HR Magazine recently headed to the fourth Women Extraordinaire Forum (WEF), an event which brought together over 30 speakers from across the world to shine a spotlight on leadership, entrepreneurship and self-discovery from a female perspective.
Moderating a panel discussion entitled ‘Men Standing With Women’ was our very own Editor-in-Chief, Paul Arkwright, who guided a compelling discussion on how men and women can work together to create equal opportunities in the workplace.
Tipping the balance
The subject of gender diversity in the boardroom has become one of the key hot topics for HR over the past several years, both on a global and regional scale. The introduction of a new code provision by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing requiring companies to have a policy and report on their board diversity has placed increased pressure on listed companies to consider the composition of their boards and ensure a diversity of perspectives are represented.
According to Fern Ngai, Chief Executive Officer, Community Business, however, despite this move, and the launch of other key initiatives such as the 30% Club, which are committed to bringing more women onto Hong Kong corporate boards, the needle has barely moved when it comes to striking this gender balance. In fact, she explained that findings presented in the latest Standard Chartered Bank—Women on Boards, Hong Kong 2014 reveal that a mere 9.6% of board members are female, only a slight increase on the 9.4% reported in the previous year. This marginal shift indicates that when it comes to the representation of women at such a senior level, Hong Kong’s performance is not merely slowing, it is stalling. Indeed, by today’s calculations it would take approximately 45 years for Hong Kong to achieve the target of a 30% representation of women on boards as the region lags behind the UK and Australia, which have both made significant progress in this arena.
According to Anthony Thompson, Regional Managing Director, Greater China, PageGroup, Australia has seen significant growth over the last five years in terms of board directorship, with an increase in the region of around 8% to 17% in female representation. He explained that many large corporations are focusing more attention on the issue of gender diversity, recognising that inclusively, from a business point of view, it makes commercial common sense and that if companies do not have an appropriate level of diversity, they will not be as successful as companies that do. With the current talent shortage in APAC, organisations should be doing all they can to prevent this from diminishing even further and inclusivity is one solution. So what is preventing Hong Kong firms from following in the footsteps of their internationals neighbours? One answer, it seems, is culture.
Culture change
Whether companies are creating the right culture and environment to nurture the pipeline of female talent is becoming more heavily questioned and, according to Professor Caroline Wang, Professor of Business Practice, Department of Management, HKUST Business School, the historical culture of Hong Kong plays a major part in determining the rise of women to the board.
She explained that culture can be changed, however, because it is leaned but that change must come from the top down in order to generate a ‘progressive evolution’, rather than from the bottom up, which is more likely to spur a ‘destructive revolution’. This concept places the leader in a position of responsibility to make that progressive change. Unfortunately, however, current leaders are predominantly male, and therefore progress will take time to achieve.
Despite this, Wang advocates that change is possible and, indeed, something she has witnessed from a personal perspective within her own role at IBM, which came about through the collaboration of a top-down and bottom-up approach.
Champions of change
Identifying the need to change culture is one thing, but what exactly is the ‘culture’ itself? According to Wang, the best definition of culture is ‘a pattern of assumption and an acceptance of the way things are’. With this in mind, she explained that the first step to changing culture is for people to become aware that assumption is invalid and that they must change this assumption and their own behaviour, thus breaking the patterns and leading to change. This assumption can be applied to the concept that only men make leaders, which has traditionally been accepted without question.
Thompson added that leadership roles themselves have always been defined in a male way and whilst there have been opportunities for women to fit into these roles, it comes with the condition that they must be able to fit into these set boundaries. Redefining leadership roles, therefore, may be the first step in championing cultural change.
For Farzana Aslam, Associate Director/Principal Lecturer, Centre for Public and Comparative Law, Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong, change is based on how society perceives gender roles, which starts with increasing awareness and leads on to a change in behaviours, practices and policies. She advocates that societal structures and attitudes must first be challenged in order to open up the opportunity for women to gain more equality when it comes to balancing their personal and professional lives.
Opening up opportunities
Despite more organisations becoming aware of the need for gender diversity, it seems that little progress has been made in Hong Kong, but why? From a recruitment perspective, Thomson suggested that this comes down to the issue of supply and a reduced talent pool.
He explained that 50% of candidates applying for mid-management roles are women, while only 25% of applications for director and VP level positions are from female candidates. It could be argued that this is where quotas play an important role, which some companies have introduced as a way of ensuring women make the shortlist of candidates for every position.
Wang, however, argues that rather than rely on quotas to ensure female representation, women should be given equal opportunity as men to compete for open positions and this should remain so until the end of the recruitment process when the most suitable candidate is selected for the job, regardless of their sex.
Ngai, on the other hand, argues that the three areas that need attention are supply, demand and visibility, whereby organisations need to change their mindset in terms of how they source the best and most diverse talent. This can be achieved by women themselves, who can work towards increasing their presence within the workplace and their ability to be recognised as potential board members. The issue preventing such actions, Ngai pointed out, may be partly due to a lack of confidence among women in the workplace as she urged women to take charge of their own careers, make their voices heard and step up to new opportunities for progression.
Juggling act
The matter of work-life balance is another factor perhaps preventing women from reaching the board, according to Ngai. She argued that organisations should assess their policies in order to enable women to fulfil both their personal and professional goals and facilitate their rise to the top. Whether it is allowing workers to work remotely or from home, offering flexitime, or better family packages, organisations should appreciate the juggling act that many women deal with as they strive to balance their career with their family life. Raising awareness, re-thinking policies and redefining roles is key to facilitating women in their journey to the board and their ultimate goal of achieving their professional potential.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
