDirector on Morrison’s (£60Mbusiness). She has transformedthe business from -4% to +10%,through tenacity andphenomenal skills of persuasion,she has pulled up trees.Promoted another to AccountDirector, to run the £100Mdiscount sector: she’s grown ourbusiness +12.5% this year andstep-changed the relationshipsthere and landed white spacebusiness.

The other, I put in as CustomerMarketing Director, runninga team of 12: has also donea brilliant job, and got some ofthe best scores in the Gallupengagement survey of all ourLMs in the total UK organizationof 250 people.Lesson: women don’t look likemen! And they don’t act likemen! So, we as senior femalesneed to pull them through.

PDF available here.

The McKinsey Study tells us that there arefive key areas which we should focus on andare consistent with approaches fromcompanies successful in this area:

1. Advancing diverse talent into leadershipteams is a critical first step.

2. Senior leaders need to be at the centre ofthe I&D effort.

3. We need to provide transparency andfairness and debias our processes: get tothe right data set.

4. We have to promote openness: tacklingbias and discrimination.

5. We need to foster belonging throughsupport.

Key Outtakes fromthe McKinsey study:

13.

How to make the business case for gender diversity and help clients integrate GPG into their business plans with Cindy YendellAs a consultant, I have the privilege of having a deep understanding of thechallenges and opportunities my clients are grappling with, as well as thetrust and influence that comes with being a trusted advisor. This combinationgives me the credibility to raise the gender diversity question with experienceand objectivity and link it to their business goals, so they consider ita business priority. I wanted to share my experience of tackling this criticaltopic and hear from others doing the same, so I can be more effective.

There was a question raised in oursession around what do you do ifthe organisation is undertaking lotsof ‘well meaning’ activity (targets,unconscious bias training,mentoring, support groups etc)but not making any meaningfulsustainable progress. We discussedfirst looking at the leadership.Are the leaders ‘walking the talk’,are their actions consistent withwhat they say is important,are there any inconsistenciesamongst the leadership team?We also discussed the role ofculture; many companies want thediversity numbers to change, butdon’t fully understand that it’s really

about cultural change. To activategender diversity, you need an openand inclusive culture, this is moredifficult than ticking diversity boxes.The more progressive companiesconsider gender diversity as part ofa broader process of culturechange, and actively work toidentify the blockages that suppressthe potential of gender diversity:i.e., new ways of working.

In the session we discussed ‘flexibleworking’ and the need to stoptalking about it as a ‘female benefit’but to promote it as ‘all employeebenefit’ for both men and women -if men don’t take it up, we won’t

break down this two-tier system.(The recent sea change in attitudesto working from home bears thisout).

Most clients get the business casefor improving diversity but areoverwhelmed with the task anddon’t know where to start. Sharingclient case studies covering bothsuccess criteria and pitfalls as wellas best practice can be one of themost effective ways of helping makethe task tangible and practical.

PDF available here.

1. Avoid positioning gender diversityas an HR problem or in isolation ofthe business goals. As consultants weare aware of our client’s businessimperatives and priorities, whetherthat is a pursuit for growth, innovation,becoming a more purpose-ledorganisation or recruiting andretaining talent. Our job is to make thelink between the benefits of genderdiversity and the client’s businessimperatives, so gender diversity isseen as an enabler of their businessgoals. There is plenty of data availableto back up these connections(see McKinsey slides)

2. Highlight the views of the peoplethat matter most to clients andtherefore the reputational risks of nottaking action.A. For many client’s shareholders,gender diversity falls into the categoryof environmental, social, andgovernance (ESG). Although manyfocus on the environmental andgovernance elements, there a socialgroundswell reflected by investorsasking questions specifically ongender diversity, which are influencingtheir investment decisions.B. Most businesses want to bea destination employer to recruit andretain the best talent. Clients need tobe aware that gender balance data isbeing scrutinised by existing andpotential employees and beingcompared with their competitors.86% of female Gen-Yers say anemployer’s record on gender diversityis a make-or-break factor.

c. On the other side there is pressurefrom consumers who are increasinglysupporting brands and companieswho are positively diverse across theboard and rejecting those who are not.

3. Adapt existing forms ofmeasurement to benchmark,reinforce and measure progress.To make things simple at the outsetfor clients, suggest they incorporategender diversity measures andquestions into existing tracking andleadership indicators to establisha benchmark. Once this has beenaccomplished, more specific trackingand reinforcement can be adopted.

• Benchmark and tracking• Employee surveys• Recruitment and Promotion data• Bonuses• Succession planning• Exit interviews

• Reinforcement• Leadership objectives• Leadership reward and recognition• Training and development• Flexible working• Awards

Key Outtakes:

14.

