Diversity: Are We Making Progress?

AIM WA hosts regular boardroom discussions each year aimed at bringing senior leaders from across all sectors together on vital issues, challenges and opportunities facing managers and leaders.

Last week’s HR Futures Forum boardroom series discussed whether organisations are making headway when it comes to diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

According to the 12 senior Human Resources leaders present, the question is relatively easy to answer…‘No, we’re not’. But it’s not for lack of significant effort in many organisations. The far more vexing question is ‘why aren’t these efforts working’?

Dr Liz Constable, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Western Australia and former Minister for Women’s Interests opened the session with some interesting, but not surprising, anecdotes from her own experiences of gender discrimination during her career.

She shared some disconcerting statistics, particularly for Western Australia, around the gender pay gap. Currently standing at 18 per cent nationally, it is a disappointing 25 per cent in WA.

Australia ranks 24th in the world for pay equality and 21st out of 29 countries in the OECD index for employing people with disabilities. Additionally, with 45 per cent of people with a disability living near or below the poverty line in Australia, there’s a long road ahead for us when it comes to making progress on diversity and inclusion.

So, what are the main barriers to equality and diversity in the workplace?

The HR Futures Forum discussion focused heavily on the gender debate and why equality and diversity are so hard to achieve. These are just some of the key areas discussed by the group.

Unconscious bias

The conversation regularly touched upon the ‘unconscious’ or ‘implicit’ bias in the individuals who make up our organisations.

This is a ‘blind spot’, or hidden set of beliefs and attitudes that shape the way we think, make decisions and ultimately behave. These unconscious biases begin at a young age and whether that’s a negative bias towards women, people with disabilities or on the basis of age, race or culture, it’s an insidious problem impacting organisations, communities and society in general.

It’s not something that can be addressed easily as it is strongly linked to culture, which is notoriously difficult to change.

Not enough focus or positive role-modelling at the top

These biases may begin early in life and at school, but they are often perpetuated from the ‘top’ in organisations, the community and government.

The ‘alpha male’ mentality demonstrated recently by the ‘shirt-front’ negotiation style at the highest levels of government, for example, provides the wrong kind of role-modelling when it comes to leadership culture and behaviour.

The group felt that Boards can do significantly more to drive change by setting targets and KPIs that demonstrate a clear and consistent focus on equality and diversity. Rather than being seen as a set of ‘initiatives’ linked to Corporate Social Responsibility, which tend to be taken off the table during tough economic times, it was suggested that Boards should position equality and diversity squarely alongside bottom line reporting and shareholder value as measures of success.

Tackling unconscious bias in organisations has to begin with leaders. This means everyone from the Board down becoming positive role models by bringing their own biases to the surface; paying attention to what they focus on, what they say, what they do and what they measure as a leader. It means creating pipelines for talented individuals to succeed into leadership roles regardless of age, gender, disability or race.

Negotiation skills lacking in women

It was argued that some women don’t have the necessary skills to successfully negotiate for promotions and pay increases. Research has shown that perceptions of a woman become negative if she assertively negotiates for herself; something which is seen as a positive attribute when demonstrated by men. Though not an issue for everyone, more can be done to address these skill gaps and gender biases through bringing them into focus and providing relevant training. Additionally, promotions and pay rises should not be dependent on the negotiation skill of the individual, male or female, but awarded through a transparent and equitable merit-based system.

So, how do we change this?

There is no doubt that we need some fresh thinking on the equality and diversity agenda. In addition to training and transparency, the question was raised whether we can take away some key lessons from the health and safety arena. Here, steps to modify discrete behaviours have turned into great strides in reducing accidents and safety breaches and creating a lasting culture shift towards positive health and safety in many organisations.

It Starts With Us

Dr Constable outlined the work of Male Champions of Change, a group of male CEOs brought together by Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick, who use their influence to impact gender inequality. Together with Chief Executive Women, a member-based organisation enabling and empowering women leaders, they have launched It Starts With Us: The Leadership Shadow. This model demonstrates how the words, behaviours, priorities and measurements adopted by leaders can create real progress towards addressing biases, shaping focus and providing positive role-models towards gender balance.

Mentors and Role Models

We heard that visible role models and mentors help encourage and support women wanting to break through the ‘glass ceiling’. Providing profile and exposure for women leaders via industry, government and community awards, mentoring programs and women in leadership events is important in demonstrating the way forward for individuals and organisations.

But it’s not just women who can benefit from positive role models. Societally, let’s aim to see greater acceptance of men who access the ‘glass fire escape’ at work in order to be the face at the school gates when the bell rings. Organisations can have such a big impact on the lives of their employees by actively supporting women returning to work and men taking more responsibility for their family’s care. It would go a long way in creating the right balance of career, parenting and carer responsibilities for men and women.

And if you’re asking the ‘why does it matter’ question…?

Because, according to this group and I suspect many more …it’s simply the right thing to do! Let’s stop trying to justify the need for equality with bottom line impacts, though they are undoubtedly there, and let’s start saying, doing, prioritising and measuring what really matters when it comes to genuine equality and diversity in our organisations.

Andrea Walters AFAIM is Director of Personal Membership and Advocacy Services at the Australian Institute of Management in WA with responsibility for delivering a diverse range of professional development and networking services to members. These include professional events, the Member Mentor Program and various online management development resources and partner services.