Gender balancing act

It’s a man’s world—or is it?
A gender balanced Board is good for business—not only does it open the window to a broader and more dynamic workforce where different ideas are brought to the table, it is also proven to boost the bottom line. Why then are there so few females on Boards across the world?

HR Magazine caught up with Nick Marsh, Managing Director, Harvey Nash Asia Pacific and Professor Amy Lau, Director of Executive Education, Faculty of Business and Economics, The University of Hong Kong who joined forces in launching The Women’s Directorship Programme to tackle the issue of gender diversity at the top.

Mixture = money
It has long been argued, proven even, that organisations with women in governing positions demonstrate higher operating margin and market capitalisation in the industry than those managed by men only. The results of McKinsey’s studies from the series Women Matter revealed that companies with the highest female representation in top management positions achieved returns on equity 35% higher than those with the lowest female representation. Despite this, men continue to dominate the top ranks of nearly every firm across the world and women currently represent only 8% of all Board level positions. Why is there such a big gender gap—can it simply be put down to a lack of a skilled talent pool of women? Research suggests not and on the contrary, women make up more than 45% of the workforce. Since the 1970s with the dawn of the Women’s Movement heralding an era of equal opportunities on the grounds of political and professional matters, the world has seen an increase of female university graduates entering the job market.

Confidence is key
According to Lau and Marsh, the main barrier preventing women rising to the top is confidence—or rather a lack of it. Like many current female leaders, Lau knows that there is a rich talent pool of women in Hong Kong suitable to embark on leadership roles but she believes that these women are simply more hidden and less inclined to put themselves forward as they do not feel empowered or ready to take on a Board role. She explained, “What we see in companies across Asia is that women are simply not rising to senior positions. From an academic perspective, I see around 70% of women graduate from our university with an accounting background each year and I wonder where are all these women going? When you talk with large accounting firms they hire 50% women and 50% men, but then you look at the Board and these women only represent 20% of its members so something is clearly going wrong. There is obviously a need to help women rise up and represent on Boards.”

A failing combination
Lau argued that women have every right to believe they can be on company Boards and rightly so—they have the skills set to enrich an organisation and can bring an alternative viewpoint to different issues within a company as well as a broader perspective to internal and external relationships. However, aside from the fact that some women choose to take breaks in their career in order to raise and care for their children and family, even when opportunity arises for them to step up to more senior positions, some are reluctant to seize it because they are not sure if they want or are not confident that are capable of taking on additional responsibility required to be a Board member. Other women, meanwhile, are simply unsure of what these responsibilities are to begin with. Lau believes it is this combination of culture, misconceptions and confidence, or rather lack of it, which is preventing women from aiming high and Marsh agrees. He added, “I think confidence is the biggest challenge for women. Traditionally, men have always been brought to believe they have the right to put themselves out there and aspire to do something and whether it is innate or trained or coached, this has always been encouraged from the age of 2 or 3 years old. A man will see an opportunity to rise to a more senior role, see that they have 50% of the skills set required and feel this is enough—the rest can be filled in through hope, aspiration, future guidance and everything else. In truth, a woman will often exclude themselves if they feel they don’t have 90% of the skills set required for the role so there is an element of self-selection. While a man will strive to the next level, a woman will be more reserved and need to be encouraged and that is where we come in.”

Lifting barriers
Realising that action needed to be taken in order to bridge the gender gap and increase the number of women on Board across the region, Harvey Nash and The University of Hong Kong decided to join agendas and launch the world’s first certificated, cross industry, board preparedness programme in Asia, exclusively for women. Entitled The Women’s Directorship Programme, the content will include five modules, taught over two three-day sessions (April 11-13 and June 6-8 2013) and aims to address current and contemporary issues enabling women to be more effective at managing boards, and increasing the supply of Board ready women executives across industries. The interactive programme will be led by a number of esteemed international professors and involve real life case studies and thought leadership delivered by industry leaders who are champions of diversity in the Boardroom.

When commenting on the joint venture Marsh explained, “Harvey Nash’s partnership with Executive Education of the Faculty of Business and Economics demonstrates our dedication to investing in the Asia Pacific region and in future female talent.  Although there is a great deal of talk over gender imbalance in the Boardroom we are committed to taking action to tackle the issue and enable women to achieve the positions they deserve. We hope this programme will give them the confidence to realise they already have the skills required to reach the top.” Lau added, ““We recognise there is no one size fits all solution when it comes to addressing the lack of women in leadership positions across the world and there is no magic strategy for a woman to reach the top in her career.  However this programme is aimed at helping participants develop their own set of strategies tailored to their career ambitions, situation and personality, recognising that these will evolve over time as new challenges arise and elements in their lives change.  We want to drive this agenda forward and demonstrate our commitment to making a change.”

Following suit
Many executives of organisations are coming to understand that gender diversity in business management is crucial for achieving high performance and this realisation is not just occurring on a regional scale but stretches far beyond the boundaries of Hong Kong. Many organisations across the globe have already begun to purposefully develop measures aimed at attraction, promotion and retention of talented female employees and in some countries, the proportion of women in companies’ management is gradually on the rise. France is leading the trend—the share of women in the executive committees grew there by 7% from 2007 to 2010 while in the majority of other countries the growth rate varies between 0 to 3%. Meanwhile, Nordic companies have adhered to gender quotas leading to women comprising 32% of executive committees, followed by Sweden with 27%.

This month will also see The Women’s Foundation formally launch the Hong Kong 30% Club. Originally launched in the UK in 2010, the Club comprises a group of chairpersons of leading UK organisations who have publicly committed their support for a voluntary goal of 30% representation of women on Boards. This fruitful collaboration hopes to bring an equally positive change to Hong Kong and see more women reach the C-Suite. The leap from 8% to 30% is a big one but it appears that Hong Kong is finally lifting the barriers that could help tip the gender scales to balance.