Tackling the gender pay gapreverse mentoring workshop:what senior women can learnfrom the next generation ofsenior women with MichaellaWilliams and theFUTURES Network

Since winning the WACL Talent awardand Patricia Mann I have been givenaccess to amazing resources, eventsand networking opportunities acrossWACL. When I was approached tojoin the GPG working groupcommittee it was a simple choice. I’mvery passionate about continuing toraise awareness for all areas ofdiversity but in particular gender! Iam aware, as I’m sure you are thatthere is so much more work that isneeded to be done throughout ourindustry in this area.

In preparation for my coachingsession, I teamed up with a groupof volunteered individuals from theFUTURES network. (Zara Bryson,Nana Opoku, Claire Jerrold, LauraMerchan and Crystal Eisinger.) Webonded over discussing the personalchallenges we had experienced in ourown careers to date. From toxicworking environments, a gapbetween our ambition and the careersupport available to uncoveringpersonal gender pay gaps andchallenges with parenting,work flexibility and redundancy- we have all seen and experiencedchallenges of inequality. It was both

refreshing and saddening when weconnected to discuss our own storieson this subject matter and realizedthere was so many similaritiesamongst us.

We decided we wanted to use ourreverse mentoring workshop as anopportunity to hold a mirror up to thesenior women open to hearing andlearning from us as the nextgeneration of senior women.We wanted to inspire and challengesenior women to take even furtheraction and remind everyone thatsexism is still alive and well inorganisations. The same barriers,unconscious biases and negativeexperiences senior women wentthrough years ago, we are still goingthrough today (despite movementsforward) and these are holding usback. We need each other’s help tochallenge and change this in thefuture. Our coaching session useddocumented and personalexperiences to break down thebarriers to gender pay parity andshare actionable solutions ata personal and institutional level.

Continued…

15.

Continued…

We often hear that if you can’t see it,you can’t be it but as demonstrated bya candid piece of writing by BeckyHewitt, sometimes ‘making it work’ isdoing the exact opposite in rolemodelling. Especially in the context ofCovid when women in leadership are‘making it work’ by running themselvesragged between late night emails,back-to-back video calls and homeschooling, this sends out a dangeroussignal. The reality is that senior womenand men must sometimes not ‘make itwork’ in order to role model thebehaviours associated with true flexibleworking.“As a result of working flexibly, youngerwomen in the sector often talk to meabout their deep concerns aboutbalancing a senior move with their roleas parents… I have rolled my eyes andsaid, ‘of course I work full-time hoursreally’ signalling to others they must dothe same”. “I can’t imagine anyonecontemplating the juggle as I model itand thinking it’s a good idea. It doesn’tfeel good to me anymore, either.”Becky Hewitt https://www.thirdsector.co.uk/becky-hewitt-urgently-need-change-attitudes-towards-flexible-working/management/article/1708229

Being at the top isn’t enough to closethe gender pay gap and specificallykeep women in the industry. The way inwhich people, men and women, assumesenior leadership positions is crucial tothe success of those beneath them.Zara shared how her manager hadconfided in her in a pub saying“Apologies if I have ever been overlyharsh to you at work, I feel like I have tohave a persona of being tough to berespected. I really respect you and thinkyou’re one of the smartest women in

the company and I hope you knowthat.” If we live by the maxim what gotyou here won’t get you there,identifying some of those traits that youthought you had to exhibit becausethat’s what leadership looked likearound you is vital.

Supporting women and enabling themto thrive requires proactivity, activismand ongoing allyship to nurture talent.Laura shared, “We were being treatedlike threats when we were just tryingto develop our careers.”

Claire shared an early experience shehad where she was told “no one willever employ you, all you will do is havekids and that costs a business too muchmoney. I’m not sure why you are evenbothering going to university.” This waswhat she was told at 16 by her first boss,Trevor. “‘Trevor’ has been a barometerfor sexism in my career. He was therewhen I interviewed at a large FMCG, Ihad just got married so I removed mywedding ring in case there were anyTrevor’s lurking. When it came tohanding in my ID documents, my newboss said ‘oh, I didn’t know you weremarried. I didn’t notice a wedding ring’.Trevor was quiet after that, I thought Ihad beaten him as I had gota promotion just before I went onmaternity leave. How wrong was I.Trevor declined my flexible workingrequest for one day a week from home.Trevor promoted my maternity coverabove me within weeks of me returning.Trevor found increasingly creative waysto leave me out of meetings anddecision points. Trevor’s are everywhere,they hide behind ‘with your managerspermission’ and use their own anxietiesto stop your progression. Don’t leaveanywhere for Trevor’s to hide and whenyou find one, call it out.”

