FAIRER Consulting had a chat with Jane Donnelly, managing director and chair of the Women’s Empowerment Network at Hays, to understand what the employee resource group (ERG) does, what its aims are and what’s in the pipeline.
Q: Why was the ERG set up and what are its aims?
This network was one of the later ERGs to be set up because we recognised there were priorities around the Black and LGBTQ+ networks. It was set up to give people that identify as female across our business a voice – our main key pillars were to connect women, to inspire them, to support them and empower them.
We wanted to make sure that we had the right network in place to support the other ERGs and did a lot of work around diversity, equity and inclusion before we introduced the women’s network.
Q: What preparatory work did you?
We initially set up a team composed of diversity inclusion champions and began to signpost information recognising key themes and events that occur during the year. For example, we made sure we were talking about Black History Month and Ramadan, and what these events mean to people, and how we can be of support to them.
We also set up inclusion hubs in the UK and Ireland, where there is a lot of data that people can access themselves. It was important to us to create a culture of psychological safety where people can talk and ask questions, because there are people who may not have experience of certain things. We want people to feel safe.
Q: How does the Women’s Empowerment Network align with Hays DEI policy?
There are obviously key goals within the Hays DEI policy. We strive to make sure that we have 50 per cent gender equality at all levels but we don’t believe in targets; it’s more about having representation at every level of our business and making sure that everyone has fair opportunities. We try to make sure we have people of different ethnicities at all levels up to level four, which is a very senior business directorship. We want to be sure that everyone is included and that those who have a disability or long-term sickness are also represented.
Q: How do you structure the ERG?
We have a committee – I am the chair; we have a co-chair and members who take on key roles in terms of communications and so on. On the committee, we predominantly have women, but we do have a couple of men, too, because it’s important that we have allies. We also have a male sponsor at UK and Ireland board level.
Beneath the committee, we have regional champions throughout the business – they ensure that the messages carry through. I chair a meeting, which is recorded, we agree actions and I make sure we follow through on those. We rely on our regional champions to feed back to us so we don’t need to come up with all the ideas, which is very helpful. Also, we encourage regions to share ideas and to replicate what we do. As well as this, we have a quarterly chairs’ meeting where we get together and discuss our plans with the other ERGs in Hays.
Q: How do you boost membership?
We carried out a big launch, which was a national webinar, where we invited senior female leaders to talk about their careers, how they’ve seen Hays evolve, what they’d like to see for the future, and to speak about their key challenges, inviting participants to join the network. We’ve done several events posts that and we see membership up every single time we have an event.
For instance, we conducted one event that was well attended, covering imposter syndrome, and how to recognise it, be an ally and really sponsor someone through challenging times. We also talked about how to recognise it in yourself and overcome that. Again, that really drew membership, and we have 240 members.
Q: Is the network open to allies?
The network isn’t open to you unless you identify as a female, but most of our events are open to allies because it’s important that we have allyship. We want to break down the barriers – not just for women, but also for men – who don’t necessarily realise there are even barriers. We want to make sure that our events are very open so we can get our allies’ support around career advancement policy changes. We want women to have a safe space to discuss things but also want to make sure that our events underpin inclusion and gender balance.
Q: Please explain how you involve allies…
I asked one of our male allies to create a questionnaire about the challenges that women face. He was a bit reluctant to do it and I asked him why. He said it was because he is not a woman, but I reminded him that he has two young daughters and asked whether he wanted to know what the challenges that they might face could be. He organised a questionnaire, and I think there were a lot of learnings, particularly from our male allies about the fact that sometimes we don’t feel safe walking down the road, and we are nervous about the increase in violence towards women. That came out loud and clear and was something that made people sit back and listen. It was impactful.
Q: Give me an example of how you support members…
We have recently launched a six-month pilot for a mentorship system, only for members. This focuses on personal skills and mental support to help with situations where someone is uncomfortable presenting, for instance. We are going to review the pairings every two to three months to learn how helpful the scheme has been. We are always looking at ways to add value to our members.
Q: What events have you already held?
We had a webinar, where our senior leaders discussed how they started their careers with Hays, the twists, and turns their careers have taken, and addressed what they would tell their younger selves. We then asked for questions and opened it out to our members. We had more than 340 people attending that event, and there were some good questions, and I think it was the first time that people saw some genuine authenticity and honesty around the challenges that they had, and the fact it wasn’t always easy. For instance, you can’t be the perfect mother and career woman when you’re constantly juggling.
The other event that worked well was last year, for International Women’s Day, all ERGs worked together.
Q: What challenges have you faced?
One of the main barriers we must face is that everyone is so busy, all the time, if I am being brutally honest. And we don’t have any funding, so we are often begging for favours. Because everybody has got so much to do, we must make sure that what we do is short, sharp and focused, so we can get back to our day jobs. It’s a passion project for lots of us.
Q: Have you faced any resistance within the organisation?
We have had a few comments about whether it is just another tick box exercise and whether Hays is just jumping on the bandwagon, but overall, there have been few and far between and the majority of people are very supportive. They want to see women progress and feel safe and included. On the whole, it has been positive.
Q: How do you measure the ERG’s effectiveness?
We sent out questionnaires to all our members when we first launched, asking what they wanted to get out of the network. We’re also sending out questionnaires relating to our pilot mentorship scheme and we send them out after our events so we can get feedback in terms of the value that people get from what we do. I think the real measure of success will be how our policies and benefits evolve.
Q: Please share some dos and don’ts for readers who may wish to set up an ERG…
It’s important to get the foundations of your culture right first, so you are ready to go to the next stage. There is a lot being done throughout Hays in terms of having a clear equity action plan, and we have clear goals around diversity, equity and inclusion. You must have these in place first and then think about starting an ERG. You also need a committee that is generally passionate about the issue, and it is extremely important that you have sponsorship from the top.
Don’t try to start too big. We had all these amazing ideas and realised it was going to get difficult so decided to begin with driving membership and getting the members to feed in ideas and help us build the network. Start with some simple things around making sure you have a safe space where your members can feel like they can question and challenge and ask for help and advice. Also, remember you do need allyship so build that in, too.
Q: What have you got planned?
One thing we are working on and are looking to improve is the chat between members. We have a good menopause group at Hays and the chat is fantastic. For example, someone will say that having a certain problem and ask for recommendations and someone else will recommend something practical. It’s a good, natural conversation and we want to emulate that.
As an ERG, we are still quite young and are evolving. We have very much focused on connections and inspiring, and now we’re moving into a support and empowerment stage. There are many things that we’ve been asked to look at, things that we don’t currently address. For example, we do not have a policy around baby death – what happens when someone has a miscarriage? Also, what about when someone becomes a guardian of a child? How do we support them? And we must balance that with people who choose not to, or sadly do not have the choice, to have children.
Q: What else should we know about the Women’s Empowerment Network?
It is important that to know that the network is not about wearing purple and celebrating International Women’s Day. We have important, uncomfortable and brave conversations so we can make genuine advancements as opposed to just waving a flag. It is frustrating, as a woman, that we are still talking about things that we haven’t seen any genuine action on. This is bigger than ERGs. It’s about things we see in the media that are going on throughout society. We must believe that we can make a difference.
To find out more about ERGs, allyship and inclusive leadership, please get in touch.