genderequity conference hosted by FLEXImums

This year's conference - hosted by FLEXImums

This year's genderequity conference, hosted by FLEXImums held on 24 October 2019, was titled 'Making your initiatives count.'

The first gender equity conference, presented by FLEXImums, was held in 2016. After three successful consecutive events, this year’s theme was ‘making your initiatives count’. A number of excellent speakers were brought in to share their companies’ initiatives at creating a more inclusive workplace. The overriding takeaway this year was the importance of flexible working arrangements, and all speakers had a lot to share on this subject.

Olivia Wong, Head of Diversity & Inclusion Development, John Swire & Sons kicked things off with an opening address. She talked about the importance of working hard to create a balanced workforce but signed off by saying, “Hopefully, in five years, my role will not be required. Organisations will realise that diversity and inclusion is simply a part of doing business.”

Following Wong’s introduction, we heard from Matt Lyon, Partner at Arcadia Consulting. His focus was on the importance of culture to creating a gender equal workplace. He explained that part of the problem today is that company cultures are stagnant. According to Lyon, “Companies are just going through the motions, working in repetitive ways that a monkey could perform.” He asked, “What are the current ‘monkey behaviours you are looking to change?” Explaining this further, he explained that every organisation is set up perfectly for the way it currently works, but not for the way it should. Thinking smarter and scientifically, he explained, “Neuroscience, psychology and anthropology can give use some of the answers. It’s easier to build a command control culture; a culture of fear and force. To build a more inclusive culture, there need to be some key leadership steps and visibility in place.” In essence, he went on to explain, “Plan for the culture you want, not the one you have. Encourage staff to build new habits and to label their feelings. Reward and celebrate success.” We need to do things differently. The status quo is not working.

genderequity conference delegates getting ready to start

Following Lyon was Michelle Fung, Consultant and Co-chair, Flexible and Agile Working Committee, Women in Law Hong Kong (WILHK) who spoke at length about making the case for flexible and agile working. Looking at the statistics on women in the workforce, she stated, “It is clear that the imbalance has not been addressed in the way that we would have hoped by now.” How do we address the imbalance? Her organisation, WILHK,  conducted a survey showing that 75% of UK headquartered organisations in HK have flexible working policies. However, only 29% of Hong Kong headquartered organisations have such a policy. The statistics clearly demonstrate a cultural and societal problem. She said, “Agile working is something that arises quite naturally. It’s a way of getting work done with maximum flexibility. Hong Kong suffers from a lack of managerial support and unconscious biases. This needs to change.”

Following the individual speakers, a panel convened to discuss ‘how company policy and values are embodied by their people’. Making up the panel were Joanna Caen, Partner and Head of Private Wealth, China, Herbert Smith Freehills, Mike Fang, Managing Director, Head of Greater China Cluster & Head of APAC & NTS, Maersk (China) Shipping Co. & Damo Freight Forwarding, Nikki Davies, Campus Recruitment, Diversity & Inclusion APAC, Credit Suisse and Tom Owen, Director People, Cathay Pacific, Moderating the discussion was Anna Simpson, Director and Chief Innovation Coach, Flux Compass & Curator, The Futures Centre. The panel discussed and unpacked the themes of company culture and hiring the right staff for your companies’ culture whilst also making sure that recruitment was fair and inclusive. This often involved a change in company culture to create a more diverse workplace, again focusing on flexible working.

The next speaker, talking about how to ‘Amplify your D&I strategy with psychological assessment’ was Henry Chamberlain, Managing Director, HCC Global Limited. He has looked into the focus of assessments, and identified, “There are two main measures: ‘lead measures’ (forward looking predictors of potential) and ‘lag measures’ (reporting perceived effectiveness of behaviour after the fact).” He also explored the benefits of psychological assessments from an organisational perspective and individual perspective. He explained, “These tools can be utilised by organisations to identify and select talent more fairly and objectively.” Once talent is identified, Chamberlain explained, “Both individuals and organisations benefit by the ability to create individualised development plans based on the unique strength and development needs of each talent.” Therefore, the onus is on both parties to work together.

A second panel convened to discuss ‘meaningful metrics of HR and inclusion’. This panel consisted of Chinatsu Kaneko, Head of Workplace Strategy, North Asia, CBRE, Madeleine Price, Regional Head of Talent, Succession Planning and Diversity Inclusion, Manulife, Maria Hui, Director, Marketing and Operations (M&O), Microsoft, and Varshaa Ram Kutik, Head of Diversity and Inclusion for Asia Pacific, Bank of America Merrill Lynch. This time, the moderator was Katherine Payne, CEO, Black Isle Global. The focus of this discussion was around statistics and how to use them. The key is making the way we gather data as useful as possible as opposed to just gathering data for the sake of it.

To finish off the day, Darryl Parrant, Country Business Leader, Careers Regional Practice Leader, HR Transformation, APAC & IMETA and Nicole Luk, Associate Director, Organisational Design, Engagement and Talent Assessment Lead, Mercer (Hong Kong) spoke together about ‘building an inclusive culture through the employee experience journey’. They ran a workshop with the delegates where Parrant explained, “Creating an inclusive culture in the company is key to a gender equal organisation.” Luk introduced activities for the delegates that she hoped, “Identified key touch points of an employee experience that participants could use in the workplace to build a sustainable ecosystem.”

Overall, the core message from today was creating a culture of ‘agile working’, and the drive to educate organisations into allowing their talent to work smarter and more flexibly. If women, especially, feel able and empowered to ask for more flexible working arrangements, this will lead to greater engagement. Those companies who are not agile or flexible with their talent will lose them to those that are.