Key outtakes on how to act:

1. Go beyond role modelling and behaviour modelling. This can beachieved by not reaffirming broken systems built on women’sburnout and setting a different personal example. Also, throughrecognising when to let go of any toxic alpha leadership traitsthat may have been adopted or witnessed. There is a need tobuck the trend of losing good women from our industry in theirearly 30s and shift the development conversations from “wheredo you see yourself in five years?” to “do you want to be ona board or run a management committee?”

2. Sponsorship needs to go beyond mentorship. For example,you can amplify women’s work by writing a recommendation inLinkedIn and proactively sharing their great work. Why not bringwomen into the room with you to give them a platform, if they’veprepared the work, bring them in to present it. If it would behelpful for them to hear the conversation first hand, bring themin. Why not pass on any templates, books and toolkits that havehelped you in your career.

3. Champion change consistently there is lots of work being doneacross WACL with various initiatives which we know you aresupporting but the change needs to be consistent withineveryday personal behaviour and example setting throughenforcements on organisations to change the inequality culturewhich is impacting GPG. Allyship is a verb, not a noun, thejourney begins with education and continues with action.If leaders and business don’t champion change consistently,top talent will leave. There is a need to examine (and re-examine)and uncover Trevor’s hiding places by overthinking all policies tochange the system from within. Gender biased language needsto be corrected across the company (in person and anydocumentation) and check for representation across all businessoperations from boardrooms to supply chains.

PDF available here.

16.

How WACLerscan help each other

INSPIRE

Support, experience and expertise are a fewthings that WACLers have in bucket load. Beloware some of the ways you can think aboutengaging the WACL community on to strengthenyour business case:

Allyship: It is easy for us all to feel the burden of fixing theworkplace but think strategically about how you can use allieswithin your organisation.

Learn from companies who are leading in this area; There ispower in numbers and external partners offer validation and anextra voice in your business case, particularly if their company isa leader in this space. Connecting Women’s networks acrossindustries and businesses.

Business case review: Have external eyes over your business casebefore sharing internally with senior leadership.Mentoring and Coaching: Offer support to others as well as feelfree to reach out to other members for coaching 1) Salarynegotiation 2) Performance management.

Re-watch our GPG Coaching series; As referenced throughout thetoolkit watch the recordings of the fantastic variety of sessionsincluding ‘How to drive gender diversity in large Globalcompanies’ and ‘How to influence when it isn’t your day job’

16

•Closing the gender pay gap WACL members sessionpresentation

•Addressing the gender gap by Emily Hopcroft

•Request for a free copy of Ann’s book Create a Gender-balanced Workplace by emailing your home address [email protected]. Read more here.

• Request for free access to CMI's Equality, Diversity &Inclusion Qualifications Level 7 (Senior Manager) bite-sized qualification

•Diversity wins: How inclusion matters (McKinsey)

•Realising gender equality's $12 trillion economicopportunity (Mckinsey)

•Covid and Gender Equality: Countering the regressiveeffects (Mckinsey)

•Gender Pay Gap Reporting 101 (Chartered ManagementInstitute)

•Women’s Business Council – Balancing the System(Government Equalities Office)

•Why women are better leaders in a crisis (HBR)

•Difference between equal pay and GPG (Independent)

•Allyship - Men using their power to fight genderinequality in the annual Agents of Change Awards (in

partnership with Management Today & Women'sBusiness Council) (Management Today)

•Improving gender balance - 5-year summary (HamptonAlexander Review)•Easing the Covid19 burden on working parents (BCG)

•It is women, especially low paid, BAME & migrantwomen putting their lives on the line to deliver vital care(Women’s Budget Group)

•Women feel less supported by bosses amid pandemic(Consultancy.co.uk)

•Has Covid-19 made the public more aware of inequality?(Bond)

•Covid-19: The impacts of the pandemic on inequality(IFS)

•Equal pay for equal work: the business case for genderequality (Working Mums)

•Stronger together - Engaging male allies in pursuit ofgender equality (ACI Insights)

•Reducing the gender pay gap and improving genderequality in organisations (Government Equalities Office)

•Evidence based actions for employers (GovernmentEqualities Office)•Gender pay gap negotiation tips (Hult InternationalBusiness School)

•Economic Inequality - Mother’s face home schooldisadvantage (Financial Times)

•Bloomberg Diversity Index (Bloomberg)

•Impact of Covid-19 - (United Nations)

•Good Guys: How Men Can Be Better Allies for Women inthe Workplace (D Smith & B Johnson)

•Men: Here’s how to help the women in your life getahead at work (Marketwatch)

•https://hbr.org/2021/04/research-adding-women-to-the-c-suite-changes-how-companies-think?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_weekly&utm_campaign=weeklyhotlist_activesubs&utm_content=signinnudge&deliveryName=DM127493 (HarvardBusiness Review)

•Global Gender Balance Scorecard report (20-First)

•Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders?(Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic HBR)

How WACLers can help each other