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com/femaletalent
Winning
the fight for
female talent
How to gain the
diversity edge through
inclusive recruitment
March 2017
#FemaleTalent
#InclusiveRecruitment
About the research
Today, more and more CEOs are focusing In parallel, we also commissioned Generation Z, 72% Millennials, 19%
on talent diversity and inclusion to help Opinium Research to conduct an online Generation X, and 5% Baby Boomers.
drive innovation in their organisations and survey among talent with recent
Drawing on the combined findings from
create competitive advantage. And with experience of the jobs market. This strand
these two studies, this report aims to
expectations of talent, customers and of the research covered a total of 4,792
provide some compelling insights into the
stakeholders continuing to grow, gender respondents from over 70 countries. All of
current trends around diversity and talent
parity in the workplace has clearly become the respondents were currently employed
attraction, and the career aspirations and
both a social cause and a business or about to start their first job, with
expectations of the modern workforce. We
imperative. females accounting for 82% of the total
hope these insights will help you reposition
(3,934) and males for the remaining 18%
Yet, in most countries in the world women and fine-tune your organisation's diversity
(845). In terms of hire type, 32% were
have long been – and remain – and talent strategies to achieve better
career starters, 52% were job movers, 8%
underrepresented at every level in the attraction of today’s large – and growing
were job hunters and a further 8% were
corporate talent pipeline. In an effort to – pool of female talent.
career returners.
close this gap, one approach that leaders
are taking is to turn their energies towards With four generations now active in the
making their businesses more attractive to workforce, this research captured the
female talent. But what are the precise perceptions of talent from each of the four
methods that employers are using to rise to generations. The proportions were 4%
this challenge? Is this approach having an
impact? And – more generally – what are
the diversity experiences and expectations
of the modern workforce?
To help answer these questions and more,
we decided to explore these themes more
deeply, by commissioning Opinium
Research to carry out an in-depth
international survey of executives with
Overall
responsibility for diversity within their
3,934 Respondents 845
organisations. The resulting study,
conducted between 5 and 25 January
2017, included 328 respondents
representing organisations headquartered
in 18 different countries and from a variety
of sectors, with a combined workforce of
over four-and-a-half million employees.
The career starter The job mover The job hunter The career returner
Recently started or about to Experienced professionals who Experienced professionals Recently returned to work
start their first job, most likely have recently changed or are currently active in the jobs following a career break/time
as a graduate hire but could about to change employers market away from work
also be a school leaver
Talent survey - Respondents by country
30 44
Asia
US
61 27
Australia
UK
Employer survey 21
Respondents by region 22 Canada
South Africa
22
Mexico 86
16 Europe
India
Respondents from
over 25 sectors
D Winning the fight for female talent
Contents
Page
Executive summary 2
Introduction 4
Talent attraction: Not a level playing field 6
Employer trends 9
The fight for female talent 13
Opportunities for career progression – yes please 15
An inclusive talent brand: not an option – but an imperative 18
The potential-plus opportunity 23
Show me the – fair and equitable – money 26
Diversity technology trends 29
Gender inclusive recruitment - Road map to success 30
Summary 32
Credits 33
Contacts 34
Sue, a technology whizz with extensive Jing Li and Wei Lui are newly-weds Elizabeth is very excited about a role
experience in building and leading who are just starting the excitement she’s applied for with a healthcare
teams in many different countries, has of married life in a new country. Jing company – and feels the organisation
been asked by a search firm to apply for is very career focused and held a can really help her achieve her career
a position for which she’s ideally suited. more senior position than her aspirations. During the final interview,
But she decides not to apply – because husband in their home country, and she asks her prospective boss how the
she feels the tone of the job description Wei has agreed to move abroad to company can support her career as a
is very aggressive and the organisation support Jing in getting more woman. Tim assumes Elizabeth is a
probably has too macho a culture. international experience. While mother, and starts talking about the
they’re being interviewed for new great flexibility programmes he has
jobs, the interviewers seem to look at helped many mothers on his team to
Wei’s wedding ring, consider his use over the years. Elizabeth is shocked
probable age and think he must be a that this is Tim’s immediate response,
Camille has just given the job interview family man, he’ll be committed to the and leaves the interview thinking this
of her life. She had 12 years’ banking job. But when Jing is interviewing, probably isn’t the employer for her after
experience behind her before taking a the recruiters seem to look at her all.
