Globally, there is a growing awareness that gender equality at the top level of business translates into better business. Several high-profile research reports, including those from McKinsey &amp; Co, Catalyst and the World Economic Forum, highlight that organizations with the highest percentage of women on boards outperform others in terms of returns on equity, sales and invested capital.
As a result of this awareness, specific initiatives are being launched to attract and retain top women in the business world. One such initiative is the 30% Club. It was launched in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2010, and its goal is to drive the increase of women on FTSE-100 boards to 30% by the end of 2015. The 30% Club is a group of business leaders committed to achieving better gender balance at all levels of organizations.
The 30% Club asserts that diverse boards make businesses more efficient, effective and ultimately more profitable. So far, progress has been made: it has achieved a steady increase from 12.6% in 2010 to 22.2% currently. In South Africa, however, such progress is lacking.
Sadly, there is still a dearth of women in senior management and board positions. It is not necessarily that the leadership opportunities do not exist, but rather that women are opting for alternative career models outside of the corporate world in search of career progression.
This does not bode well for corporate South Africa. Clearly, organizations are not thinking strategically around how to attract, develop and retain talented female professionals.
Without doubt, a new approach is required. Talent management solutions, for example, should be gender-neutral. Smart organizations understand the benefits of gender equality in the boardroom, but they fail to ‘walk the talk’.
Instead of uttering the right statements in the press, businesses need to develop solutions that offer women (and men) more incentives to remain in the corporate world. While women are no more difficult to employ than men, creativity and innovation needs to be applied to attract and keep the best employees. Following the lead of organizations such as Google Inc., organizations should be creating cultures and career models that attract women and cater to their different workplace needs and requirements.
Deloitte LLP provides an interesting case study – the company has become a leader in workplace innovation with its innovative agile working program. The company allows all employees to request a formal flexible working arrangement and enjoy a block of four weeks of unpaid leave each year.
In the UK, the 30% Club is achieving its aims without mandatory quotas, in line with the belief that voluntary business-led action is the way to achieve meaningful change. In SA, our complex history of mandatory reforms poses critical questions around mandated gender equality.
While the Women Empowerment and Gender Equality (WEGE) draft Bill – which is calling for 50% female representation across all senior and top management positions – is undoubtedly powerful, we believe that if corporates are not voluntarily putting strategies in place to continually attract and retain women, sustainable and meaningful change is unlikely.
Ultimately, the ideal solution requires a cooperative approach between government and business to establish a framework that makes commercial sense. If we look to countries such as Iceland and the Nordic states, where gender equality has been achieved, this type of partnership and framework exists. According to the WEF Gender Gap Report of 2013, the Nordic countries are considered leaders in gender equality. Their labor participation rates for women are amongst the highest in the world and salary gaps between men and women (although still present) are amongst the smallest in the world.
In SA, both government and business simply cannot afford to sit back on this issue and ‘see what happens’. A more proactive and coordinated approach is urgently required. While we wait for the WEGE bill to be enacted into law, and for initiatives like the 30% Club to gain traction, women continue to exit formal employment.
Unsurprisingly, they are turning to more flexible options, like starting their own businesses or managing smaller businesses. Talented female professionals are leaving the corporate world to find and create new business models that suit their goals, preferences and desires. For corporate South Africa, the most worrying part of this equation is that these women are taking their valuable institutional knowledge and much needed skills and experience with them.
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The writer is director of Tuesday Consulting, an executive search firm in Johannesburg.

