The human touch

Two years on from Lord Davies’ report on the lack of women on boards, EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation, in partnership with Lloyds Commercial Banking and Cranfield School of Management have published the FTSE 100 Women in Manufacturing Report. It is the first major assessment of the role of women in senior positions in manufacturing, at a time when questions are being raised over whether to implement statutory quotas for women on boards and how to tackle the country’s shortage of female engineers.

Manufacturing companies account for 29 of the FTSE 100 companies and the report highlights that women account for 19% of these board positions, performing slightly higher than the average of 17% in the entire FTSE 100. It also ranked the number of women on the manufacturing boards, with GlaxoSmithKline performing strongest with five women accounting for 33% of their board. However, with 81% of all directorships held by men, manufacturers and other sectors still have a long way to go to unlock the talents of their female talent pool.

Interviews conducted during the survey with leading board women, including Dame Alexandra, non-executive director of Rolls Royce Holdings Plc and Professor Dame Ann Dowling, non-executive director of BP plc, reveal a number of reasons for the low number of women on executive boards. Some recurring themes stood out including, some women’s tendency to undervalue their own skills and lack of role models in the industry.

Other existing research reveals that the number of female engineers in the UK has risen from just 1% to 6% since 2008 and  lags behind its European counterparts with 18% in Spain, 20% in Italy and 26% in Sweden.  So why is the UK not supplying the same number of female engineers as other European countries?  For starters, vocational routes into the industry are put on the same parity of esteem as academic learning. Whilst the tide is beginning to change in the UK, with an increasing focus on Apprenticeships, there is still some way to go. Moreover, engineering is seen as more of a ‘professional’ pathway in such countries. In the UK we need to make it clear to young women that a professional career in manufacturing is accessible and attainable.

EEF urges for a grassroots approach, with both government and businesses targeting girls at a younger age and doing more to highlight that manufacturing can be a modern, dynamic and high-tech sector that is not ‘just for boys’. Research from Engineering UK reveals that a 91% of young females effectively rule themselves out of an engineering career by not choosing triple science at the age of 14. A light-touch approach to careers guidance or ‘inspiration’ should begin in primary school, with more structured careers advice being available to young people in secondary school, including a face-to-face element.

EEF and its partners want to increase the number of young women learning science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM)  subjects , and better  promotion of vocational pathways including apprenticeships. The UK needs to continue to champion manufacturing but to specifically target young females who could become future leaders of our industry.

Recent CIPD surveys have indicated the signs of a recovery in recruitment activity, with more companies planning to hire staff than to cut workers. This is to be welcomed.

The recession and, with it, redundancies continue to leave big holes in companies, often in the difficult-to-fill category, and this can hinder recovery and further growth.

This may be a good time for companies to reflect on who they have and how to keep them before pushing the button on external recruitment. Although recruitment is often about filling gaps in the workforce at critical points in the business cycle, it is often only planned for that recruitment campaign and not as part of a long-term strategy.

What is needed is a strategy for a recessionary climate that involves making talent management within the company a priority. This will involve not only thinking about what the business wants to achieve, but most importantly how to make this happen- the classic workforce planning exercise.

Mapping out the skills and capabilities that are needed to win business will be an absolute priority. This naturally leads onto working out whether you have the right personnel with the right skills in the right place.

Tracking down the talent in your business, unearthing what people can do and unleashing their creative, often hidden, talents can be just a matter of talking to, engaging with and motivating people.

Most companies have this in their kitbag – appraisals, internal know-how, maybe even training and development initiatives such as coaching and mentoring. If line managers are motivated to understand and support skills development, these tools can be put to work to increase internal bench strength.

This is talent management of the many, unlike the traditional view of talent management as an activity reserved for individuals with specialist skills or knowledge, or for high fliers.

The payback of using a talent management approach to recruitment issues can include a more engaged workforce, with improved succession planning and lower recruitment costs. Encouraging people to multi-skill and to coach and mentor others helps knowledge and skills circulate around the business. It can also help create a more diverse culture and facilitate a learning organisation.

EEF has a long history of helping companies develop and strengthen their internal resources – everything from training managers in specific skills to fostering team capabilities. Making the most of what you have and holding onto it will be the battleground for the future – this is the time to come prepared.