two-year career break. Pierre’s wedding ring, consider her probable
interview performance and experience age, and think she may have or be Do any of these scenarios
about to start a family – so she might
were nowhere as good as Camille’s, but sound familiar?
he doesn’t have a CV gap. So the not be fully committed.
recruiter decides to offer him the Is your organisation missing
position. out on exceptional female
talent because you’re failing
to deliver gender inclusive
Michelle is a high-performing risk recruitment?
management expert with 12 years of
Lena, an engineering student, is about industry experience. She’s really Are unconscious gender
to graduate top of her class – and has interested in applying for a risk stereotypes impacting your
successfully secured interviews for the management role advertised in a organisation’s hiring
graduate programmes of all her top professional services firm. In the end decisions?
choice employers. She wants to work for she decides not to apply because she
a company where she can thrive and doesn’t have any selling experience. Despite good intentions, could
see people like herself working at all The job description listed selling skills your organisation be letting
levels. But she finds that Grace and as a requirement, despite it not being a blindspots and attraction and
Leon are the only interviewers who talk fundamental skill for the role. selection processes that lack
about their company’s commitment to objectivity hamper its ability
diversity and share its progress in a to attract the best and
convincing way. So theirs is the only job brightest talent?
offer she really considers.
If your answer to any of these questions is
yes, you need to act. To create a sustainable
talent pipeline and be a talent magnet to
the modern workforce, employers must
actively focus on creating and delivering
gender inclusive recruitment.
Fighting
for talent
1 20th Annual Global CEO Survey, PwC 2017 2 18th Annual Global CEO Survey, PwC 2015
Entry
Level
Manager Sr Mgr/
Director
VP
SVP
C-suite
14%
30% 13% India
Millennials
Career Job Job Career
starter hunter mover returner
16% 28% 22% 38% 33% 29%
2011 2016
Concerns over cost and impact of maternity leave 16% 33% (2) 42% (2)
Interviewers have a tendency to select candidates that are similar to
15% 21% 26% (4)
themselves
Organisational diversity policies are not sufficiently effective 13% 14% 16% (5)
Recruitment/Headhunter agencies do not refer enough female
13% 7% 10%
candidates
Other 7% 8% 3%
This raises an important question: do the owners of these recruitment processes bring
their own protective biases to the fore regarding the objectivity of the attraction and
selection processes they own? In this context, it’s clear that employers are actively trying
to recruit more women, but to be successful they are going to have to do more than look
outside their organisations. Given the experiences and perceptions of female talent
identified in this research, employers will also need to look inside, at their own processes,
if they are to succeed in fostering fair and equal recruitment and deliver on their diversity
goals.
4 PwC refers to the PwC network and/or one or more of its member firms, each of which is a separate legal entity.
Please see www.pwc.com/ structure for further details
5 The PwC diversity journey: Creating impact, achieving results, PwC 2016
58% of
employers said
they are
58% actively trying
to recruit more
female hires
24%
their qualitative assessment of which
39%
practices were having the most impact.
Establishing gender diversity recruitment increased levels of
targets was the clearer winner, with 28% external female increased levels
of respondents saying this was their most leadership of female
impactful practice. Given that only 46% of appointments applicants
employers have currently established
diversity recruitment targets, the potential
impact of gender targets could be Of the 71%
significant. who recognised
While it’s clear that substantial efforts are an impact
starting to take shape in organisations
globally, it’s also evident that sizeable
strides are still required. In most cases, less
than half of organisations have adopted
many of the fundamental practices
27%
increased levels of
32%
increased levels of
identified as critical to enabling inclusive female experienced female graduate
recruitment. Many organisations are also hires hires
unclear on which of these practices are
having an impact.
Which of your implemented diversity practices have had the most impact in delivering results?
