Good morning. I’m delighted to be here at NCR today to celebrate global diversity day with you! I feel energised and frustrated when I think about how far we have come to deliver equity for women in the workplace. We’ve come a long way since the 60s when women had to resign when the confetti and wedding bells sounded. However, we still have a long way to go!

Recent research has calculated it will take 177 years to achieve equity for women at the pace of change we are currently making! Have a think what that means for your daughters and granddaughters!

My agency’s brief is to work with employers to remove discriminatory barriers for women in the workplace. Women are a diverse group! As are men! Which is why leading companies are taking the diversity and inclusiveness approach so that all their employees can fully contribute to the best of their ability.

So let’s talk about why do it?

You’ve probably all seen this before. This is the “generic” business case for doing diversity – what we now know is that each company has to determine its own specific business case. And each manager in the organisation has to be able to say in one sentence why diversity is a critical business priority. Is it about legal compliance? Or does the organisation wish to capture the diversity dividend that an inclusive work environment can deliver to your business?

As Director of the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency, I am often introduced at functions to senior executives in the Government sector who have been doing EO for a long time, and they often ask what the Agency aims to achieve. My answer often prompts the reply “But I thought we had fixed that?”

When I then ask them: Where are the women in your organisation? How many women do you have in key decision-making roles? What percentage of your customers are women? And what percentage of women, by contrast, work in your organisation? (and so on) it soon becomes apparent that things aren’t entirely fixed at all.

Apart from women still working in jobs with less status, there remains the thorny issue of the pay differential between the sexes for doing precisely the same jobs, as this slide demonstrates:

But, as was recently noted by ANZ’s Group General Manager Elizabeth Proust at a recent Banking conference1, helping women progress is not only about equity. It is about ‘winning the war for talent’ and strengthening intellectual capital through diversity of ideas. In reality, helping women progress is all about economics: making more money for your company!

When 400 senior executives from major global companies were asked what factor they considered the MOST critical to the success of their respective businesses, what do you expect these global leaders said?

“Quality people” was the overwhelming response in a poll conducted by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, underlining the very strong belief many business leaders have: that in a world of breathtaking speed, ever-changing technology and the fresh challenges of globalisation, the one thing you can aim to keep ‘fixed’ is … good people! … And that means men and women of every colour, religious persuasion, disabled, young or old. The challenge for organisations is to capitalise on this diversity.

Roosevelt Thomas Junior Jelly Bean:

Diversity is not about managing red, green and blue jellybeans. It’s about how to …..

SO WHY IS IT SO HARD?

The question then is – if the valuing of diversity is so good for business, why is it so difficult to achieve?

Let’s start with workplace culture. Professor Amanda Sinclair, an Australian economist and social commentator, recognised in her Trials at the Top2 study that Australian organisational culture can be classified into four stages:

Stage 1: Denial – No problem. These employers do not believe that the absence of women from senior management is a problem.

Stage 2: ‘The problem is Women’. Women’s differences are seen as the problem and these organisations believe that the solution lies in women learning to adapt.

Stage 3: Incremental Adjustment. The organisation recognises something is wrong when senior women keep leaving, but they look to other women to solve the problem.

Stage 4: Commitment to a New Culture. The exclusion of women is recognised as a symptom of deeper cultural problems and senior executives take personal action for change.

Similarly, Hewlett Packard, the no. 1 company to work for in Australia according to a recent survey, has developed Amanda Sinclair’s model. You might like to ask yourself at what stage your company is …

ISSUES FOR BUSINESS

One of the major challenges for business, in my observation, is that although one may have all the policies in place, it remains a struggle to get significant numbers of women into management roles.

My experience in this area (and for many HR Managers) is very often that you can provide the best business case in the world, piles of booklets on how to work flexibl, employee help lines, employee assistance programs, training for women on how to negotiate - and these are all important - but they are not enough.

