Gender gaps exist across almost all industries and all sexes,
but many industries face age-old long gender stereotypes that make these gaps,
at times, hard to change. Gender diversity can only do great things for teams, with one report stating that revenue is a lot
higher within more diverse teams. The CEB Global (now known as Gartner) report
“Gaining the Talent Advantage: The Case for Gender Diversity in Sales” stated that
62% of companies who had 45% or more women in their sales teams ranked
higher-than-average for profitable revenue. At QCS Staffing, we have an incredibly
high female to male ratio, with 53% of our team being female and 47% is made up
of men. How does this tie into the recruitment industry? Well as many of you
know, recruitment is usually known as a ‘man’s world’ and the figures are still
reflecting this with 35% of the UK plc boards being made up by women. This
number might sound low, but it is a massive step forward from figures back in
2011 when around 12.5% of the recruitment market was made up of women. This
puts QCS Staffing in a good position with gender equality. But just how many women in
the recruitment industry are in management/positions of power and how many of
them feel that they can be? The answer is low, with only 25% in management
roles and it’s even lower at director level- it feels like women just aren’t
getting the chance to grow within their recruitment careers.
However, at QCS Staffing we have an impressive 55% of the management positions being
held by women. This puts QCS Staffing at a great advantage and shows just how diverse
the team here is.
Finding Solutions to Long Term Industry Problems
Women in recruitment face many challenges throughout their
careers, coming in many different shapes and sizes. The best way forward is to
focus on these issues and create proactive solutions that can make a
difference. It comes as no surprise that there is a lack of female role models
within the industry with only 25% ending up in management roles, reflecting the earlier point that women in recruitment don’t tend to see promotional paths or
get the option to move into positions of power, signifying exactly the issue
with the recruitment industry as it stands today.
QCS Staffing has managed to fight these figures and offer successful training courses
allowing everyone in the company an equal chance of getting into management.
Last year 47% of our employees who completed the Fast Track to Future
Leadership programmes were women.
The ‘mans world’ ethos contributes massively to the significant amount of men
that make up the market. Sometimes this ethos goes as far as to limit career
opportunities as well as sometimes creating an overwhelming or intimidating
atmosphere within the workplace.
Looking at the CEB Global report mentioned earlier, there’s an adherent lack of
support for women that are intending on having a family or even taking a career
break to raise their children. These career breaks are often not supported and
can leave women feeling lost upon returning to an earlier career.
Focusing on the Future
The focus for the future is to create a culture that ensures
all areas of the workforce are supported and have clear inclusive atmospheres. The way to create this type of workplace is to ensure everyone including women can
gain traction within their roles which in turn will lead to more women being
put into positions of power or managerial roles. Address the gender gap when
speaking to employees to empower more women to fill roles of power. Once more
women are in these positions, the ‘man’s world’ ethos can start to break down
and become something of the past. QCS Staffing take pride in their culture and make sure everyone has equal opportunities to gain rewards and on top of that, the whole team is rewarded to avoid creating segregation for ‘top billers’ or different departments. There
need to be equal opportunities and on top of this, communication needs to be
even across all aspects of the recruitment industry. QCS Staffing encourages feedback,
promotional fast tracks and performance reviews.
Making sure feedback is consistent there are weekly and monthly reviews and on
top of this a monthly set of targets. Which all, in turn, lead onto the fast
track courses which allow employees to gain traction, learn and in turn be
promoted!
Something many companies don’t address is the fact that
people take breaks from their careers to have families and an integral part of
many people’s lives. Introducing programmes that get not just women but men
back into careers should be much higher up on their agendas. There aren’t many
companies that advertise taking on someone that may have had a career break.
Often hearing employers reject people for needing more recent experience or not
wanting to invest the time into bringing these people back up to date within
their industries. All the points stated in this blog should remind employers to
rethink or maybe even restructure their onboarding process and address the
gender gaps that are occurring in not just recruitment but all industries.
QCS Staffing has many great values that the staff live and breathe,
including being proud to be different and investing in our futures. Focusing on
being proud of being different, the male to female split at QCS Staffing is almost 50/50 and
challenges most recruitment agencies with a positive 53% of the team being
female and 47% of the team are male. This certainly promotes an equal and
diverse workforce. QCS Staffing makes the progression opportunities clear from the
get-go, meaning there is a clear path for employees to follow along their
journeys at QCS Staffing. QCS Staffing is fighting for women to succeed in recruitment and
management.
Fancy joining our diverse team here at QCS Staffing. Give Georgia
a call for some more information on our current vacancies or look at our
vacancies here.
