Tag: Gender Diversity

36% women ponder quitting jobs for unequal opportunities.

A new report highlights the growing gender gap in technology –  especially at senior levels of leadership.   

 Skillsoft released its 2023 Women in Tech Report, exploring the top challenges and areas of opportunity for women working in the technology industry. The report cited a shortage of women in senior technology roles – despite demand for professional development and career growth. 

Widespread tech layoffs are disproportionately affecting women and high-profile departures of women tech leaders continue. 

  Key findings of the survey:  

  • 45% of women in tech are outnumbered by men in the workplace by ratios of 4:1 or greater. 
  • 15% of men with 26+ years of tech experience hold executive leadership positions, compared to 4% of women with equal levels of experience 
  • 30% of female technologists report dissatisfaction with their current growth potential  
  • 36% are considering leaving their jobs due to a lack of equity in opportunities 
  • 28% of female technologists were satisfied with their jobs compared to 44% in 2021.  

 Career growth remains a top priority for female technologists and 92% said professional development and training were an extremely important benefit. When asked how employers can best support them, their top responses were; 

  • Providing professional development and training 
  • More coaching and career counselling 
  • Equitable pay 

 Additionally, female technologists are seeking opportunities to build leadership skills and move into senior roles.  They are interested in upskilling in analytics, AI, and machine learning, project management and cybersecurity. 

 Orla Daly, Chief Information Officer of Skillsoft said: “Despite the efforts of organisations to make diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace a priority, our research shows that the gender gap remains quite wide and significant work is needed to achieve true parity at all levels.” 

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Only 37% of board members are made up of women

Women make up the majority of internal workers at staffing companies, but they are still underrepresented at the executive, CEO and board levels, according to the “Insights on Gender Parity in the US Staffing Industry” report. Its data comes from a study led by the Women Business Collaborative with support from the American Staffing Association, National Association of Personnel Services, Staffing Industry Analysts and the TechServe Alliance.

Of staffing firms surveyed, women represented a median 66% of internal staff. However, they represented only a median 50% of executive team members and a median 37% of board members. And these percentages could even overstate the actual proportion of women in executive and board roles, as staffing firms with female executives may have been more likely to participate in this survey. In comparison, a similar survey last year found that women represented a median 56% of internal staff, but they represented only a median 46% of executive team members and a median 36% of board members.

“This benchmark study and SIA’s report are game changers in the staffing industry in addition to being a very clear call to action for all leaders,” said Ursula Williams, chief operating officer for SIA. “Using the data and analysis in this report, industry professionals see the degree of gender parity as well as gain a greater understanding of the key strategies for supporting and advancing women. This will change our industry — and our workforce — for the better.”

It also found that women account for a substantial share of CEO/ownership at small staffing firms, but representation lags at midsize and large staffing firms. For small firms — those with less than $25 million in revenue — 53% had CEOs/owners who were women. That number went down to 45% among midsize firms — those with between $25 million and $100 million in revenue. It went down even further to 18% at large staffing firms with revenue of more than $100 million. The report noted that only 8.8% of Fortune 500 companies had female CEOs.

Interestingly, female-owned staffing firms had a higher Net Promoter Score than male-owned staffing firms, 84 versus 53. However, the report noted that association is not the same thing as causation, and there can be several factors at play. For example, the NPS for small staffing firms in aggregate in the survey was 75 while the NPS was 50 for large staffing firms, and small staffing firms have a larger percentage of female owners than midsize or large staffing firms.

The report is available online, and there is also a dynamic dashboard to view survey results, the “WBC Benchmark Survey on Gender Equity in the Staffing Industry.”

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Asia is leading the way in gender diversity

In recent months, hiring in the financial services industry has hit record numbers globally, with eight major hubs showing increases of 64% in advertised roles. This makes the financial services sector one of the fastest hiring industries post-pandemic, only surpassed by the technology sector.

These findings were revealed in a new report from recruitment consultancy Robert Walters. The report, ‘Hiring Trends in the World’s Leading Financial Services Cities’  looks at the labour market across London, New York, Tokyo, Sydney, Paris, Singapore, Frankfurt, and Hong Kong.

London continues to power ahead as home to the most financial services professionals working in any one city (293,700). However, the AsiaPac region has increased in the last 12 months, with Singapore (250,000), Sydney (167,364), and Tokyo (166,000+) being the most notable cities with high levels of financial services talent.

Job Growth in the Past Year by City

  • London: +101%
  • New York: +78%
  • Tokyo: +77%
  • Singapore: +76%

Job Growth by Region

  • Europe: +62%
  • North America: +60%
  • AsiaPac: +61%

In terms of the greatest numbers of advertised job roles, New York (48,595), London (38,945), and Paris (24,165) are in the lead.

AsiaPac, however, shows the best hiring conditions. Professionals in Sydney (81%), Singapore (76%), Hong Kong (67%), and Tokyo (60%) expressed a high willingness to move roles even with this very tight candidate market.

Asia is also leading the way with gender diversity in the financial services sector. For example, Singapore (46%) has almost 50/50 gender diversity; meanwhile, in Hong Kong, women make up 44% of the banking workforce.

New York (36%) and London (36%) lag with gender diversity. However, they have made strides in cultural, racial, and socio-economic diversity. Many firms in these areas have advanced recruitment programmes to ensure their workforce represents the diversity of the city in which they are based.

Senior hires typically represent around 8-10% of all new hires. Most of the hiring is at junior and mid-management levels. However, the figures for senior hires rose dramatically over the last 12-18 months, with 1 in 3 new hires in banking has been at a senior level in some cities.

  • London: 20% of new hires are for senior roles, an increase of 5%
  • New York: Team/Department Heads were the only area to experience growth in the pandemic (+26%)
  • Tokyo: 19% of new hires are at a senior level
  • Sydney: 28% of new hires are for senior positions, an increase of 5%
  • Paris: 63% growth at Manager-level and above
  • Singapore: 31% of new hires are for a senior role

Toby Fowlston, CEO at Robert Walters comments: “The global financial services system is as solid as it was before the pandemic – and much healthier than after the last crisis in 2008 (GFC).

“Whilst the pandemic did not have the expected harmful financial effects on the global banking industry, it has certainly accelerated change in a multitude of other areas. Digital banking boomed whilst cash use fell, savings expanded and credit card debts were paid-off in record time, remote became a way of working, data-capture and usage is a central business function, and environment and sustainability are now front of mind for customers and regulators.”

“All of this change has led to exponential hiring in the sector – with each hub trying to fight for the same talent at the same time, the results being a fiercely competitive recruitment market like we’ve never seen before, with execs being offered over +30-40% pay increases with the option to work from anywhere in the world.”

“As a whole the global financial services sector has made solid strides in gender diversity – with near half of the entry-level workforce in financial services being women.”

“The task now is to equal representation at the top, where in banking less than a quarter of high-level senior positions are held by women. We are seeing some worthy gains been made in this area, and I think the increasing diversity in senior positions will only help to speed up the rapid rate of innovation and change within the sector.”

“Employers will continue to experience challenges in attracting junior analysts and associates as the traditional appeal of working for a large Financial Services organisation now finds itself in a battle with the lure of a career in a start-up or major tech firm.”

“Reputational issues suffered since the GFC and workplace-related perceptions – around hours, flexibility, and culture – will all need to be addressed head on by financial services firms if they want to build out their future talent pipeline.”

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