The topic of women in business has finally gained the momentum it deserves. From representation to equal pay, a new era for women and feminism has begun and more and more companies show their support.

Integrated marketing communications company Engine has created a ‘Better with Balance 2020’ programme to help support women within Engine and achieve 50/50 male/female representation in leadership positions by 2020. The programme comprises five pillars: – Get in, Get on, Get seen, Get back, and Get over it.  Debbie Klein, CEO of Engine Group, talks about gender diversity in senior positions and how businesses can work towards achieving gender diversity at the top.

Why do you think there is such a big trend now of companies coming forward and openly supporting women?

Debbie Klein: Like many professional women, I’ve worked in offices where the majority of colleagues have been men throughout my entire career. At times I’ve seen or heard things which made me uncomfortable. However, the last six months have felt like a turning of the tide. 

You’d have to be living under a rock to have missed the groundswell of positive, uplifting sentiment brought about by the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, and the new gender pay gap legislation has brought an unprecedented and welcome wave of media scrutiny about what companies are doing to support women. Every major company now knows there is now nowhere to hide. 

Across the world, companies have hastily come forward with policies and campaigns that openly support women. But Chief Executives must not regard improvements to gender balance, pay and the treatment of employees as box-ticking exercises. Deeper cultural changes are needed. It is time the industry demonstrates the “Mad Men” era is long gone – we know that balanced companies do better work and benefit from improved performance.

At Engine we have been trying to fix this since 2016 through our Better with Balance initiative, which is designed to address our imbalance of men and women in leadership roles. We’re making progress, but we know there is no room for complacency if we want to realise our vision of 50% female representation in leadership positions by 2020.

How did Better with Balance 2020 came to be? What does it entail?

D.K: International Women’s Day was inspiring, uplifting and rewarding – and now that it’s over, we can’t simply pack up and go home. Equality ought to be happening all the time, and the fact that it isn’t should concern us all – so how can we make 2018 the year that we break down barriers for women and pave the way to true gender equality?

Better with Balance 2020 is a five-step plan created to help support women within Engine and realise a vision of 50/50 male:female representation in leadership positions by 2020. These are simple mantras that apply beyond Engine’s world, and which I believe can help women across all industries get the support, recognition and respect they deserve: to get in, get on, get ahead, get back and get over it.

How can companies approach gender equality?

D.K: Everything in life is governed by probability, and if we don’t increase the probability of hiring a senior woman, then we won’t get more women on the board. It’s as simple as that.

There’s no shortage of talented, highly qualified women out there, and no excuse for male-dominated interview shortlists. That’s why we’ve introduced 50:50 shortlists for all senior roles. In the 21st century, it’s incumbent on all employers to ask themselves: are we doing everything we can to attract the broadest range of talent?

What is the best way to promote and encourage women to seek executive roles?

D.K: It’s not enough simply to get women through the door and expect them to thrive on their own. The male-dominated nature of senior roles in most industries means we must be extra careful to ensure that women have the professional support and backing to get ahead.

If you identify a rising female star, it’s a no-brainer to make sure you give them every bit of support you possibly can to help them progress through the organisation. Sponsorship programmes can help women progress within your company and create future female leaders. This is a more involved process than simple training and advice – Engine’s partner-level sponsors meet with our high-achieving women regularly, actively champion them at high level meetings and push them forward for opportunities to progress. 

Do you think representation plays a key role for women in business?

D.K: As the adage goes, you can’t be what you can’t see. We’re only going to develop a strong pipeline of female leaders if girls and young women see strong female role models at the top of the business succeeding and getting the same recognition as their male counterparts.

Organisations need to be better at making their outstanding women more visible. We’ve committed to celebrating the great work that Engine women do, both externally through speaking opportunities, and internally through training sessions for junior staff. We also make sure that promotions and successes of female staff are widely publicised across the group.

Motherhood is the main difference between a man’s and a woman’s career. How can companies ensure that women get back to work after having a baby?

D.K: Let’s get something straight; choosing to become a mother should never mean settling for second best in your career. The fact that women who take maternity leave are still penalised by recruiters over gaps on their CVs, and denied access to senior roles, is damning.

It’s incumbent on all employers to manage return to work correctly. Our ‘Get back’ policy is a framework that actively encourages and integrates maternity returners back into the workplace. It also helps them plan their career path for the future, getting them back on a level footing with their professional peers as quickly as possible.

Is there a way to change misconceptions and prejudices against women?

D.K: Like it or not, we’re all affected by unconscious bias – meaning our perceptions of others are governed by inherent impulses and reactions we can’t control.

What we can do, however, is proactively address this issue through unconscious bias training. By making ourselves aware of our biases, we can challenge ourselves in decisions about recruitment, performance management and promotion to ensure everyone gets a fair hearing and is on the same journey towards closing the gap.

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