NICOLA MENDELSOHN
‘WE ARE MAKING PROGRESS AT
FACEBOOK, BUT THERE’S A LOT MORE THAT WE CAN STILL DO’
NICOLA MENDELSOHN started her career in 1992 as a graduate trainee at advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty after leaving the University of Leeds with a degree in English and theatre studies. Having worked her way up to become the firm’s business development director in 2004, she was appointed deputy chair by rival agency Grey London. Four years later she became the executive chair of Karmarama. In 2013 she was recruited by Facebook as its vice-president for EMEA. Mendelsohn is a
non-executive director at Diageo, co-chair of the Creative Industries Council, a member of the Industrial Strategy Council and a member of the mayor of London’s business advisory board. Along with husband Jonathan (who was created a life peer in 2013), she is also co-president of Norwood, a charity serving vulnerable children and their families, and adults with learning disabilities. In 2015 she was appointed a CBE for her services to the creative industries.
START TALKING – AND LISTENING
One of the first things I did when I joined Facebook – back then, the London office employed about 200 people – was invite all the women who worked there to my home just to listen to
what was on their minds. I told them: “There isn’t a set agenda here. I just want to hear what it’s like and how I might be able to help.” After that, we set up women’s groups in each of our offices. It’s something I would definitely recommend in any organisation. These employee-led groups certainly work for Facebook. Ours include Women@, Black@ and Pride@. They are places for people from under-represented minority groups to come together and discuss the challenges they’re experiencing.
ESTABLISH A SUPPORT NETWORK From there, I brought together
all our female employees in EMEA – of which there were several hundred – for a one-day conference. This enabled people to tell their stories and discuss issues they were facing. We then started to form a network in which women could learn from each other and see a path towards becoming role models. We created programmes for that internally. One of the great things was that the
men said: “If you’re doing this, we want to come along too.” A number of male leaders participated and from there we developed initiatives such as training in how to spot unconscious bias and a programme called “Be the ally”
[see also point 10], which gives everyone the common language, resources and space to practise supporting others. This has had more than 8,000 participants to date.
DON’T JUST TALK – ACT It’s sometimes easy for
people to sit in meetings and have conversations without then taking action. But I believe that interesting things will happen when you act, which is especially important in the realm of inclusivity. This is something that’s been with me throughout my career. I’ve always been the one who thinks: “Hang on, I’m not going to stand around on the sidelines getting grumpy.” If I think there’s an opportunity for change, I will get involved.
OPERATE A DIVERSE SLATE “Diverse slate” recruitment
is an absolute insistence that you have a diverse pool of candidates when you’re getting down to the shortlist. This doesn’t mean that you have to hire a certain person to boost your diversity stats, but you do need to get to a point where you’re not creating a narrow funnel at the top of the process. You’re never going to fill leadership roles with both men and women if you’re only ever bringing men into the pipeline, for instance. It’s also about what you offer people to come into the organisation. One of the most important things at Facebook is flexible working, along with what maternity or paternity pay we offer. You spend so much of your life at work that it should be OK for your family to come first.
CELEBRATE ROLE MODELS
Until we start seeing that it’s just as likely for a woman to lead as it is for a man, role models remain critically important. For instance, Alison Rose [who was appointed CEO of commercial and private banking at Royal Bank of Scotland Group in August 2019] has become the first woman to head a major British bank. It’s been viewed
as a rare celestial event, but she was just the right person for the job, having 30 years’ experience in the industry. This is not only a business
problem: of the 149 countries in the western world, only 17 have a female head of state. And among the 100 highest- paid sports stars, Serena Williams is the only woman – and she’s 63rd on the list.
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