Sep 9, 2019 | Blog, Women
It’s well documented that increasing female participation in the workforce would have a significant impact on the Australian economy. Over the last decade, leading organisations such as the OECD, Goldman Sachs, McKinsey and Company and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency have produced studies on the economic influence of gender equality. The outcome of each study has shown compelling evidence that improved gender equality in the workplace would strengthen Australia’s economy.
According to Goldman Sachs, for every year that the problem of gender inequality goes unresolved, Australia’s GDP forfeits a 20% increase. This figure represents an annual loss of around $300 billion to the economy.
It makes sense for all businesses to address gender inequality.
Research from the Peterson Institute of International Economics suggests that a typical corporate firm could see a 15% increase in profitability by going from having no women in corporate leadership to a 30% female share. The common view is that gender equality and diversity brings together varied perspectives, produces a more holistic analysis of the issues an organisation faces, and leads to improved decision-making, which in turn increases organisational performance.
Yet, in spite of these clear economic and performance benefits for organisations, there’s a stark disconnect to the way women are treated in the workforce in relation to pregnancy and parental leave. The last National Review by the Australian Human Rights Commission into discrimination related to pregnancy and parental leave, found that one in two (49%) mothers reported experiencing discrimination in the workplace at some point. And it’s not just mothers. Over a quarter (27%) of the fathers and partners surveyed reported experiencing discrimination related to parental leave and return to work despite taking very short periods of leave.
Not only does discrimination have a negative impact on employee engagement and their attachment to their workplace, the commercial loss to businesses when women don’t return to work is high.
Employers should be concerned that they are losing an investment when talent, potential and intellectual property leave their business.
A key element in retaining parents in the workplace is flexible work practices. However, there is a certain stigma attached to flexible working; a perception of a lack of commitment to career progression, with flexible working options becoming ‘career dead ends’. For flexibility to work, for both parents and employers, there must be executive support, as well as a culture of acceptance within the organisation, particularly by middle management levels.
In reality, any disconnection between organisational policy and how managers implement it, makes the policy redundant.
It is clear there are significant challenges that need to be addressed so employers and employees are aware of their obligations, rights, and entitlements in relation to pregnancy, parental leave and returning to work. However, even with this knowledge, organisational culture needs to change to be more compatible with having a family.
A critical step for gender equality is that employers need to support men to be active, hands-on-dads. Without this, women will always be held back in the workplace, and shouldered with most of the responsibility for looking after children.
For companies to attract and retain their talented workforce and specifically to future-proof their millennial workforce, they need to adapt policy and culture to align with current thinking, which is parenting isn’t the sole responsibility of women.
The Gender Pay Gap prevents many fathers from taking time off work for parenting, since family income is more likely to be compromised when they do, so not only is closing the Gender Pay Gap the right thing to do for women, it is also necessary if fathers are going to have equal opportunity to take parental leave.
The attrition of talent surrounding parental leave doesn’t solely relate to the loss of women. Evidence is beginning to emerge of hidden ‘father-churn’: fathers or expectant fathers changing employment because they cannot reconcile family/ work obligations, and possibly not explaining this to their employer. Fathers with access to flexible working seem to be more satisfied with work/ family balance and to be less likely to consider changing employer (Burnett et al., 2011).
The Fatherhood Institute suggests that because men often hold positions of influence in the workplace, we need men to ‘walk the talk’ by creating workplaces that encourage men to be active fathers and protect women against the ‘motherhood penalty’. There are a range of ways men can do this:
- Men in senior roles could look seriously at the business case for closing the gender pay gap and redesigning their organisations’ parenting leave systems. Key changes could include enhancing shared parental leave for either parent to the same extent as they enhance maternity leave; promoting flexible working approaches explicitly to men in the workforce; and enabling male employees to ‘come out’ as dads.
- Senior managers who are dads could take substantial leave during their child’s first year, to help encourage others to do so. The more visible ‘boardroom dads’ become, the more dads in other parts of the organisation will feel free to open up about their aspirations for a better work-life balance.
We need all employers to recognise the part they play in driving a more equal and fair workplace so all parents can benefit from the opportunity to parent and work.
At Triiyo, they support company’s to achieve this. Triiyo is the leading parental leave platform designed to maximise the participation of women in the workforce and address parental leave equality by normalising parenting in the workplace. Their People Engagement Platform enhances connectivity and communication between teams and provides practical resources to support managers and employees through pregnancy, parental leave, and on return to work after parental leave.
If you’re investing in parental leave policy and seeking to improve your parental leave program, talk to the team at Triiyo. For more information or to book a demo, contact hello@triiyo.com
Sep 9, 2019 | Women
1. Have a “can and will do” attitude
When presented with promotion opportunities, women tend to focus on the skills they don’t have for the role as opposed to what they can actually offer and then back themselves to learn the rest on the job. Their male peers on the other hand, readily put up their hands for bigger positions often beyond their current remit and capability.
