Westpac gender target prompts calls for SMEs to increase diversity

A decision by Westpac to set gender targets for management positions serves as a solid example for SMEs and they should be doing more to accommodate females in higher positions, the head of Diversity Council Australia says.

Westpac chief executive Gail Kelly announced yesterday at the Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce function the company would set a 40% target for women in management roles.

DCA chief executive Nareen Young says Westpac’s announcement serves as a good example for SMEs to boost the number of women in management roles, but she also says businesses can look for other ways to increase diversity.

“I think SMEs knows their people pretty well, they know their businesses pretty well and the temptation is to often just continue with what they’ve been doing. But I think they ought to seek out as much information as they can for themselves and boost diversity in the workplace.”

The Westpac announcement comes just after a survey was released by the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency, which demonstrated there has been a negligible increase among female board members in the ASX200 during the past two years.

Young says SMEs can start promoting women to different roles and create a culture of diversity.

“In addition to setting targets, I think there’s a lot they can do. They can address cultural barriers, develop flexible work options – an area in which SMEs have led the country in anyway. They can organise and provide women with opportunities to work in management.”

“I also think they can make managers accountable for advancing women, which is what the banks are doing. I don’t see any reason at all why that can’t happen among SMEs.”

Young points out the Westpac announcement comes two weeks after a similar target was set by the Commonwealth Bank, and hopes they will influence other decisions. They are a response to guidelines introduced by the ASX earlier this year, which are an attempt to have businesses explain why they do not have more women on their boards.

“I would hope they would look at the ASX guidelines and see what they can do in terms of focusing on them and figuring out ways they can work with them,” Young says.

“But there are more things they can do. Encourage women to work in non-traditional areas, work to develop parental-leave policies for women and men as well. Review recruitment processes to make sure there isn’t any gender bias – there are many, many things they can do.”

Prime Minister Julia Gillard also attended the event yesterday and said she welcomed the effort to encourage more diversity among management.

”If you believe, as I do, that merit is equally distributed through the sexes and you look at any organisations and you’re seeing a result of less than 50-50, you got to ask yourself: why? Because it must mean there are women of merit that didn’t come through,” she said.