wendy

Why Corporate SA Needs To Take Action Now

Elections in Africa tend to be associated with security and political risks. This year has seen a number of important national elections in sub-Saharan Africa. As several African countries take turns to go to the polls, individuals and organizations cannot afford to ignore the investment risk that comes with it.
For investors, political risk can simply be defined as the risk of loss due to changes that occur in a country’s government or regulatory environment. This could arise from the expropriation of assets, a new president or prime minister, a change in the country’s ruling party, or change in existing legislation or introduction of new laws.
It is well known that political stability is a prerequisite for economic stability; without it, policy initiatives and structural reforms can stagnate, decision-making becomes sluggish at best, and investor confidence begins to ebb as investors naturally seek safe havens for their investments.
Where there are high levels of unemployment, currency devaluation, an air of insecurity and political uncertainty, it is easy to become discouraged and anxious. Even though some of these situations are uncontrollable, you can be proactive about taking charge of your financial life and putting measures in place to minimize your risk.
To navigate the uncertainty that political risk presents, especially when important elections are coming up, try to familiarize yourself with the candidates, their political parties and their economic policies and plans. These may have a direct impact on your personal finances.
During periods of uncertainty, the natural tendency is to sit on the sidelines and stay out of the markets. Yet, uncertain times and volatile markets usually present opportunities for those who are well positioned to take advantage of them. For example, asset values, including stock, and real estate may sell below their true value as a country experiences capital flight.
Diversification is a tried and tested method for mitigating the effect of political risk. As the old adage ‘don’t put all your eggs in one basket’ reminds us, if you put all your money in one investment, your return will depend solely on the performance of that investment. Diversification spreads your risk across various asset classes, including cash, money market accounts, stocks and real estate as they tend to respond to market vagaries and financial conditions differently.
Beyond diversification across asset classes, consider diversifying assets across jurisdictions. Limit your exposure to single country risk by having a mix of domestic and international investments; that way even if the measures you have put in place to reduce your exposure to political risk prove to be inadequate, you have a better chance of limiting the damage to your portfolio.
It is not possible to avoid political risk altogether. Whether you manage your financial affairs by yourself or use the services of a professional, you are still susceptible to risk as all forms of investing come with a degree of uncertainty. You do need to familiarize yourself with the various risks associated with the markets in which you invest so that you can reduce your exposure by adjusting your investments as appropriate. Ultimately, you are responsible for your money.
For those that crave a level of certainty and predictability, the need for having a sound long term financial plan in place becomes more glaring than ever, and is key to financial security. If you stay focused on your goals, you are less likely to be swayed by market hype, volatility, inflation, devaluation, insecurity and political uncertainty and more likely to come out relatively unscathed when the climate begins to change.
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For more personal finance tips, follow Money Matters With Nimi on Twitter: @MMWITHNIMI and Facebook: MoneyMattersWithNimi

Political Risk And Personal Reward

Have you ever wondered why it is that men who are happy to question everything about women, including their ability to think rationally and lead organizations intelligently and profitably, say nothing about multitasking?
I have a theory. I admit it is no science or divinely revealed knowledge, but it is a theory nevertheless.
You see, growing up in my grandmother’s house in Soweto, South Africa, I did not know that as a male child I was not inherently able to multitask.
From an early age, I was responsible for certain chores. For example, it was my responsibility to pick up litter around the yard. Later, I also became responsible for cleaning the toilet, which in the original township houses was always in a corner at the end of the yard.
With my cousins, boys and girls, we were all responsible for more than one task. We had to juggle these with playing, doing schoolwork and keeping up with the latest hits on the radio. I had to pick up my younger siblings from crèche, do my father’s dry cleaning and whatever other extra chores my mother had commanded.
While playing street soccer with my friends, I remember watching the length of the shadows to determine when my grandmother was about to arrive home, which meant that I had to run home to boil water for her tea.
My point: I had to read books to learn that as a man, I was not a natural at multitasking. This, according to mass media, happens to be a woman thing.
At first it was a disappointment. You see, I grew up in a South Africa obsessed with emphasizing how inherently different human beings were. As a result of my political consciousness, I questioned anything that suggested some people were lucky to be born with certain genes and those who were not just had to grin and bear it.
Then it dawned on me: If I had a partner whom I could praise for being a natural multitasker, my life would be so much easier.
I could get away with doing very little around the house. I would do only one thing at a time and if, for argument’s sake, it coincided with my favorite sport on TV, it would have to wait.
After all, it was not my fault. I was a mere man and therefore deprived of that which enabled women to multitask.
My partner, on the other hand, would have to do all the housework and help the kids with their homework. Even as we switched off the lights at night, her amazing ability to multitask would continue, as she worried about what to wear the next day and how to find ways of pleasing me.
Again, it was not my fault that she had been blessed with the multitasking gene, which somehow enabled her to fit so much into the finite time she had.
That was the plan.
Now that I have sons and a daughter I know it would be remiss of me to perpetuate the nonsense that men or women have special abilities that members of the opposite sex do not have.
I cannot imagine my daughter being the partner of my younger self.
My sons will be adults in the 21st century and must shed the mentality that they have a one-track mind that renders them unable to walk and chew gum at the same time. They certainly will be multitasking in my house, just like their sister.
Women have an equal responsibility to revisit the idea that multitasking is in their blood. It might mean they can take on a lot simultaneously, but as leaders and managers it also diminishes their ability to delegate. These women often end up being surrounded by people who do not trust them.
In an ever-changing world, we have to think on our feet and think laterally. I cannot imagine any organization that hopes to thrive by accepting that only certain people can be trusted with doing more than one task at a time. And not because they are lousy at their work, but because the dice simply rolled unfortunately for them.
Of course, women can choose to believe that multitasking is their divinely given privilege. From where I sit, the beneficiaries of such a belief will be lazy and inept men, while women become superwomen.
I cannot speak for women, but in my experience, women of whom a lot is demanded become increasingly resentful and grumpy. And eventually, the quality of their work or their family life suffers.
You do not need a degree in medicine to know that unhappiness is infectious. And you certainly do not need an MBA to know that any organ-ization made up of sourpusses does not make for a great workplace.

Tag: Organizations

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Why Corporate SA Needs To Take Action Now

Political Risk And Personal Reward

The multitasking gene