Top five practices identified as having most impact by respondents who said their adopted diversity practices were having a positive impact on
their recruitment efforts
Rank
1 2 3 4 5
Delivering
Establishing diversity/ Actively focusing Requiring
Practice gender diversity unconscious bias on having an mandatory
recruitment training to our Establishing inclusive talent diverse slates for
targets interviewers equality policies brand open positions
Going forward, it will be vital for Having provided you with a clearer picture
employers to identify the most significant of employers’ current diversity practices
challenges in their attraction efforts and and trends, we will, in the remainder of
selection processes, respond with this report, shine a light on the many
interventions to address these specific opportunities and challenges that gender
challenges, and then assess the impact of inclusive recruitment presents to
these interventions to ensure they’re employers.
achieving meaningful results.
Employers looking to gain competitive and innovation.7 It seems that we’re retain female talent once inside the
advantage, be a magnet for top talent, win witnessing a move away from high organisation.
the fight for key skills and do the right demand for what were traditionally
Some sectors will have a particularly big
thing are increasingly focused on masculine traits, and a shift towards
challenge and fight on their hands. For
attracting greater numbers of female leadership skills that are more intuitively
example, consider STEM (science,
talent. In fact, some 78% of large female, such as collaboration and
technology, engineering and mathematics)
organisations are actively trying to recruit creativity.
fields, where women currently account for
higher numbers of female talent –
So, as the focus on increasing the level of only 32% of graduates worldwide.8 As
particularly more experienced and
female hires continues to intensify – employers in these sectors compete for the
senior-level female talent. Significantly,
particularly at the more senior levels, same small talent pool, women with STEM
those employers who say their diversity
where they are most underrepresented skills are highly sought after. And with the
efforts have led to increased levels of
– we’re seeing the widespread growing trend for employers in sectors
female applicants and hires, add that the
establishment of female recruitment such as technology to publicly disclose
practice that’s had the greatest impact in
targets and a shift towards recruiting skills their workforce demographics and
delivering these results is establishing
that reflect for more feminine capabilities. diversity targets, STEM employers have to
gender diversity recruitment targets.
All of this means the war for talent is contend with an extra layer of complexity,
The number of CEOs concerned that witnessing an emerging trend: an given the increased pressure and scrutiny
a shortage of key skills could impair escalating fight for female talent. As they face both from the from media and
their company’s growth employers enter this talent battle, they also from talent themselves.
need to recognise they won’t just face
As competition for female talent continues
competition from other would-be
to grow, the ability to understand where
employers when hiring female talent. As
female talent communities are and how to
employer demand for female talent rises
reach them will become a basic
over time, it will be critically important not
requirement for any recruiting function.
only to attract female talent, but also to be
able to develop, engage, progress and
58% 77%
The most important skills are those that
can't be performed by machines
2013 2017 Q: In addition to technical business experience, how important are the
Source: 16th and 20th Annual Global CEO
following skills to your organisation?
Respondents who answered very important or somewhat important
Surveys, PwC 2013 and 2017
Problem-solving 98%
Meanwhile, PwC’s Global CEO Survey
shows that CEOs are continuing to struggle Collaboration 96%
to find the talent they need, and that 77%
are concerned that a shortage of key skills Adaptability 96%
could impair their company’s growth, up
from 58% in 2013.6 In particular, the skills Leadership 95%
that are most important – and often the
hardest to find – are uniquely human Creativity and Innovation 92%
capabilities, such as adaptability, problem-
solving, collaborative skills and creativity Emotional Intelligence 88%
Source: 20th Annual Global CEO Survey, PwC 2017
1 2 3
Life stage does not appear to disrupt this
trend dramatically: for example, while
opportunities for career progression ranks
as the most attractive employer trait for
men overall, among fathers it drops one
place to second position. It also falls one
place for mothers, from the second to the
third most attractive employer trait. So the
core message is clear: no matter which way
you look at the figures, opportunities for
career progression ranks as a top-three
attractive trait both for men and women
pretty much across the board.
Furthermore, for both male and female job
movers and job hunters, a lack of
Opportunities for Competitive wages Flexible work opportunities for career progression was
career progression and other financial arrangements and a cited as the top reason they decided to
benefits culture of WLB leave their former employers.
