The new face of gender equality in Hong Kong companies

Gender diversity is rising up the agenda of financial-services institutions in Hong Kong as they seek to widen their talent pools, boost retention, and improve relationships with an increasingly diverse customer base.

They can already point to huge strides made at entry level – many have achieved a roughly 50/50 split between their male and female graduate intakes. Firms are now paying particular attention to tackling the under-representation of women in senior roles.

In a recent survey by my company (based on responses from 363 financial professionals in Hong Kong), 64% of respondents think that women are already equally represented in the senior ranks of their firm. But although the top-level talent shortage isn’t as extreme as it once was, it does still exist and it is caused mainly by women dropping out of corporate life in their 30s and 40s.

Most do so not because they lack the skills, qualifications and experience needed to cut it in financial services, but because of “work vs family” choices that sometimes make it difficult to progress their careers.

Policies to promote diversity
In the survey, the top-three strategies to advance women into more senior positions are: flexible working arrangements (34%); cultural change (17%); and company targets on gender balance (15%). The importance attached to cultural change isn’t surprising.

For any diversity policy to work, it must become an integral part of a company’s way of operating, openly supported by the leadership.

Flexible working can be the most effective means of retaining women, especially those who have children, but employers have traditionally been reluctant to offer it to senior staff. This needs to change.

Flexi working comes in many forms – for example, time off for a specific purpose, adjusted daily hours, or working from a different location.

The way management measures performance is also crucial. If the emphasis is on results, not being physically present in the office, more flexible options will open up.

Flexi working will achieve more widespread acceptance in companies if more male employees, especially those wanting to share childcare responsibilities with their partners, feel comfortable requesting it.

At a recent roundtable organised by my company, delegates said that men often had a career-limiting view of flexi working and perceived it as a “women-only” benefit. The onus is on employers to address this.

If both sexes support the policy, it will be more acceptable for women to work flexibly and be promoted to senior jobs.

Mentoring is also used in Hong Kong workplaces as a tool to develop women’s careers. While the mentor doesn’t have to be female, he or she must build a strong rapport with the mentee.

Sponsorship – pro-active, leadership-level advocacy of women’s advancement – may be even more effective than mentoring, which tends to be advice-based.

None of these policies will work if staff don’t know they exist. A worrying 49% of survey respondents have no idea whether their own employer has gender diversity programmes or targets.

This suggests that financial-services leaders in Hong Kong need to talk more openly about achieving a balanced workforce. Annual employee-engagement surveys can also form part of the solution.

Towards a more diverse future
Despite the low profile of gender diversity programmes at some firms, 70% of survey respondents expect the number of women in top positions to increase over the next five years.

Employers will want to maximise the potential of their talent pool, especially long-serving management trainees or associates who have ‘grown’ with the firm.

In the future, the employers who successfully promote more women into their senior ranks will be those whose diversity policies are promoted by the leadership, communicated to all staff, and entrenched in company culture.

They will adapt their policies rather than take a one-size-fits-all approach, tailoring flexible working arrangements to individual employees and making sure their line managers are supportive.

Workforce mapping will identify job functions where diversity is lacking, while targeted recruitment and leadership programmes will help to address these talent shortages.

The future expansion of the financial-services industry will centre on Asia, with skill shortages of experienced staff only likely to become more severe. Firms that are able to retain women as they advance up the career ladder will have a clear advantage in a competitive job market.