Many believe in a more subtle approach - women's networks. They are flourishing, but which type works best? Peter Crush finds out.
INTRA-COMPANY NETWORKS
Jo Taylor, Channel 4's head of learning and 4Talent (its talent arm), is one of only 39% of its senior management who are women. Like many, it suffers from female fall-out. More than half (56%) of C4's 819 staff are women. "Society is diverse, we need to expose ourselves to a greater diversity of talent," she says. Her solution has come from seeing staff mix at an external networking project called Diverse Leaders - which claims if leaders are diverse, diverse recruitment follows - and replicating it; but this time she is inviting its rival, the BBC, to join in too. "If TV in general is to stop fishing from the same sea, I realised any diversity initiative needed to be industry-wide, not just restricted to C4. I'd already worked at the BBC - I'm proof of the way people circulate - so the link-up was natural." The C4/BBC Diversity 2010 initiative was formerly launched in March: 10 senior managers from different areas of each organisation will come together during this year to formally discuss diversity issues and hear from business gurus in the Diverse Leaders network, run by executive search company Green Park.
"They will be learning about how talent, diversity and leadership are interlinked," says Taylor. "By making them diversity-aware, the aim is for this to spread to the people that report to them and so on down the organisation. It also gives our leaders a chance to widen their own networks and potentially hear about talent they can tap into." Yes, that means poach, but Taylor is sanguine about this. "We've shared talent between us in the past and this will happen again, but it's the experience of the network that we feel will drive diversity within us."
Could this be a network model for other industries? "Absolutely," says Taylor. "We already have a diversity committee, but lots of strategies are needed. I'd love to see this copied. We need to understand why people are put off from joining us. This will help; it breaks barriers and articulates issues in a way an MBA course does not."
Also out there
- While numerous umbrella groups give companies peer-to-peer contact (such as the Retail Networking Group), few share diversity groups. But the sector skills councils are being challenged by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills to foster intra-company diversity networks. The first, Women 1st, launched late last year by People 1st, the skills council for hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism. It wants to tackle the fact the sector employs many females, but only 6% of women are managers. Esther O'Halloran, HR director at patisserie Paul, is a participating HRD. "I'm mentoring a junior from a hotel group," she says. "It gives women an experienced contact, a different point of view, and a chance to discuss things they might not want to with their immediate line manager. I'm encouraging my own staff to look at becoming mentored through this scheme too."
- The City Women's Network works closely with corporates' own internal networks as well as with international networks, such as the European Professional Women's Network and The International Alliance for Women. It has 160 members, 60% of whom are corporate members. It meets monthly, and India Gary-Martin, voted one of the top 100 most influential African Caribbean people, became its new president in March 2010.
EXTERNAL NETWORKS
With her boyfriend laid up in bed with a cold, Nicola Hain has sweet-talked her way into the nearby Kensington Hotel so we can take pictures there rather than at home. "The manager is my new friend," she chirps. It's networking skills like these that earned Hain her recent spot at an International Women's Day (15 March) event at Number 10, rubbing shoulders with the likes of West Ham vice-chairman Karen Brady (Alan Sugar's latest judge on BBC's The Apprentice) and Angela Ahrendts, CEO, Burberry. The former Ernst & Young staffer, the youngest to be selected for its Accelerated Leadership programme, is a serial schmoozer. She has to be: this year she launched The Key Club, a new network to get diverse groups - particularly women - to the top in business. "While there are diversity programmes in individual companies, my concern was there was nothing uniting them," says Hain. "I surveyed 2,000 CEOs and found the average CEO had 846 people in their network. 100% of respondents said they valued face-to-face contact."
She says: "I want to create the ultimate alumni. The best leaders spend 50% of their time networking but normally these contacts take years to develop. This fast-forwards the process." Membership is not diverse groups only, but Hain is keen to promote women members. "It's having children that creates the disconnect with the workplace," she says. "Women get taken out of business. This is a chance to stay connected with industry, make contacts and have access to a community."
Hain dismisses any suggestion that she has got where she is because of a privileged background. She insists she had to work hard academically. ("I only got a 2:1 from Newcastle Uni.") What helped her, she concedes, is the access she had to businesspeople through her entrepreneurial parents. "The power of networks is immense," she says, and she is even formalising a mentor programme for Key Club members to mentor others (currently, Cable & Wireless boss John Pluthero is a mentor).