Good benefits package. For example, pensions, healthcare & other benefits 4 4 3
86% 74%
Source: The female millennial: A new era of
talent, PwC 2015
58%
Female job
hunters
61%
The employer publicly Female career
disclose their starters
organisational
diversity
targets
54% 56%
Women
Female job overall 69%
hunters Female career
starters
57%
Female career
starters
61% Look at the
Women overall diversity of
their
leadership
53%
Male career
The employer
publicly shares
starters 49%
Men overall
information about
the diversity 52%
demographics of its 58% Male career
starters
workforce and
leadership team
Female career
starters 67%
Women
overall
66%
Men overall
76%
Female career
starters
When deciding
to accept a position
Two-thirds of women and men considered
whether the organisation had positive role
Engineering and Construction (79%),
Asset Management (76%) and Industrial with your most
models who were similar to them when Manufacturing (71%). recent employer did
deciding to accept a position with their
most recent employer. Interestingly, this
Employers are focusing significant efforts
on responding to these demands – but
you do any of the
factor was particularly important to
women working in sectors that are widely
there’s still a mismatch between what following?
candidates want to know and what is
regarded as relatively male-dominated, Respondents that said yes
currently being shared. As the Talent
such as FinTech (85%), Engineering and
Attraction: Not a level playing field section
Construction (82%) and Asset
of this report underlines, female
Management (78%). Similarly, assessing
candidates clearly feel there is more work
the diversity of the leadership team was
to be done to make the hiring marketplace
most important to women working in
a truly level playing field.
2 Share
details of
their diversity
3
1
strategy on the Share
website the story of
their diversity
Incorporate 29% strategy and diverse
employees via
imagery of diverse organisational
professionals social media
channels
into website and
recruitment 27%
materials
4
33% Publicly share
information about
the diverse make up
of their workforce
and leadership
team
27%
88%
rising to for
companies with more than
10,000 employees
76% of employers
have incorporated diversity
and inclusion raises reputational risks they
cannot afford to ignore – and that their
diversity record is under close and
and inclusion into their constant scrutiny, not only from the talent
employer brands they need to attract and retain, but also
from customers, investors, stakeholders
and – increasingly – governments and
regulators. This is why an inclusive talent
brand is no longer a nice-to-have option
– but an imperative for business success.
11 http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2016/07/facebook-diversity-update-positive-hiring-trends-show-
progress/
17 www.pwc.co.uk/careers/experienced-jobs/
opportunities/back-to-business.html
18 Women returners, The £1 billion career break
penalty for professional women, PwC 2016
60% 26%
Vietnam
US, UK
69%
Switzerland
30%
Hong Kong
66%
Brazil
15%
Malaysia
20%
There are also other – more psychological – hurdles to overcome. For example, research
indicates that our brains are susceptible to an unconscious bias called ‘anchoring’. What
this means is that our minds get fixed on an initial number, with the result that when it
comes to pay decisions, there is a tendency to anchor too much on someone’s current
salary instead of what the job is actually worth.20 Organisations such as Google have
responded by identifying salaries based on what the job is worth, and excluding previous
salary information from decisions on salary offers. And this approach is having a
demonstrable impact: during Google’s 2015 hiring activities, it led to the women Google
hired receiving a salary increase on joining that was 30% higher on average than their
male counterparts.21 Already, one US state is focused on making this standard practice.
Massachusetts will enact a new pay equity law from July 2018 that makes it illegal for
employers to ask job applicants what they’ve earned in the past.
As in all facets of business, technology is Are you using or considering using any of these technology solutions in your
shaping how employers execute their efforts to draw more women and minority job candidates to your organisation?