Be brave when presented with opportunities and in spite of self-doubt go for it anyway! If it doesn’t work out, so what? There is always a plan B… or C and you may actually learn something about yourself along the way.
2. Ask for, and embrace opportunities
Look for ways to get yourself seen and heard. What is keeping your boss up at night and how can you be the one to solve some of their biggest problems. Identify which projects are going to get you noticed and promoted and ask for them, especially if they stretch and develop you further. You need to show your potential and not just how well you perform in your current role.
3. Build your tribe of leaders
Build your tribe of leaders “deliberately”. Women are often too focused on excelling at the role at hand and do not take time to look up and identify: (1) mentors, “who know your heart” and can guide you in making important decisions in your life, not just your career; (2) sponsors “who will put their reputation on the line for you” and present you for specific opportunities; (3) coaches who will “help you close specific gaps” in your people and technical skills; and (4) role models, who you choose to emulate, but whom you may not know personally.
4. Courage & Character
Woman leaders need to have excellent communication skills. Written and oral communication skills are crucial for success. In the past, for a woman to make it to a top position, they would often have to behave in a more aggressive, command and control and masculine style similar to their male counterparts. However, we are now finally beginning to see women in top positions embracing their authentic and often feminine styles in their behaviours which exudes gravitas too. Often a coach can help you discover where your blind spots in this area may be.
5. Be mindful and work/life balance
Burn out is prevalent among women striving to emulate their “superwomen’ role models. We need to find more balance in our lives, be kind to ourselves, listen to our bodies and the warning signs.
Aside form the burn out issue itself, it’s not uncommon for stressed, under-pressure female leaders to engage in behaviours that can be perceived as aggressive. This can have a knock-on negative effect on the team, which in turn can lead to untimely attrition and can also lead to difficulties in attracting new talent. If you begin to feel like this, there are a number of avenues you might want to explore, ie hire a life coach, book a yoga class or explore a meditation retreat, the idea is to find your outlet.
6. Learn to say no
With the above in mind, you may feel you have no time for yourself. Log your time for a week, both personal and professional. Notice where the big time and energy sappers are and figure out how you can reduce them and increase the things that enhance your well-being. Find a way to delegate or merely learn to let go of “stuff. The world will continue to turn, I promise!
7. Don’t take it personally
Women are often perceived as being more “sensitive” in the work environment. It is important not to change your character or behave like an iron maiden and don’t let comments or criticisms throw you off your game. If you do face patronising remarks, remind yourself how valuable you are, that you’re doing your best and let it roll off your back. Don’t allow those comments to have power over you and never give up. Use it to empower and embolden you!
8. Never stop trying
Talent is innate, but skill is developed with practice and perseverance. You must practice relentlessly to perfect the skill in whatever it is that captures your interest. Seize every opportunity to speak at events or even publish an article. No one is perfect the first time around so be kind to yourself and enlist the help of someone you trust or revere to practice with and get their guidance.
9. Pull other women up with you.
It is crazy that some women in top positions, consciously or unconsciously, make it more difficult for other aspiring and talented women. They believe they have fought to get where they are and are not embracing the opportunity to share their journey thereby encouraging other women to follow in their footsteps. Don’t be one of these! Be an active mentor, coach or sponsor. You will not only be giving back you will broaden your own skill set and be seen as an authentic female leader that top organisations are looking for. Moreover, they also know you’ll be bringing an entourage of talented female followers with you!
10. Take the advantages that come with being a woman and a minority.
When I speak to women about this it is always slightly controversial. It’s perfectly normal to want to be seen for what you can do and bring, not just because you are female.
There is, however, an agenda to promote diversity, which includes providing opportunities to women from consulting backgrounds to further progress their careers. The higher up you go within an organisation the less women you will encounter, however in both Management Consulting firms and in-house corporate Strategy and Transformation teams, senior leaders are open and actively looking to progress their diversity agenda and in particular talented women. Use it!
They are often bonused on having diverse leadership teams and are actively seeking out opportunities to sponsor or mentor junior female talent. Ask for their advice and you will often get their attention and be noticed.
Sep 7, 2019 | CV Advice, Insights, Resume
The busy executive has his/her attention on multiple things at the same time. As a result they can suffer from a lack of attentional focus on any one of their most important priorities. So when it comes to reading resumes, we need to use the latest techniques in Neuro-Science to assist them in a more immediate and meaningful way when they stop to review a candidates’ resume. The human brain can only absorb small bits of information at a time and attention can only be held for up to 45 seconds, so it makes sense to create a resume that provides all the relevant information on the front page that captures their attention quickly. This suggested resume format does exactly that, leveraging the latest research to facilitate the first meeting.