Individuals can apply to join, but Hain is developing a corporate membership model. "I want HRDs to nominate their top 10 diverse talent," she says. With 236 members so far, she is likely to be tapping on your door soon - the target is for 1,000 by the end of the year. Members already signed up include Thomson Reuters and Innocent Drinks, while Coutts, Coca-Cola and HarperCollins have all expressed interest. "This can only complement internal networks," she says "and give them more context. Leaders can become too reliant on internal networks. All potential talent needs an external focus too."
Also out there
- www.womenintechnology - a site for female IT professionals which runs networking events. The network has 6,000 members.
- The Athena Network - a franchise model with 123 networks in 17 countries. It is aimed at women in new or well-established firms to share best practice and advice.
- The Women's Business Clubs -focused on supporting women at all stages of their careers with a national network of events. It has two-tier membership - Business Club and Premier Club. The latter encourages businesses to work co-operatively with each other.
- National Black Women's Network - a non-profit organisation dedicated to raising the status and position of women. It runs networking events with speakers from the likes of GlaxoSmithKline, BBC, HM Revenue and Customs, ITN and American Express. It includes 'SistaTalk' - with access to Britain's top entrepreneurs.
INTERNAL NETWORKS
"Our Women's Network is not just a nicely, nicely add-on, it's a commercial no-brainer," says Ernst & Young deputy managing partner Richard King. "Our many networks, such as our lesbian, gay & bisexual network, which was last month named Employee Network Group of the Year by Stonewall, support four HR tenets: how we attract the best people; how we develop them; how our people connect with the market; and how we educate the business." Some 2,500 people belong to the Women's Network, launched five years ago. Anyone can join - not just those deemed high-potentials. Although Ernst & Young works with affiliates such as the CBI, King prefers the internal network model: "Because of our size, we feel we can create opportunities ourselves."
Since the network started, female partner numbers have increased from 14% of the workforce to 17%, with the aim (not quota) to exceed 20%. "We've never had a problem attracting women - at intake level the spit is 50:50," he says. "What we've struggled with is keeping them. Anyone that leaves us after one year costs £250,000, but when more women leave we're losing disproportionately more talent. Having more women is a visible sign we're serious about diversity. A mix makes for better decisions."
IT giant IBM is also a beacon of promoting internal networks. Of its 169 different networks, 31 of them are for women, while of 73 further diversity councils, 40 of them are women's groups. All the evidence suggests they work. In the past nine years, female appointments have increased 425%, such that IBM has one of the smallest differences between its overall female population numbers and the proportion in top roles: worldwide women comprise 28% of staff and 24% of executive managers are women, including two senior vice-presidents and three on its board of directors. Its three major internal networks are Blue Talent, a 12-18 month female talent management programme - launched in 2007 - that provides workshops, contact with the UK CEO and internal networking opportunities; its Building Relationships programme, a network of women across the organisation who go on to join a global alumni network, supported by a female executive sponsor; and ConnectingWomen@IBM, which was re-launched last year and provides networking, business education and personal development activities.
Also out there
- Canon, a regular in The Times' Where Women Want to Work Top 50, integrates diversity networks into its European Employee Development Programme. Caroline Price, HR director, Canon UK, says: "The group, comprising the top 20 potential leaders, is represented by three women from the UK alone."
- In 2008, law firm Clifford Chance launched CC Women to address the fact 51% of lawyers are female but only 18% become partners.
- In 2008, hospitality company Wyndham launched Women on their Way, offering career development, mentoring and networking opportunities.
- Morgan Stanley's First Choice Network consists of women from all levels and divisions within Morgan Stanley. It runs an annual conference and matches women with experienced leaders.
IS THERE A FOURTH WAY?
According to Sarah Bond, head of diversity and employee engagement, KPMG, there is a fourth way. "For the past five years we've held senior women's breakfast briefings where not just our own women take part, but also women from our clients' businesses too," she says. "It runs quarterly; 20% of attendees are KPMG women, and clients make up the rest." According to Bond, the meetings are "focused on business issues, rather than debating 'women in business issues'," honouring the wishes of its founder, Ruth Anderson, KPMG's first woman board director (who has just retired). "What's appealing is that we can extend the ideas and knowledge from our own internal women's networks, such as our The KNOW Network and our Women's Partner Network, to women in our client base. This helps promote the issue of diversity in other companies, beyond our own walls." Only about 14% of KPMG's partners are women. Globally the target is 25%. "It was asked recently about whether we wanted to set targets. We don't think this is something we should major on. We'd rather set ambitions."
