There was a sharp intake of breath when Lance Hockridge, CEO of Aurizon (formerly Queensland Rail) explained one of the steps he’s taken to increase women employees at a recent forum.
When Aurizon is filling a role with a candidate from outside the company, Hockridge explained, if there is a choice between a male and female candidate with similar skills, the woman will get the job.
Cue the gasps, which were noted by UN women Australia’s executive director Julie McKay, another panellist at the Debunking myths about women and leadership seminar held by University of Sydney Business School last week.
This is actually an example of positive discrimination – a term we don’t hear much of these days but was used to describe steps taken to favour marginalised groups so they were given the same opportunities as everyone else.
It’s something our society does for a few cohorts, such as offering discounts to the elderly or special access or employment to the disabled.
When it’s applied to gender though, it’s a concept that makes some people very uncomfortable, including a few in the audience of academics, business school students and a range of corporate types.
To some of them, the recruitment approach sounded very much like the blatant unfairness that such measures actually set out to change.
But sitting back and hoping that fairness would simply become a default in the workplace is just not working, the panel agreed.
And equality is still a myth in our workplaces, keynote speaker Belinda Hutchinson, the Chancellor of Sydney University, told the forum, despite women making up the majority of higher education students.
At Aurizon the aim is to proactively boost the current level of women employees of 13% to about 30%, Hockridge said.
While some CEOs have done lots of the talking and less of the walking about gender balance, Hockridge is putting some firm measures in place in a very traditional male-dominated sector. He is a Male Champion of Change and a member of the Defence Force Gender Equality Advisory Board.
There is personal motivation too, he explained, because of his wife, daughters and a granddaughter.
But importantly, he sees action in this area as a business priority particularly in the competitive listed company space where Aurizon needs to attract skilled employees in a very tight talent market.
There is no doubt the new strategy is not going down well with his entire workforce, he observed. And he says there are no plans at this point to use the same approach on internal appointments and promotions where a range of other factors come into play.
But he’s clear about the need to press on despite the ruffled feathers. Among the sceptics at the forum were some in the audience who thought it was very difficult to see any two candidates for a job as equally capable, and the aim should always be to put the best person in the job.
But part of the motivation for the recruitment strategy was to start examining the subjective assumptions about exactly what makes someone the ‘best’ candidate and why, the forum heard.
And Hockridge has a very clear attitude about the need to change the gender ratio.
“It’s not a women’s issue it’s a leadership issue,” he told the forum. “If it’s not the blokes that make the change, it’s not going to happen.”
“It requires positive intervention and that is the journey we’ve taken particularly in a post-privatisation world. Unless you do things that are making the organisation uncomfortable we are not making progress. The predominant approach has been exactly the reverse. You can’t just have the preconditions and expect it will happen naturally.”
Among the other levers being used at the company is a program to help women transition to operations roles where they get broader experience and a six month rotation in the CEO office for high performing women.
A few areas have already undergone seen increasing numbers of women such as the key network operations area and Hockridge said the feedback has been positive, with some employees even wondering why it didn’t happen sooner.
It’s part of cutting through the ‘concrete layer’ of middle-management which acts as such a barrier to women’s progression, along with the bias that impedes change, according to the panel.
Dismantling the myth of the meritocracy is a good place to start, McKay said.
We still convey to young women that if they just put their head down and work hard you will be noticed, she said.
”But what is the current system based on? If merit is subjective, how do we do this differently, because the playing field is not even?”
And as Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick pointed out, it’s time to make it clear that differential treatment for women doesn’t undermine merit but is about addressing that uneven playing field.
And yes, it will make some people uncomfortable. But as Hockridge made it clear, that’s change for you.