Download our CV template here:
Oaktree Talent Group CV Template
Sep 7, 2019 | Advice, Insights, Interview
Interview Preparation Tips
While some people are confident and love being tested in interviews, others get nervous and don’t always show the best version of themselves. No matter which one of these is you, the following tips will help guide you to perform at your best.
Remember you only get one chance to make a good first impression and preparation is key.
We have even seen confident candidates fail in interviews. Overconfidence can sometimes lead to a lack of preparation for an interview, and it often shows up in an attitude of “sell this job to me”. So even if you are the smartest person in the room, with the gravitas to match, you need to do the basics well and remain professional at all times or hiring managers will be put off by a perceived lack of commitment to the interview process.
Whether you feel the position is one you would love to be offered or if you’re merely there to explore the opportunity further, you need to put your best foot forward at all times. Be professional and humble and never let complacency or arrogance come across – it is a small market, people talk, so do yourself proud each and every time.
1. Always do your due diligence on the company you are interviewing with
What have they been in the news for lately?
Read the companies last annual report.
Who sits on the leadership team?
Who are their biggest competitors?
Speak to anyone you know who has worked or does work for that business to get their insights.
2. Have an opinion on what problems they could be trying to solve
Even if you are not currently in the same sector as the hiring company, make sure you understand the issues this sector is facing and come with a view on how, as a business, they may tackle some of these challenges. Clients like that you’ve had a think about their organisation and come with some points of view. It shows interest in them and also a proactive approach that will distinguish you.
3. Rapport is key
It is an unconscious bias that people hire people they like. Always try to build rapport with the interviewer in an authentic way. Be curious, inquiring and also aware that the hiring manager will be evaluating your style and personality against other major stakeholders in the business you would support in order to be effective in the role. They will be asking themselves if you have the style, maturity and gravitas to lead people as well as senior stakeholders while also challenging them without getting them offside. Keep this in mind and always have examples on hand of previous relationship building successes both from team leadership and senior stakeholder perspectives.
4. Keep it concise!
One common reason for rejection is not being able to articulate your answers in a concise way. Often candidates will give long-winded answers and go off on a tangent. Yes, it’s imperative you need to build rapport BUT interviewers have a limited amount of time and want to get to know you as much as they can in a professional capacity more than a personal one, at least at first.
5. Your Questions
Come prepared with two or three good questions to ask the interviewer when the opportunity arises. This usually happens towards the end of the interview. Always remember when asking questions, the manner in which you ask is often more important than the question itself. Be humble and well intentioned when asking questions about the opportunity so you can determine if this is the right role for you.
When asking about career progression opportunities should you be successful in the current role, please be acutely aware that hiring managers want to be assured you are excited and interested in the role at hand as opposed to the next promotion. It is all in the positioning of the question and can easily be asked more generally like “what do you see as the career pathways from this position after a few years in the role and strong performance”.
6. Money talk
Never ask about salary in the interviews where possible, talk to your recruitment consultant about the salary levels beforehand. Let us do the negotiations for you. If asked about salary expectations in the interview (and yes, it does happen!) gently advise the hiring manager that you haven’t given it too much thought because you’ve been focussed on the role and fit for the position. Advise them that you believe your recruiter would have provided all this information to them prior to the interview.
We have seen these types of conversations go south very quickly if not handled correctly in the moment despite good interview performance up to that point.
7. Behavioural Style Interviews
In behavioural psychology, past behaviours are the best predictor of future behaviours unless those behaviours weren’t helpful and you’ve adopted new ones. Behavioural questions evaluate how you’ve handled situations in the past and what you would do if faced with a similar situation again in the future. It’s about articulating your approach and process but also having learnt from situations that didn’t turn out well. Clients also like to understand what you have learned from failures and how its changed your approach and subsequent behaviours.
For example: Tell me about a time you have failed on a project you were working on? What did you learn from this?
This is not easy but if prepared you can come out on top.
We suggest you tackle these type of questions using the STAR method. This method also ensures you stay on point and concise.
(S)ituation:
Think of a situation similar to what the interviewer is asking you about that had a successful or learning outcome. It doesn’t necessarily have to be work related as long as it’s relevant. Remember to include the who, what, where, when and how.
(T)ask:
Describe the task you were responsible for in that situation. Keep it specific but concise. Make sure to highlight any specific challenges you faced.
(A)ction:
This is the part where you describe exactly what you did. How did you complete the task you were assigned? Remember to focus on what you did and highlight traits (qualities) that a hiring manager will find desirable (initiative, teamwork, leadership, dedication, etc.)
(R)esult:
Share what the outcome of the situation was and how you specifically contributed to that outcome. What did you accomplish? What did you learn? What were the results of your actions?
This is where you also get to be introspective and share some of the softer learnings over and above the hard facts or results.
