Lloyds’ 40% women target for senior executives not without its complexities
3 February 2014
More flexibility around the traditional 9-5 working day is the key to Lloyds Banking Group achieving its target of 40% of its most senior executives being women by 2020, according to Fiona Cannon, diversity and inclusion director for Lloyds.
Mon, 3 Feb 2014
More flexibility around the traditional 9-5 working day is the key to Lloyds Banking Group achieving its target of 40% of its most senior executives being women by 2020, according to Fiona Cannon, diversity and inclusion director for Lloyds.
Currently 28% of the banking group’s 5,000 top executives are women, but under plans set out this week by chief executive officer Antonio Horta-Osorio, the bank said this could reach 40%.
A Lloyds Banking Group spokesperson tells Recruiter that designing jobs around the way women lead their lives is crucial to achieving this target.
“Women find it difficult to work 9-5, so rather than looking to fill a 9-5 post, we are looking at ideas such as working a certain number of hours a month,” says the spokesperson.
Karen Mattison, co-founder of Timewise, an organisation that works with businesses to help make flexible working a commercial success, tells Recruiter: “Flexibility is a really critical tool for progressing women.
“It is impossible to have as serious conversation without discussing flexibility, which is a major barrier for women to get into senior level positions.
“If you want female executives at a really senior level, you have to understand how flexibility fits into that.
“I would congratulate Lloyds for really focusing on the pipeline of executive talent and not just women on boards. It is not a quota, it’s a target, which is also good.”
Raj Tulsiani, CEO at Green Park Executive Search, tells Recruiter that while “appointable talent exists” to achieve these targets, “banks need to make more of the talent they have already and significantly review existing supply chains and candidate practices based on market needs”. Tulsiani adds that currently across banking & finance, women hold less than 23% of senior executive positions.
Tulsiani continues: “Attracting the best women is not without its complexities. We live in a well-networked world and unless the candidate reality stands up to the companies’ sell, both from the perception of brand and track record of developing their own female leaders generally, companies will continue to find the bigger the institution, the more difficult it is to improve candidate experience quickly enough to make a competitive difference.”
Currently 28% of the banking group’s 5,000 top executives are women, but under plans set out this week by chief executive officer Antonio Horta-Osorio, the bank said this could reach 40%.
A Lloyds Banking Group spokesperson tells Recruiter that designing jobs around the way women lead their lives is crucial to achieving this target.
“Women find it difficult to work 9-5, so rather than looking to fill a 9-5 post, we are looking at ideas such as working a certain number of hours a month,” says the spokesperson.
Karen Mattison, co-founder of Timewise, an organisation that works with businesses to help make flexible working a commercial success, tells Recruiter: “Flexibility is a really critical tool for progressing women.
“It is impossible to have as serious conversation without discussing flexibility, which is a major barrier for women to get into senior level positions.
“If you want female executives at a really senior level, you have to understand how flexibility fits into that.
“I would congratulate Lloyds for really focusing on the pipeline of executive talent and not just women on boards. It is not a quota, it’s a target, which is also good.”
Raj Tulsiani, CEO at Green Park Executive Search, tells Recruiter that while “appointable talent exists” to achieve these targets, “banks need to make more of the talent they have already and significantly review existing supply chains and candidate practices based on market needs”. Tulsiani adds that currently across banking & finance, women hold less than 23% of senior executive positions.
Tulsiani continues: “Attracting the best women is not without its complexities. We live in a well-networked world and unless the candidate reality stands up to the companies’ sell, both from the perception of brand and track record of developing their own female leaders generally, companies will continue to find the bigger the institution, the more difficult it is to improve candidate experience quickly enough to make a competitive difference.”
