It's 2016, and Many Employers are Still Struggling on the Gender Front. Here's What They Can Do

Have efforts to improve gender diversity in the workplace stalled? Women are reaching the top ranks at Canadian companies in greater numbers than ever before. But men are still two to three times more likely to be in senior management positions, according to Catalyst, an organization focused on workplace inclusion. What gives? We looked for some answers at Catalyst’s Canada Honours conference in Toronto in November, which featured four people who’ve championed women’s advancement in their own firms. They included Frank Vettese, CEO at Deloitte Canada; Carol Osler, Senior Vice-President of TD’s Financial Crimes and Fraud Management Group; Philip Grosch, a partner at PwC Canada; and Anna Tudela, VP of Diversity and Regulatory Affairs at Goldcorp. These executives made it clear that Corporate Canada, across a broad swath of industries, takes the issue of gender diversity seriously. But there’s lots more work to be done. Here are some takeaways:

1. Recognizing Unconscious Bias Is Key

Even with policies in place to develop and promote women, they’re still under-represented, especially at the top. One problem: Unconscious bias is alive and well. At Deloitte, Vettese spearheaded the Canadian Women’s Initiative, or CanWin, to get women to see themselves as potential partners in the firm, and to help get them there. Then, when the numbers didn’t change significantly, Vettese decided to look at his own biases. “I realized I was bringing in people that looked a lot like me,” he said. Bias took a more traditional form in Osler’s field of security. Male hiring managers looked for candidates who were tall or strong, or as she said, able to “bring him down.” Osler’s solution: take physicality out of the equation, and look for gender-neutral attributes like powers of observation. Vettese raised another important point. Some people are biased against the idea of promoting diversity: seeing it as frivolous, or a diversion from a firm’s core business. How did Deloitte change that mindset? By baking diversity into its value proposition to clients, by making the business case that a diverse set of partners produce better ideas, and results.

2. Career advancement is not always a straight line up

Osler said she’s done well in security by taking every opportunity to learn, and by focusing on her skills. She also credited her success to another choice: not sitting still when she bumped up against her employer’s glass ceiling. After being passed over for a promotion she thought she deserved, Osler opted to leave and take a lower-paying position elsewhere. She eventually came back to the same firm, in a leading role. Tudela sidestepped perceived barriers by taking a job at an exploration-focused mining firm for the varied experience it provided. She urged women in her field not to be afraid to take chances, like putting in a stint at a remote mining site. And if you aren’t getting promoted, don’t wait. “Sometimes, if you’re a woman, you need to be moving to find out where you want to go,” she said. That’s what took her from South America to the U.S. to an executive position at one of Canada’s largest mining companies.

3. Quota, no. Metrics, yes

Some European countries, tired of the slow pace of change when it comes to achieving gender parity in the workplace, have set corporate quotas for women in executive and board ranks. Norway has gone that route, as has Germany. So far, the results have been mixed. And the four panelists had no interest in importing the experiment. Quotas imply “a lack of merit,” Osler said. But without hard targets, how do you bring about change? Grosch said “putting a lens” on your practices is key — meaning a firm has to take a hard look at its hiring, and employ numbers to measure success. Vettese suggested boosting engagement and flattening out management structures as a way to go.

4. Tone from the top. Action from the bottom, and everywhere else

Our panelists agreed that buy-in from a firm’s leadership is key to ensuring more women get promoted. When leaders take gender diversity seriously as a business issue, their employees are more likely to as well. But is change happening fast enough? Maybe not, especially for millennials. This generation is accelerating change by voting with their feet when they don’t see it happening fast enough, Grosch said. Regardless of gender, professionals under the age of 35 see the opportunity to strike out on their own, or to join a start-up, as a reasonable alternative to corporate frustration. For large employers, it’s not just a loss of employees, but a loss of diversity. The panelists advised companies to set an expectation for their staff, and then give everyone, regardless of level, the chance to make things happen.

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