Here are more behavioural interview questions to practice with.
8. Watch your ego!
Clients find candidates that display a high level of ego in interview are either covering up for some insecurity they have or have a lack of Emotional Intelligence (EQ). Either way it is not a good look. Clients prefer to hire humble, achievement-oriented people who are universally likeable, no matter how talented they are.
9. Mind your manners
Wherever possible write a thank you email to the hiring manager for their time.
Some clients have a real issue with candidates that do not send thank you messages post interview. A recent survey on this showed that 25% (one in four) interviewers appreciate or even expect this courtesy. If possible, it is recommended you end it straight after the interview or at the very least the same day of the interview.
Research shows that people with manners are perceived as more likeable. Writing a thank you note post interview, reiterating that you would be excited to work with them or that you’re excited about next steps, allows the hiring manager to re-engage with you, thereby making you more memorable too. This small act can place you front of mind during their refection time on candidates they’ve met.
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Sep 7, 2019 | Advice, Insights, Interview
How to Ace the Case interview
Most strategy interviews will have a case interview as part of the process. Some love case interviews and other are terrified of them. PREPARATION, however, is key!
There are many different types of questions you may get in a “case interview”. We often find that for industry roles, the case part of the interview is a small part and it may only be a market sizing exercise. This is increasingly common these days.
Other case interviews are more comprehensive and aligned with the case interviews one would expect to receive if interviewing at McKinsey, Bain or BCG. They require:
Market Sizing
Examples:
- How many golf balls can you fit in a Boeing 747?
- How many wedding dresses are sold in India every year?
With market sizing the interviewer is mostly looking for the structure and approach you took to get to the answer rather than the answer itself, but it does test your high level numerical skills too. Ideally you should be in the ball-park, with approximately 20% margin for error. If you fail to share your approach and thought process when answering the question you are unlikely to pass. Having a structured, communicative approach, asking clarifying questions and being able to identify what drivers are behind such estimation questions is essential for a useful and convincing response.
Business Case
We find hiring managers ask business case questions that are either current and relevant to them and a likely challenge they’ll face or have faced previously. Sometimes they like to ask a question that the candidate would never expect, possibly completely outside of the sector they’re in.
Examples:
- The CEO of a cement company wants to close one of his plants. Should he do it?
- A top 20 ASX-listed bank wants to lead its industry and believes improving customer experience is the best way of achieving this. How would you test this assertion? Does it have merit and if so how would you go about it?
In this type of case question, you will be assessed on your ability to ask probing and clarifying questions, providing an appropriate structure/framework, identifying and prioritising your drivers/ levers based on commercial outcomes, outlining your analytical thinking and your ability to make client-friendly pitches. Your analytical thought process, how you structure and prioritise your answer is often more important than arriving at the correct answer.
Be guided by the interviewer as you may be going down the wrong path. They will often try to steer you back on the correct line of thinking. Listen for these subtle hints, they are NOT trying to trick you. DON’T be rigid either by ignoring their effort to help you, often they are also assessing your ability to adapt to change as a measure of both adaptability and creativity in problem solving.
Please always remember to prioritise your drivers in the most commercial way as this too can be a stumbling block for many candidates.
There are two different types of business case interview, Candidate-led and Interviewer-led.
Candidate-led
This is not common, but it can happen. In the extreme, the interviewer rarely intervenes, and the candidate will lead the approach, from structuring the problem, drawing frameworks, asking for data, synthesising findings to proposing solutions. This format can be difficult for beginners, but it does allow you control over the case. For more advanced candidates, this can be comfortable as methodology is emphasised over results.
Interviewer-led
On the other extreme, the interviewer controls the process. He or she has the candidate work on specific parts of the overall problem and sometimes disregards the natural flow of the case. The game here is not to solve the big problem, but rather to solve each question and each mini-case perfectly. The evaluation is done on a question by question basis with each question building on the last and assessing key skills along the way. The interviewer is looking for a level of insightfulness, business intuition and commercial acumen with both quantitative and qualitative drivers required.
We find our clients use a combination of these case preferences across the board. Some candidates can be caught off guard when a client does an extreme version of the Candidate-led scenario. The trick here is to remain calm, be kind to yourself and take ownership of the process. Oftentimes it’s this leadership quality they’re looking to test over and above the actual case result i.e can you function with limited information, work your way through it while at the same time holding the gravitas required to lead others through the problem. It may also be indicative of the type of environment in which they operate.
Victor Cheng is an authority on case interview prep and we recommend anyone facing a case interview to go to his website to practice. We have found time and again that those candidates that prepare do significantly better than those who don’t. Not preparing for a case interview IS preparing to fail and will not only leave you feeling frustrated with yourself but also your recruiters too.
Here is some information on different frameworks and structures you might want to familiarise yourself with.
