For the past five years corporate advisory firm EY has researched and prepared a report exploring the issue of women in leadership. Last year the leader of diversity and inclusiveness for EY in Oceania, Edyta Torpy, decided that it was time to stop telling organisations what to do.
“Rather we thought we would showcase the fantastic women that are out there,” Torpy told Women’s Agenda. “In December 2012 we published a report that was in their words.”
When they sat down to discuss the next report Torpy recognised there was a glaring omission from most conversations about gender diversity in business.
“The male voice and male perspective was missing,” she explains. “Considering the fact most business leaders in Australia are still men we thought if we don’t include men in this conversation we just aren’t going to get engagement that we need. Men need to speak to men about this issue.”
So they drew up a wish-list of male executives to talk to and the list they secured is impressive.
Telstra chief executive David Thodey, CBA chief executive Ian Narev, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce and Coca-Cola Amatil chairman David Gonski are among the nine leaders EY conducted in-depth interviews with. The conversations that unfolded are impressive.
“I wasn’t surprised with what they said but I was surprised by how insightful they were and I was pleasantly surprised by the fact they all ‘got’ what this issue is about,” Torpy says. “The content is what we’ve been talking about for many years but it was very refreshing to hear senior male business leaders say it.”
Torpy was emboldened by the recognition and understanding among the executives of the fact this issue is not going to solved by a single program or initiative.
“As one of the participants said there’s no single silver bullet when it comes to boosting diversity, rather it’s lots of things being done constantly that will bring about change,” Torpy says.
There was consensus among the male leaders that tackling diversity isn’t merely a nicety, it’s an economic necessity and EY chief executive Rob McLeod couldn’t agree more.
“At the heart of this issue is the national economic benefit of getting gender diversity right which will have long-term repercussions for our national productivity and our overall economic outlook,” McLeod says. “We need to accept that measures taken to date have not yielded the results we hoped for and we need to re-consider the way we are progressing this important conversation to address biases once and for all.”
The male leaders agreed that overcoming the bias that still exists will require radical changes at a business, government and broader societal level. They identified a number of issues as impeding positive change, including ingrained cultural and organisational beliefs, unconscious bias, societal norms and, in some cases, sheer ignorance.
According to Dr Simon Longstaff, Executive Director of the St James Ethics Centre, “organisational culture is often based on bad habits and people who are used to having a certain person succeed. If you challenge the whole basis on which a role is secured then that’s threatening, so people resist.”
CBA chief executive Ian Narev believes an organisation’s failure to address gender equity often comes down to unconscious bias. “It’s one of the main barriers to progression on this issue. Unconscious bias leads to one of the biggest pitfalls for leaders: recruiting in their own image. Sometimes unconsciously, and sometime consciously, decisions are being made that see men recruiting more men.”
Diversity at all levels lowers risk and improves organisational performance. In a diverse organisation leadership groups make smarter, more informed decisions, customers are better understood, employees are less cynical and more engaged, and organisations gain competitive advantage.
The EY report makes recommendations for what business and government can do to gain that competitive edge. Business leaders must commit to changing the cultural issues that are stopping targets and flexible work practices from having their intended effects.
They must articulate the case for gender equity and constantly communicate the value of gender diversity amongst their own leadership teams as well as more broadly across their companies. They need to stop promoting clones, give equity targets real consequences and welcome constructive criticism and new ideas.
The recommendations for government include setting up parental leave schemes, education campaigns and community groups that support shared care, addressing childcare accessibility and affordability, making flexible working hours a right for all Australians and ceasing to write bias into legislation.
To meet these objectives the male interviewees agreed that men need to continue to drive the agenda.
“These issues need to be led by the CEO of an organisation and supported by the leadership team. And it is men who are still predominately running large organisations in this country,” Secretary to the Department of Treasury Dr Martin Parkinson says. “If men don’t talk to other men about this, it will forever remain a women’s issue.”