Females make up half of the world’s population and therefore half of its potential talent, and having the best talent is critical to business success. For the resource sector this large pool of female talent provides an opportunity to address the current skills shortage which is due in part to an ageing work force and in part to a migration of talent to other sectors. By not tapping into this talent pool, the resource sector is restricting its ability to grow and develop. Any company which attracts both women and men in equal measure will undoubtedly improve its competitive position.
Diversity is good for business
Gender equality is good for business – not only is it the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do! Two excellent and comprehensive reports published by McKinsey, the first in 2015 and the second more recently in 2017, found a strong link between gender diversity and a company’s bottom line. There are good business reasons for being an inclusive organisation:
- better brainstorming,
- a broader perspective gives a greater understanding of stakeholders,
- more innovation,
- better decision making,
- attract top talent more easily,
- reduce employee turnover,
- encourage growth and evolvement, and
- ultimately improve the bottom line.
Companies that embrace gender equality are more creative and outperform those that don’t.
Representation in leadership roles
Whist women occupy many administrative roles, they are heavily underrepresented in managerial and leadership positions. The talent pipeline bottleneck in Asia Pacific is illustrated in McKinsey’s figure below1. In leadership positions, there are four men for every woman in the region.
McKinsey&Company – figure illustrating bottlenecks throughout the talent pipeline in Asia Pacific countries
From a world-wide perspective, according to data collected by McKinsey, Australian companies lead the way when it comes to the women’s share of executive roles (CEO and direct reports to CEO) which was 21% in 2017. In the United States the comparable figure was 19% and in the United Kingdom, 15%.2
However, although Australia may be leading the way when it comes to executive roles across all sectors, Australian Government data3 from 2017 shows:
- Percentage of women in mining: CEO positions is 16.5%, Senior Managers is 34.9% and Clerical and Administrative roles 74.4%
- Similarly, but even more pronounced, is the percentage of women in the oil & gas extraction sector: CEO positions is just 4.8%, Senior Managers is 16.7%, whilst the figure for Clerical and Administrative roles is 82.4%
These figures illustrate the lack of progression of women in these sectors, and you can draw your own conclusions as to why.
How can the resource sector move towards gender parity?
Encouraging the following will help mining and oil & gas businesses become more attractive and provide greater career opportunities for women, thus closing the gender equality gaps:
- providing greater flexibility in the work environment,
- taking steps to eliminate unconscious bias,
- improving mentoring for females,
- more women for role models – enhancing the female voice,
- eliminating stereotypical views of male/female roles, and
- providing career advice to girls and young women early on.
Rowe Advisory’s CEO, Jody Rowe, understands only too well the challenges that women can face with career progression in a male dominated environment. As the daughter of Bob Rowe, one of Australia’s best-known red meat processors and one half of the T&R Pastoral Company, Jody was used to being in a “man’s world”, and chose to carve out her career in the male dominated environments of the mining and oil & gas industries.
Jody commented, “Having a commercially resilient family background helped me tackle the challenges in mining at remote sites during the 1990s – I gave as good as I got. I’m passionate about diversity in the resource sector and Rowe Advisory is providing women with flexible working choices thus gaining access to a pool of talent that may otherwise have difficulty working due to family commitments. Rowe Advisory’s workforce is currently 40% female, and provides specialist consultants to the oil & gas and mining industries. In fact, at the moment we have one job with a large oil & gas operator which is 100% female resourced by Rowe Advisory and by the client.”
For more information and further discussion please contact Jody Rowe
2https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/delivering-through-diversity
3http://data.wgea.gov.au/home[accessed 12 October 2018]