Introduction

10STEPS

Understand the starting point so you can monitor

progress

Educateyour leaders,

give them accountability

for change

Changemindsets bychallenging

bias and sexism

Be creative

in job design

Make flexible working

a reality for all

Increasetransparency

of opportunitiesfor progression

Sponsor female talent to the same

extent as male talent

Demonstrate to women that

you want to retain and develop

them

Approach this like any

other business improvement

project

Share learning and good practice

campaign for gender balance in science, technology & engineeringW I S E

Making Progress with the Ten Steps31st October 2017 - The Crystal, London

10STEPS

Understand the starting point so you can monitor

progress

Educateyour leaders,

give them accountability

for change

Changemindsets bychallenging

bias and sexism

Be creative

in job design

Make flexible working

a reality for all

Increasetransparency

of opportunitiesfor progression

Sponsor female talent to the same

extent as male talent

Demonstrate to women that

you want to retain and develop

them

Approach this like any

other business improvement

project

Share learning and good practice

Making Progress with the Ten Steps 2

3 Introduction

4 Summaryof2017benchmarking

5 Overalltrendsthisyear5 Educateyourleaders..deeperdive 6 Sharedexperiences6 Sponsorfemaletalenttothesame extentasmaletalent7 Educateyourleaders,givethem accountabilityforchange7 Makeflexibleworkingarealityforall8 Changemindsetsbychallengingbias andsexism9 Demonstratetowomenthatyou wanttoretainanddevelopthem10 Becreativeinjobdesign10 UsingtheTenSteps11 Otherthemesemergingfromaudience discussion11 Furtherreading 11 WherenextfortheTenSteps?12 TenStepssignatories

Contents

Introduction

Making Progress with the Ten Steps 3

This summary report captures the narrative and contributions made

by speakers and attendees at the 2017 Making Progress with the Ten Steps event. In 2014 WISE developed the Ten Steps with the help of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Group. We identified that many companies struggle with how to retain and progress female talent. Some have developed a body of knowledge and experience about what works, but the lessons learned are not widely disseminated or understood. The Ten Steps provides a simple framework to benchmark and share good practice. Three years on we have a stronger and more committed cohort of signatories than ever before. The event gave new signatories the chance to complete their diagnostic and participate in the benchmarking and insight sharing. We heard from our established signatories on their progress, challenges and successes. There are now around 50 signatories, all corporate members of WISE. Copies of the presentation material are also available via the Members’ Area of the WISE website.

30 companies took part in the 2017 measuring progress event:

TheGoal

Women stay and progress in STEM careers at the same rate

as their male colleagues.

Focus

To retain more women at mid-career point and increase the

number of women in executive roles.

• AVEVA Solutions • AB Sugar • AWE • Balfour Beatty • BAM Nuttall • Bechtel • Black & Veatch • BMT Defence Services • Capgemini • CGL • Fluor • Graham Constuction • Highways England • Hilti • HS2 • Jardine Motors Group • Mace Group • Max Fordham LLP • Network Rail • Nuclear AMRC • Ramboll • Rolls-Royce • Shell • Siemens • Sky • The Co-op • Tony Gee • Travelport • Westfield • Wood

Summary of 2017 benchmarking

Making Progress with the Ten Steps 4

Approachthislikeanyotherbusinessimprovementproject

Changemindsetsbychallengingbiasandsexism

Makeflexibleworkingarealityforall

Understandthestartingpointsoyoucanmonitorprogress

Sharelearningandgoodpractice

Becreativeinjobdesign

Demonstratetowomenthatyouwanttoretainanddevelopthem

Increasetransparencyofopportunitiesforprogression

Sponsorfemaletalenttothesameextentasmaletalent

Educateyourleaders,givethemaccountabilityforchange

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PerformanceoneachoftheTenSteps–2017Cohort

2017 2016RankingStep

T his was the third progress event benchmarking companies who are

Ten Steps signatories. This year we received diagnostics from around 35 companies. WISE reported on the key themes emerging from the analysis of the latest completed diagnostics which showed that there was no change in the highest scoring of the Ten Steps from 2016. It was no surprise that Approach this like any other business improvement project scored highest as the Ten Steps framework helps organisations to treat this as a ‘project’. In the last year we’ve seen that many more organisations invest in unconscious bias training meaning that Change mindsets by challenging bias and sexism remains a high scorer. The diagnostics show that some traditional engineering companies have struggled with Make flexible working a reality for all but progress is being made.The WISE diagnostic also continues to help organisations to Understand the starting point so you can monitor progress.

