Gender diversity at work

Buck the system. That’s the advice from Maureen Frank, who knows a thing or two about gender diversity in the workplace. So if the traditional eight-hour working day, most commonly from 9 to 5, doesn’t suit you, then think of a compromise, plan it well and take it to your manager. “We have a societal model of what the ideal worker looks like and we need a lot of brave people – men or women – [to change] that model,” savs Frank, the managing director of gender diversity consultancy Emberin.

Frank worked for eight years as head of mergers and acquisitions for Aon, the US multinational reinsurance broking and risk management consultancy, in London, Svdney and Brisbane. Almost 10 years ago, when she found herself a single mother of twin girls aged nine months, she had to reorganise her work schedule to spend more time with them. She’d arrive at the office at 4 am, leave at 4 pm and be working online at 7.30 pm. She even persuaded her bosses to let her move from Sydney to Brisbane to be closer to family. The cost of a full-time nanny left her, often, with only $50 at the end of the month. But it was worth it.

“A friend once said, ‘You’ll be a better mother if you are a happy mother. What makes you happy?’ The thrill of a deal actually makes me happy,” Frank says.

The trick to getting the roster you want is to engage the stakeholders, put together a compelling argument about how your flexible hours would work and then approach your boss.

“You need to make saying ‘yes’ really easy,” she says. “l was very clear to the people I reported to that it should be about results, that it shouldn’t be about presence. I always achieved 30 per cent above my key performance indicators.”

In fact, three years after starting the M&A division in 2001, Frank became the biggest producer of new revenue for Aon. She won a Telstra Business Women’s Award in 2004 and was inundated with emails from women around the world asking how she managed a career and parenthood. So she wrote a book, ‘You Go Girlfriend’, based on her experiences and in 2006 she left Aon to found Emberin (which means “fire in the belly”). It devises gender equality programs for more than 100 ASX companies, empowerment programs for about 6000 women and gender leadership programs for men.

“A lot of senior men would love to work in a way that wasn’t stuck within that square box, but they don’t have the courage,” Frank says. “Grahame Petersen, the Commonwealth Bank’s head of wealth management, has young children and when he can, he makes a big statement [by] saying he’s leaving early and will be online later. He’s setting an example.”

Frank is far from happy about Australia’s poor record on the number of women in senior executive positions and on boards. She sees two main reasons for this: women’s negative attitudes about themselves – they tend not to pursue a promotion unless they know they can tick all the boxes while men will just have a go; and the boys’ club, which is alive and well, particularly in the mining, manufacturing and construction sectors.

One of Frank’s first clients, Telstra, is a shining example of how entrenched attitudes can be changed if the top leads. This year Telstra was the first Australian company to win a Catalyst award – for its Next Generation Gender Diversity: Accelerating Change for Women Leaders initiative. Other 2010 recipients included the Royal Bank of Canada, the Campbell Soup Company and Deloitte LLP.

“I’ve been working on their strategy for about three years,” Frank says. “The linchpin was the overwhelming support of first (former CEO) Sol Trujillo and now of (current CEO) David Thodey. When l created the men’s program for Telstra, both David and Sol appeared on the D/D. They said, ‘lf you’re a man in my company, you simply have to get this.’ It had a massive impact.”

Since then, the proportion of women promoted to management roles at Telstra has grown from 29 per cent to 41 per cent and the proportion of women on its senior leadership team has increased from 6 per cent to 31 per cent.

Frank works with people of all ages, in metropolitan and rural areas. She also lectures and does corporate work abroad. “l take a non-HR approach. I often see companies spending so much time developing this beautiful strategy about what they should do, but they’re not action-oriented. You need to get down and get dirty. Get into the issues. How are you going to solve them?

“If the CEO doesn’t get it and doesn’t make a profound statement, then it won’t work. I say to companies that I’m working with: If the CEO isn’t engaged, then I am not interested in helping you.

“There are a lot of men who do get this subject. They understand there is a club, an Australian male culture. But a lot of men are in complete denial. I have had men get aggressive and angry when I say the culture isn’t inclusive of anyone who’s different, anyone who’s not a white, Anglo-Saxon male drinker.”

Frank is often invited to address corporate breakfasts and lunches, but says it’s not nearly enough. “There’s a lot of tokenistic stuff going on in this space. Companies get inspirational people to come in and give a talk. It’s nice to get everyone together, but what do they hope to achieve? A woman in the audience may not resonate with the speaker. Is it going to change her life or behaviour?”

The Rudd government’s paid parental leave scheme will start in January, yet what happens when a mother wants to return to work but not full-time? That, Frank says, brings us back to the need for a culture of flexibility. “Women need to be educated as to how to ask for flexible work arrangements. And greater flexibility should be available to all employees, not just women with children.

“Most companies have lovely policies, but at the end of the day it comes down to individual managers. If they don’t get it, it won’t be granted. It’s still ad hoc.”