diversity strategies – and we are certainly
at a point in time when the opportunities Use artificial intelligence to tailor the onboarding 23 19 51 7
experience based on demographics of new recruits
to use digital technologies to revolutionise
inclusive recruitment are growing rapidly. Utilising a performance audition platform whereby
22 28 42 7
candidates participate in a challenge and selection is
Technology solutions offer employers more based solely on their performance
effective and scalable opportunities to find
Dashboard technology illustrating real time diversity 26 22 45 7
and reach the female talent they need, recruitment metrics and trends
enable more objective hiring processes and
Utilising software to assess if job postings use biased
decisions, and gain an understanding in 23 28 42 6
language and/or to create job postings with neutral
real time of the impact their efforts are language
having. Recruitment via a 'diverse talent identification
27 30 37 7
platform' to search for, identify and communicate
In our study, talent identification platforms with specific types of diverse talent
that search for, identify, and communicate Are you using or considering utilising digital solutions 24 24 46 6
(e.g. an App) to create blind applications
with specific types of diverse talent emerge
as the most commonly-adopted technology 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
in this area, currently used by 30% of
Yes, Yes, No Don't
employers. Meanwhile, 28% said they are currently currently know
using software to create language-neutral exploring using
Wider technology trends in the
job postings. And the same proportion –
recruitment process will also influence
28% - said they’re utilising performance
inclusive recruitment. For example, we are
audition platforms that ignore traditional
beginning to see leading businesses use
candidate information such as gender, age
and university, focusing instead on the
recruitment process automation (RPA) as a
means of saving costs. RPA is the use of
Tough questions
candidate’s performance in a specific
challenge or job-related task.
technology to perform repetitive and about diversity
But in general, we’ve found that employers
high-volume tasks in the recruiting process
by converting candidate data into a
technology trends:
are failing to keep pace with the growing searchable database. Advanced key word
numbers of software start-ups focused on searches are then performed to screen • Is your recruitment function
using technology to help firms hire the best candidates, generate emails and even ready to adopt and harness new
and brightest from underrepresented schedule and conduct assessments. While technologies to increase the
talent pools. Indeed, a significant number RPA lacks human judgement, it is typically effectiveness of your inclusive
of employers indicated that they have no through the human quotient that recruitment, and your
plans whatsoever to adopt many of the conscious and unconscious bias influences recruitment efforts more
technology solutions designed to support selection and hiring decisions. However, if generally?
more inclusive hiring currently on the employers are to achieve the diversity edge
market. in their recruitment activities, the • Have you considered how
inclusion factor will have to be built in as artificial intelligence and
an absolute consideration in the design of automation will help you gain an
RPA searches. edge in the race for all talent, and
develop the capabilities your
That said, one thing is clearly absolute: it’s organisation needs to build
the certainty that recruiters will need to be competitive advantage?
able to work alongside technology to
enable any recruiting process – and this is
equally true for gender inclusive
recruitment.
How to gain the diversity edge through inclusive recruitment 29
Gender inclusive recruitment
Road map to success
• Identify search firms with a credible
Actively train all necessary stakeholders so they have the record of building diverse candidate pools
capability to drive inclusive recruitment efforts. • Share organisational diversity strategy
For example: and targets with search firms
• Train those responsible for role definition, short listing, • Articulate diversity expectations for
interviewing, hiring decisions, on the impact of specific job openings/recruitment drives
stereotypes, assumptions and unconscious biases • Offer higher commission payments for
• Drive continuous awareness of the organisational diverse candidates
diversity agenda and specific recruitment diversity goals
• Equip interviewers with the information they need to
communicate the diversity strategy and progress to
candidates
Marketing
the role
Workforce
planning Search firm
management
Training Role
definition
Monitor Leverage clear and established data analytics to measure the real-time diversity
and Assess realities and progress throughout the whole attraction and selection process
Offer
Top five reasons women said they left their former employer
1 2 3 4 5
My work
Not enough The work was and personal
My skills and I found a job
opportunities for not as interesting life were out of
talents were not that paid more
career progression or meaningful as I balance I wanted
rewarded elsewhere
would like a role with more
flexibility
We’d like to thank the following PwC experts for their insights and
contributions
Anne Freer, Andrea Plasschaert, Bob Moritz, Bradley Deckert, Bhushan Sethi, Birthe Stegmann, Charles Macleod, Dale Meikle,
Jon Terry, Jennifer Chapman, Justine Brown, Karen Loon, Lauren Kim, Maricela Castillo-Cox, Mary Ellen Chopoorian, Maya Bhatti,
Sarah Churchman, Sharmila Karve, Sharon O’Connor.
We’d like to thank the following for support with design and research
Mark Goggin at MG Creative
Adam Drummond, Priya Minhas and James Endersby at Opinium Research