Organisations identified that more could be done to Share learning and good practice which is why WISE organises this progressevent. We were pleased to see that there was an improvement in Be creative in job design – WISE offers recruitment workshops and has run a webinar on this topic. In the case of Demonstrate to women that you want to retain and develop them the Ten Steps signatories are still not progressing at the rate we would hope for and hence this was one of the areas for discussion at the event. Similarly, to Increase transparency of opportunities for progression we need to break down cliques and in-groups which exclude women. There is also a need for emphasis on Sponsor female talent to the same extent as male talent where scores have slipped back since 2016. Educate your leaders, give them accountability for change continues to be the lowest scoring of the Ten Steps. It is clear more needs to be done in this area. Even when leaders are committed, this doesn’t always filter down through the organisations.

Overall trends this year

Making Progress with the Ten Steps 5

S ome organisation’s scores have gone backwards. This can be interpreted as a

positive indicator as these organisations now understand more clearly what is happening internally, so they have a better overview. The diagnostic has been completed by more people and teams and the average is lower than when completed solely by HR or D&I teams. Those who get the whole organisation involved are very positive because it enables a meaningful discussion and ownership of the action plan. This year everyone in the cohort is a WISE member who is committed to making progress. None of the signatory companies are just looking to ‘tick a box’. Some higher scoring companies from last year haven’t submitted their diagnostics this year and there are some new signatories included this time. The overall effect of this may have been to depress the average score. Due to the ranking of the steps, we wanted to share good practice around the areas for which the scores have slipped:

• Demonstrate to women that you want to retain and develop them. • Sponsor female talent to the same extent as male talent. • We also looked for practical advice on Educateyourleaders.., picking up on the issue of giving leaders accountability for change. Educateyourleaders..deeperdiveAs Educate your leaders, give them accountability for change continues to be the lowest scoring step we took a close look at which questions are challenging companies the most. Companies that do have targets do much better – this low percentage is what is driving the numbers down. We need to send a clear message to leaders that they must go beyond words and into action.

DoleadersunderstandandarticulatethebusinesscaseforD&I?

HaveyourleadersbeentrainedinUnconsciousBias?

DoleadershaveperformancetargetsrelatedtoD&I?

Doyourleadersactassponsorsandmentorstowomenintheorganisation?

Dotheyleadbyexampletoraisetheprofileofdiversityissues?

70%

56%

58%

28%

67%

Making Progress with the Ten Steps 6

Sharedexperiences

Siemens’ vision is to be an inclusive organisation where everyone feels valued. The drive for Gender Balance is a strategic priority, supported by WISE. Siemens wants to make data based decisions. It would like to improve its numbers of women from the current 22%. Siemens wants to focus on leadership roles and stop the erosion as women progress through the organisation. The company identified that women mid-career need additional support to plug the mid-grade gap. Siemens is proactively running a ‘Women into Leadership Programme’. Each cohort is around 12-14 women who were nominated to take part. The participants felt it was a safe environment to build self-belief and confidence. They undertook both group and individual coaching. The programme had an early impact with 60% reporting they had taken a stretch assignment, additional responsibility or done something they wouldn’t have done before. 80% reported that they had taken a different approach to usual in a challenging situation. Siemens is looking to measure the impact of the programme and track the progress of the participants’ careers. It is also asking those in leadership roles to take risks with appointments. Siemens is working on D&I strategies individually for each business unit, that meets its needs, rather than imposing a central D&I policy that all business units adopt. It is also planning to use the Ten Steps to bring those businesses together to discuss progress at business unit level.

Sponsor female talent to the same extent as male talentJulieHolyland Learning & Talent Development Lead DanielleLeyland Learning and Talent Development Partner

TopTips • Find the imperative in your business.

• Gain sponsors and supporters (men and women).

• Look at the culture – it’s not about fixing the women.

• Track progress, but don’t be impatient, it’s a long term commitment. • Support D&I in recruitment, entry level and earlier.

Making Progress with the Ten Steps 7

Educate your leaders, give them accountability for change

Historically the ‘Step’ that challenged it, Bechtel acted on this and created a D&I function in its business for structure, target and consistency and rolled it out to the business units to measure progress. Bechtel has a target to train 100% supervisors (someone responsible for at least two people) in Unconscious Bias. All supervisors have diversity and inclusion targets to demonstrate active engagement. Targets are SMART published, promoted and linked to their bonuses. It is important to note that these targets include practical

measures such as ‘balance on interview panels’, ‘being a mentor’, ‘providing speaking opportunities’ etc – and are not simply “increase women to x%”. Refresher training for managers to deal with kickbacks from people in their team is also offered.

