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roundtable ... continued from previous page


need to build an understanding about diversity at an earlier age. Businesses can play a part in achieving that.”


Clayden: “I have three daughters and there is still nowhere near enough being done in schools to get girls involved in technology, which frustrates me enormously.”


Adrian Went


Coatham, now an FD, was one of 12 women in her Bristol University engineering course of 250 students. “I don’t think there’s a single one of us today in engineering.”


Went: “The only female degree-trained engineer in my workforce is an accountant.”


Coatham revealed that when three girls from her school applied to study engineering at university, an independent schools’ magazine ran a news feature. “And, I don’t think perceptions have changed that much.”


Hannah Clipston


Claisse said in 2104, KPMG played a major role in a research project helping to reveal negative myths – now scientifically debunked – around women in the workforce.


Went and Clayden noted that successful culture change could often come down to an individual organisation’s ability – hindered or helped by size, bottom-line costs, leadership, and operational nature.


Andy Farmer


Careful CV assessment at the recruitment stage was vital, said Farmer, particularly to avoid unconscious or even conscious bias. Job interviews were the gateway to full assessment, when the crucial drive, ability and attitudes of candidates could be discovered.


Clayden said his recruitment operations have a responsibility to send clients the best available people to do the job. “To us, it doesn’t matter what colour or religion or disability they have. You have to demystify everything and I think people are beginning to be more open about all these things.”


Sue Coatham


“We are all products of our upbringing, and overcoming unconscious bias is very important,” commented Claisse.


Is there a place for positive discrimination?


Did certain business sectors or commercial requirements merit a pre-determined level of D&I, queried Napier-Munn.


Claisse felt there was a place for targets, but not set quotas. Policies were important, and should not be paid lip service. However, a company’s D&I criteria needed to be regularly challenged, reviewed and checked against contemporary values and its own corporate objectives.


Went agreed with targets and common 58 businessmag.co.uk


sense, citing the inclusion test for commandos. Plainly, an ability criteria is required for entry but if the criteria is relevant to the job one could argue that it should continuously be applied throughout careers.


Farmer: “The right person should get the job rather than the one that ticks the D&I box.”


Coatham mentioned that some of her company’s pharmacist clients are from other countries. It made sense to employ someone who could communicate easily between nationalities.


In small companies, recruitment was often “about ‘fit’, the right person” rather than diversity focus, she added.


Napier-Munn highlighted the estimated £1.7 billion UK economic ‘penalty gap’ around mothers coming back to the workplace or not, and often at a lower level than they left it.


Recruiter Clayden explained: “Many come back with a different agenda in life; things that are more important than their jobs.”


Clipston didn’t wholly agree – “It never affected me that way” – but cited her own two pregnancies. In her experience it was important that the employee and employer maintain a dialogue. If that dialogue is maintained and communication channels are open, the employee feels that their input is valued and that they have a place in the plans of the business. “It’s about good leadership, valuing your input and wanting you to come back.”


Went noted that employees might also take time out because of serious illness, wanderlust, or sabbatical reasons and that it would be interesting to compare their career progression with those who had taken time for maternity or paternity.


Recruitment criteria differ, said Clayden. Some businesses recruit simply to maximise their income.


Buckingham noted the dilemma: Do businesses hit P&L targets or their D&I aims?


Ongoing challenges and opportunities


From personal experience, Went mentioned the risks of investing too much knowledge in one person who retires; or training a ‘rising star’ graduate who gets poached by a wealthy company. “You try to build a generational cross-section, but it’s just a spread-bet.”


Age is an attitude of mind, noted Buckingham, describing employees in their 20s with no enthusiasm, and others in their late 60s still keen to offer their wide range of skills and experience. “The biggest challenge is that you can’t ask them when they are going to retire, which is tough


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH COAST – JULY/AUGUST 2017


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