The route to the C-suite is not an easy journey for anyone, it takes dedication and endeavor. It can be a path littered with challenges and pitfalls for most people and only the most dedicated employees get there, but for some, there are additional barriers that get in the way. As most of us know, this is particularly true for women, the LGBT community, ethnic minorities, and people with disabilities. The recruitment industry still wrestles with getting diversity and inclusion right. The issue is that it is frequently failing to appeal to diverse talent thanks to inclusivity concerns in the workplace. Many organizations are wising up however and are looking to up their diversity game with the changes being both tough but also financially rewarding.

Issues of discrimination

Demonstrating the magnitude of the fight facing a large number of the workforce is a host of research that shows a lack of representation at higher levels. Research characterizes many senior management teams across the industry as wholly lacking in diversity in the C-suite. Diversity in leadership is a subject that has most certainly been a real conversation starter, especially since the #MeToo movement has pushed the issue to the forefront. Discrimination of women is not something that can be thought of as work-based culture anymore.

Now as a priority, the UK’s top firms are on track to achieve the target of over a third boardroom positions being held by women in 2020. Although it has been said in a recent government-backed review that there is a systematic lack of support for women to make headway into the C-suite and other leadership roles. The report found that of the 923 senior positions in organizations held by women, only 25 women had been selected as a chief executive. Clearly breaking down barriers in the C-suite still has a long way to go and diversity needs to be promoted.

There is good reason to value diversity in the top roles of organizations. A 2018 Mckinsey report ‘Women Matter, Time to accelerate’ suggests that diverse staffing and leadership at the top can improve a business’s operating results by as much as 55% and boost the return on equity by 35%. Diversity equals higher financial returns for businesses, and it increases the net knowledge of service users. McKinsey unearthed a statistically significant correlation between improved financial performance and diverse leadership. Businesses with the most ethnic diversity at higher levels are 33% more prone to have better profitability than firms that do not.

How to break down the barriers

There are a number of ways that people can be supported to chart a course to the C-Suite which is a key target for leaders of successful businesses. Sponsors within the organisation can be influential in facilitating advocacy for those that are facing discrimination and help to advance careers. Mentors are another method that can be offered by organisations to provide advice and guidance to individuals to help to develop a career. Mentorship is valuable but sponsorship for those that face discrimination by people in power is vital. Mentors can offer direction to employees about routes to professional development whereas sponsorship can be useful in advocating a person for important openings and offer direct access to critical social networks that open up more opportunities.

Peer networks can easily be set up and encouraged so peers can become a valuable source of support to cope with impending fears about discrimination. They allow people to get advice on how to handle it. Broadening what you know can be an important shift from being an experienced expert to being seen as a real leader. With the help of the advice and experience of others who have been in the same position, this is a fundamental way to break down barriers.

As a result of recent conversations around diversity and inclusion, many organisations are adopting to even take a new approach in recruitment. This is one of creating new and evolving roles that are designed to specifically concentrate on ensuring equality throughout the organisation on all levels. The formation of C-suite positions concentrating completely on workplace diversity and inclusion offers new opportunities and highlights how inclusion needs to be a business priority when considering financial returns and the morale of staff. Recruiting tactics must be guaranteeing that new employees are incorporated into a positive working culture and that they have had a role in creating this culture, meaning that they will be more likely to want to stay.

As more women and other diverse groups join the C-suite, it is a growing belief that this will lead to a downscaling of traditional ideas and practices that have spread through the recruitment industry itself and hopefully breakdown the barriers further. However, breaking down barriers and increasing the viability of diversity and inclusion in the C-suite is an ongoing process.

To discuss your D&I strategy for the C-Suite, talk to the Scale Search team of experts.

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I am unsure what prompted me to look up the definition of this term, perhaps its ubiquitous usage levelled by (often) female columnists in the popular press at some women who dared form part of the collective that became #metoo. Or, that at some level I registered the same word is rarely used in the same sentence as men. Maybe it was the number of column inches allocated to voices,  suggesting strongly that women have reached parity with men are laundering their own unrelated grievances under slurs of sexual harassment safe in the knowledge that the well, hysterical, atmosphere fomented by #metoo, a ‘win’ is all but assured.For a nation for whom the concept of fair play is among its proudest exports, odd we find ourselves in an era where the inconceivable becomes the lived reality: world leaders happily forgiven by electorates looking the other way for behaviours that could charitably refer to as unstatesmanlike; one kilometre from where the first woman ever was voted into parliament, The President Clubs charity ball,  an undercover FT reporter’s findings were enough to make your average male adolescent blush. In this context,  we may do well ask has equality come far enough?

Too far it would seem….

In mediapolis  we understand that backlashes are inevitable. That it would be given voice from the academic, legal and journalist profession who would happily chime that the discussions on women’s rights are redundant and the real enemies are University Arts and Corporate HR departments. More troubling is the dismissal that conclusions from D&I data as academically flawed, and simply an extension of cultural Marxism infecting all determined to undermine traditional society.  Further, one among their number claimed ‘studies show’ a woman’s natural habitat is where she can nurture and therefore is best suited to the home or caring professions. And any claim to be excluded from male-dominated structures are considered as little more than the dialled up axe-grinding of feminist fairytales. As proof one academic laboured long to prove that countries with a long history of equality eg Sweden,  women will revert to nursing or other caring professions rather than traditional male roles. The man explained, women actively choose lower-paid, higher risk jobs despite having access to higher-paying alternatives, you see. Never mind that an Italian female entrepreneur is likely to receive less favourable lending rates than her male counterpart even though females enjoy a lesser default rate than their male counterparts; that board appointments in the UK are at 37%;  that sexual harassment in the UK workplace is cited by half the female workforce. A stat too put down many as women have lost their sense of humour.

As we look to a post-Brexit era, where women rights hard-won, are by no means to be, perhaps time is owing to look in the mirror and remind ourselves what is good for individuals is ultimately good for all of society.

The etymology of hysteria reveals a peculiarly male view of women made all the more disturbing by its one-time cure.  Whatever shape women’s right take the post, Brexit, perhaps an era of more nuanced use of language is due.

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