The truth is, we are not seeing enough change in the way work is done. We are not seeing the attitudinal shift which is required of managers and the challenging of organisational assumptions about what commitment means. Managers are still assuming that commitment to the job equals the amount of time you physically spend in the office where men, typically, are the decision-makers.

Interestingly enough, the IT industry – does show signs of appreciating some workplace issues that are covered by our Act, as this quick snapshot of IT workplace trends in Australia demonstrates:

The policy looks good, but what is the practice? Do you stay on the career path if you access this flexibility?

Essentially, it would be useful to consider your workplace culture and decide, in the words of one Diversity best-seller, if you are a “Penguin” Culture - or whether you allow the “Peacocks” in. People have to fit it in!

To help business do this better, EOWA was a partner in a conference called Catalyst for Change, held in early 2000. Catalyst is a US organisation that works with Fortune 500 companies to advance the cause of women. Its researchers asked 325 CEO’s and more than 10,000 female executives the question “What holds women back from advancement?” and not surprisingly, the response differed markedly between these two groups. If you’re wondering what it is that creates that mythical ‘glass ceiling’ in some companies, here are a few pointers.

• 52 percent of the female executives said the main issue was male stereotyping and preconceptions
• 49 percent added that exclusion from informal networks was an issue, and 47 percent stated lack of significant general management or line experience contributed.
• By contrast, a staggering 82 percent of the CEO respondents stated that the most pressing barrier to women’s advancement was the lack of significant general management or line experience
• This was followed by 64 percent of CEOs believing women had not been in the pipeline long enough and
• Only 25 percent of CEOs stated that male stereotyping and preconceptions formed a barrier.

This research reflects my own experience that what women say - and what CEOs think -differs markedly. What you see here is a Catch 22.

It is true that women are not getting the experience they need in line and general management roles. And it is due to the issues the women cite - male stereotyping and exclusion from the informal networks.

WHAT DO WE NEED TO DO TO FIX THINGS?

What we now know is that to inspire commitment to diversity change, certain key issues need to be addressed, including:

• Structure – eg. HR policies and processes
• Leadership
• Culture that will support an inclusive work environment
• Macro environment – eg. Competitive, regulatory & socio-economic factors

IBM CASE STUDY: HOW ONE COMPANY TOOK A HARD LOOK AT ITS CULTURE

To kick-start some ideas, it may be useful to look at how a world leading company like IBM has tackled diversity. We can then look at the key aspects of the legislation and discuss some Australian examples.

In 1995, when a new Vice President of Global Workforce Diversity, Ted Childs, was instated, he identified relatively few women in senior management and he set out to change that.

From this overhead you can see that there are still relatively few “peacocks” of multifarious colours in the Top 50 Managers at IBM, but as Ted Childs points out … it is a marked improvement over the past five years.

Childs quote: “Glass ceilings exist here, but they exist at the entry level. If you fill the pipeline with qualified, talented people, they will break through. But we have to focus on the pipeline.”

IBM’s Global Diversity Vice President points out that glass ceilings DO exist, but they can be shattered – provided processes are put in place. Or as he puts it, “we have to focus on that pipeline”. As a result of his work over the past five years, IBM instigated 8 major task-forces which still remain today to look at various issues.

The Focus of these Actions identified 4 key issues – ownership at senior levels of diversity issues; universality of work/life issues (and this does not pertain to women only); the lack of women on what the Americans call ‘slates’ (or promotion lists), and the need for women leader and mentoring programs. IBM took action on all these issues and saw the results four years later:

SO HOW CAN THE AGENCY HELP YOUR BUSINESS?

If your business employs 100 people or more, you are covered by the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act to report to us at EOWA about whatever programs, policies or processes you have in place to fully capitalise on female talent. In order to do this, there are a few key areas you need to consider:

1. At the heart of the legislation is the requirement for companies to have a workplace program in place;
2. To do this, you need to create a workplace profile
and assess each of the 7 Employment Matters

Other issues to consider, however, is the matter of Compliance, guidelines to which you can find on our Web. In the case of having reported consistently to us over a number of years, another issue is whether you are eligible to waive reporting for a period, based on your ongoing successful outcomes.

