A seminar hosted by the Cultural Leadership Programme, Manchester International Festival and North West Business Leadership Team as part of the Lever Prize 2007
Friday 30th March 2007, Manchester Art Gallery, Mosley Street, Manchester
Welcome:
Virginia Tandy, Director, Manchester City Galleries
Speakers:
James Purnell, Minister of State for Pensions Reform & MP for Stalybridge & Hyde
Martin Beaumont, Group Chief Executive, Co-operative Group & NWBLT member
Karen McCormick, CEO, Cheshire Building Society & NWBLT member
Hilary Carty, Director, Cultural Leadership Programme
Chair:
Ruth Mackenzie, General Director, Manchester International Festival
There were 75 attendees, of whom 54 were women.
James Purnell, Minister of State for Pensions Reform & MP for Stalybridge & Hyde highlighted some key statistics regarding women in the UK:
- only 10% of FTSE 100 Company Directors are women
- only 20% of MPs are women
- Part time workers earn 1/3 less than full time workers (and the majority of part-time workers are women.
Men and women need control and the ability to decide more for themselves regarding their work: there is a link between a balanced life and a more fluid working arrangement. As long as the work gets done there should be no problem. Flexible working would benefit all society as 1 in 5 would like to work different hours than 9-5 – as evidenced by the significant increase in requests to work flexibly.
Top Barrier: Family commitments conflict with a lack of flexibility. Changing this would allow men to share more domestic responsibilities. Men are already doing more within the household, but they still do less than women. Men want this to change: 50% of men want flexible working hours. It is therefore a collective goal.
The State cannot do it all, it needs to combine forces with individuals and organisations: e.g. the quality part-time work fund, which has been set up to support projects that facilitate part-time working, and the Exemplar Employers Initiative which is bringing together more than 100 employers who are running projects to tackle one or more of the causes of the gender pay gap.
Other countries have erased or reduced inequalities. Britain needs an enabling state to overcome these problems. But, why bother?
· It’s the right thing to do for women and for those around them (e.g. helping in the fight against child poverty)
· It’s the right thing to do for the Country - women equal 40% of the British population.
Martin Beaumont, Group Chief Executive, Co-operative Group & NWBLT member outlined the economic and demographic case for positive change in employment.
· In a 32-nation survey of the percentage of senior managerial jobs occupied by women: Great Britain was 25th, being outperformed by Botswana and the Philippines.
· 75% of working women are found in 5 working groups: care, cleaning, catering, clerical and cashiering.
· Disabled people with the same qualifications as non-disabled people are 30% more likely to be out of work. People from an ethnic minority are 15% less likely to be in employment than a white person – put another way more than ½ million people in the UK are not employed apparently because of their ethnicity. Greater Manchester fares worse with an ethnic minority employment gap of 20%.
· 80% of the ethnic minorities are less than 25 years old. We need to tap this talent pool. The question is how to change the external perception?
· Ex-offenders are far less likely to re-offend if they are in work. Crime costs business £9 billion and re-offenders cost £11 billion.
We must consider the benefits of co-operative working to improve ethnic minority employment – not just locally or nationally. Large organisations can lead the change, but all organisations need to follow. Are we ready for changing life choices? Can we be more flexible as businesses? Are we ready for the changing population and the differences brought by varied ethnic groups?
The direct aim is for co-operative work with disadvantaged groups – even if it is not ‘policy’ it should happen. We can share NWBLT’s experience and ideas in order to attract talent to top and respond to the changing demographics. It is the smart business thing to do.
Karen McCormick, CEO Cheshire Building Society is the only woman on this in the NWBLT.
· All humans have unique and special talents and the right to fulfil their ambitions
· Adaptors survive and achieve
· Karen has experienced changes first hand in male organisations that grew out of the Industrial Revolution - they were male dominated, hierarchical and believed that knowledge was power
· Developments in technology have led to changes in equality and opened up access
· Creativity comes from individual human brains. We need to think about individual contribution and how to make a difference by encouraging collaboration. We need to use technology to its maximum potential: it allows connectivity and the capacity to achieve control.
Traditionally-focussed organisations will not survive. Successful businesses are unlocking creativity. Success comes from innovation. Women are setting up their own businesses and exploiting opportunities. Most people no longer expect to work in one company for their whole career. This is not good for innovation and dynamism – yet there is a fear of moving on. Women need ownership of their own career and development and organisations that do not support this will die. Organisations need to free people to leave and come back.
Leadership needs to inspire and encourage creative thinking: helping people to move forward. Change is not hard for humans, although this goes against traditional thinking. Change needs to be like falling in love: quick, all consuming and life changing. There is a huge opportunity in the quiet revolution that is dawning. The change must happen because it is essential for our future.
Hilary Carty, Director, Cultural Leadership Programme endorsed the business case and the economic case for promoting good equality in leadership, noting also the straight-forward common sense case: why would anyone want to ignore 50% of the talent pool?
Women in leadership roles are important for this and future generations as women need to see themselves reflected – having role models to which they can aspire. It is dis-empowering to be in a place where the expectations and the value placed on an individual are low. Many female directors who are at the head of key organisations do not have or ‘claim’ the national status that might go with the role – hence visibility is further reduced.