And finally, when you are reporting to us, there are guidelines too about how to go about it, including a Voluntary Report Form to help you create (or personalise) your own reporting style. At EOWA, our catch-phrase is FLEXIBILITY!

All of these issues are important – with user-friendly advice and examples on the Web – but the most critical task initially is … considering the 7 Employment Matters.

For example, your business might wish to recruit more female staff. Connell Wagner, an engineering consultancy firm, investigated this employment matter and decided to focus on programs that would ensure that women would be in the pipeline for future advancement. Their initiatives include a graduate recruitment and high school program which promotes both the organisation AND engineering careers amongst female students.

Similarly, Tiwest, a titanium minerals production and processing company, have also achieved excellent recruitment outcomes for women. Even when recruiting for engineers in more non-traditional areas, almost 40% of their applications are from females.

Alternatively, your business may wish to focus on pregnancy issues and how to increase your rate of retention for good talent who leave when juggling work and parenthood becomes untenable. By implementing policies which allow flexible work practices and providing comprehensive information, Westpac demonstrate their commitment to recruit and retain staff based on the skills, knowledge and experience required for the role

Businesses who fail to consider pregnancy and maternity issues for their female staff may find themselves in a similar position to that of law firm, Hunt and Hunt where a staffer was recently awarded a total of $95,000 in compensation for lost earnings as a result of the company not having considered practical solutions to address a female staffer’s absence on maternity leave.

Ms Hickie was appointed a contract partner with the firm while pregnant. After maternity leave she returned to work part time, to find her practice had been reduced. She claimed indirect discrimination in that she was required to work full time and not take any period of maternity leave, this being a condition that more men could easily comply with, but she could not.

An employer is required to demonstrate it has:

• Need to demonstrate that you have taken “all reasonably practicable” measures to address all employment matters
• Eligible after compliance with the Act for three reporting years
• Reporting is waived but not ongoing program development
• A higher standard than compliance
• Provides incentive for organisations to do well
• Waivers can be revoked

SO WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THE MANAGER IN ALL THIS?

The truth is that while there have been many advances for women in the past 30 years, the challenge is greater now because discrimination is less overt, more subtle, sometimes almost invisible. However, the impact continues to be HARSH! Quite often ‘lip service’ is paid to the concept of EO, but in reality … well, it’s a different thing.

In many ways, the challenge for women, and managers, and HR exponents, is to find the courage to speak out when the organizational culture is not inclusive, for example, HP language. Like the little boy in the fairy-tale who had the courage to tell the truth and point out: “Excuse me, but the Emperor is not wearing any clothes”, we too have to speak up so that things can change for the better.

Here, specifically, are some things that any manager in the workplace can do to make a difference . Small steps, and ‘people power’ is what it’s all about!

CONCLUSION

The advantages of diversity speak to those aspects of a company that keep it a vibrant, exciting community, a place where people can do their best work and are stimulated and excited about growing into new areas rather than clinging to the old models of success.

“To garner the cultural benefits of diversity we have to want them badly enough to not just tolerate diversity but to embrace it, to demand it as part of our culture as part of our competitive advantage. And once we do we have to adopt the policies, practices and personal discipline it takes to get the most from it”, says David Pottruck, CEO of Charles Schwarb, a Fortune 500 US company.

He goes on to say that “It is absolutely necessary in this world of idea competition to have contribution from as many people in the company as possible. Passion for the work makes people contribute. Passion comes from engagement. Diversity is a fact. Diverse people get engaged when they think they can personally contribute to something worthwhile”.

Nobody in this room can afford to be protective of the information and experiences we have – it’s up to each of us to spread the word and be heard. We owe it to the future to stand up, to take action, to raise issues and to seek support for change. And as managers, we CAN make it happen!

Thank you.

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