33% of the Heads of National Arts Organisations are women – a better statistic than some sectors (10% senior judiciary, 14% Council Leaders and 17% national newspapers), but the flip side is that working hours are excessive and the pay is unremarkable in comparison to commerce or other professions.
Many women choose portfolio careers or ‘consulting’ as their lives consist of a number of different facets, often well hidden from the world of work. We need to acknowledge this complexity rather than keeping it hidden. We should reject the attitude of ‘get ahead’ OR ‘get a life’. It is important for our children to see and validate the choices we make and see us as both business leaders and parents – successfully doing both and making our own choices. They also need to see fathers in this multi-layered role – to be better prepared to handle the shifts in working pattern that are hopefully on the horizon.
Discussion
In discussion the panellists touched on the following key themes:
Dreams/Aspirations: We need to help people achieve their dreams. The question is how? How can we refocus on personal goals? Are we an “aspirational” country? Aspiration comes from education and a ‘good start’ in life. The UK is not good at encouraging people to meet their dreams. We don’t encourage success - we look for similarity. We need to value differences before we can be successful. We need the confidence as leaders not to suppress the maverick, sparky ideas that are not in line with the company policy or business plan. Experience needs to learn from energy, newness and freshness of approach. We must be happy to let people be more brilliant than us.
Flexible working: The Industrial Revolution was the death of flexibility with the clocking in and out system. It ended the piece meal work done in our own time. We do need to work, but we need to decide what sacrifices to make. Organisations need to enable people to come together when they choose. The problems of weekend scheduling come to an end if you schedule yourself. People could sign up to what they could do and everyone could cover for each other when necessary. Everyone wants to do his or her best. If you give people responsibility for the whole job they will work as a group to achieve the whole. Responsibility accommodates flexibility leading to looser ties with more value-driven employees. If you give people control and power you are in a win-win situation. Better to monitor what matters: getting the job done is more important than being at your desk. The Chancellor took paternity leave.
Question And Answer
Comments & issues raised in the Q&A included:
§ A welcome for more opportunities for professional development in their mid-career – space and support to think about next moves and future jobs. – space and support to think about it.
§ 4-year-old children use 96% of their faculties. By the time they reach 16 they use only 16.4%. This is because over-testing leads to loss of innovation and the ability to dream. Education needs to help people discover their talents – that is why it is currently failing. We need to lose the production line mentality and value the differences, not the normality.
§ The early education system was not providing basic numeracy and literacy skills 10 –12 years ago. It is getting better now but testing provides the baseline problem indicators, but there is probably too. The way in which we use tests has to change and personalised help is needed. The education system is still catching up with work-linked skills. Creativity is the core issue.
§ Decision makers are different from those who lead by example. Decision makers need to affect the mainstream, we need people in the mainstream to make the changes. There is a big difference in the way they are run: a single leader who calls all the shots has been replaced by teamwork. Working together motivates as many people as possible and helps everyone understand. People can choose to opt in or not.
§ Merseyside Economic Review mentioned the ‘secret female revolution’. If you take someone out of the workplace for 10 years, they don’t lose 10 years experience. You do need to acknowledge the experience gap, but people should not automatically fall back; there will be a transitional period, but people should not have to restart their career.
§ Life is the best way of learning, this is not necessarily just in work. People are still learning when they are not working. If you ask people: What do you want to do? The employer knows he or she will get a fabulous employee giving 110%.
§ If someone goes on maternity leave it can create a problem for a small company. It is not always possible for a small company to help that individual. If people are not given the benefits they need in a small company they will go elsewhere. Organisations need to look at creative ways around problems. Companies need to work with it and re-programme their attitudes and structures. An organisation has to work around the problems. It is worth it, if you give people the opportunities they are grateful for it and repay it in the long term.
§ Regular appraisals for Boards and Non-Executive Directors could lead to ‘outing’ the issues. The number of years people can sit on the panel should be limited in order to encourage change. ‘Board Breaks’ could be developed – with new entrants taking their place. Partnerships with higher education courses should be created to escalate people from courses onto Boards etc.
§ Women’s management style is differently to men’s. How can we change the definition of a good manager?
Key Action Points Arising from the Seminar
Summarised by Geoffrey Piper, Chief Executive, North West Business Leadership Team
§ Business leaders should encourage further growth in flexible working in order to help realise women’s potential. Women are three times more likely to benefit from opportunities to work flexibly than are men.
§ The North West has launched a region-wide flexible working project (supported recently by the Prime Minister) – this is run by Emma Jones of Redbrick [email protected]
§ Collaboration between those in positions of cultural leadership and business leadership can be a powerful force for demonstrating the benefits of diversity in management.
§ Leadership and management needs to be increasingly innovative in the 21st Century – diversity, not similarity, of leadership is the way to encourage innovation.
§ Allow greater freedom of thought amongst young people, to encourage creative thinking.
§ Create more opportunities for mid-career professional development (note – Liverpool’s four universities now collaborating to provide online database for all CPD).