TopTip • SMART D&I targets linked to bonuses.

Set some aspirations for 2020 with measurements i.e. 25% of workforce is female, 18% in technical roles – sponsored by senior leadership team. Shift ways of working – e.g. conference calls become the norm, enabled by technology. • 13% of staff have formally signed up to flexible working. • D&I focus has resulted in shift in perceptions around working in less constrained ways. Work in evening instead of late afternoon allowing better work-life balance for individuals who choose it.

Make flexible working a reality for allKirstyDuncan Head of Early Careers

• Get leadership team to role model where flexible work practices are normalised i.e. leave early to do family stuff etc. Visibly take time out. • Also undertaking one-to-one interviews with women in the business to understand the barriers to progression.

CamillaBarrow Project Manager

“Flexible working used to be like a swear word at our company. It went on, but under the radar.” Audience member

Making Progress with the Ten Steps 8

Change mindsets by challenging bias and sexism

The Shell representative recognised that the company has good processes and policies, but the greatest challenge in large organisations is to convert these to practice. The company has made progress, but still has a long way to go as it takes time to change culture. Shell has conducted some internal studies to demonstrate impact of greater diversity on productivity/efficiency etc. Actions that have been taken include:

• Clear Code of Conduct – everyone signs up to this when they join the company to achieve inclusive culture. • Engagement survey – has inclusion related questions; D&I questions scored highest in last survey. • Global Helpline – available to anyone, anywhere to report issues of harassment and bullying, anonymously. • Focus on intersectionality within genders with the aim to lead to inclusivity. • Embed D&I messages into leadership programmes as well as in unconscious bias training. • Shell has D&I focal points (a dedicated employee) in each country it operates in, headed up by Global Head of D&I. Catherine emphasised the importance of storytelling to change mindsets, as well as data. Shell carries out a People Survey annually. The results are compared by ethnicity, gender, age, tenure and cover multiple factors including D&I metrics e.g. Feel Free to speak my mind, workplace free from harassment, bullying etc.

TopTip • Policies are written for ‘people’ - not men or women. • Storytelling is important to change mindsets.

CatherineTansey UK ER/IR, D&I and Talent Lead

Making Progress with the Ten Steps 9

Demonstrate to women that you want to retain and develop them

Sky’s Women in Technology group waslaunched in early 2016 and has piloted a ‘Women in Leadership’ programme, which is sponsored by senior executives. It is a programme for development of women and has a focus on eminence, rather than confidence. Sky has seen an increase from 15% to 31% in women at Senior Management levels and a third of participants have seen their career progress up or sideways in the last 12 months. 65% of participants are more confident applying out of their comfort zone. Sky is looking to extend this further in the organisation. Other initiatives include:

• Resource hub – providing content for self-directed learning e.g. inspirational TED talks and articles; constantly refreshed and relevant. • Unconscious bias training for leaders and key hiring managers – it’s not a one-off fix, it needs to be continually revisited. • Women in Technology Roadshows – visiting key Sky Tech sites across the UK with role models for different career paths, external speakers and senior Sky leaders. • Flexible working now includes many different practices with clear guidelines. • ‘Get into tech’ initiative – aimed at returners, career changers; has been very successful and has resulted in good retention.

JodyConibear Head of Strategy & Planning, Group Technology

Howtoconvincemaleleaders/colleagues? • Use the business case. • Demonstrate that diverse teams may not be comfortable environments as consensus is not the norm, but often produce better results and are more innovative. • Rather than focusing on the words unconscious bias, Sky focuses on the outcome which is power of difference and innovation; changing how the topic is discussed.

Making Progress with the Ten Steps 10

Be creative in job design

Balfour Beatty’s focus is not only about job adverts, but also looking at new markets e.g. using women’s magazines and linking to role models for jobs that aren’t traditionally considered. The company has also looked closely at the imagery it uses including photographs of employees and workplaces. Balfour Beatty has reviewed the language used in job adverts and also changed the colours of its job adverts away from blue so as not to put off potential female candidates.

NatalieParker HR Business Partner

Using the Ten Steps

British Sugar has worked with WISE since 2013. During that time the group has gone through many changes. It used the Ten Steps as a framework for all the businesses in the Associated British Foods Group to compare positions, during a day-long WISE workshop. • Positive indicators - Flexible working scored highest • Negative indicators - Educate your leaders scored lowest As a result of the session, the businesses:

• Committed to creating an action plan to address weaker areas. • Shared the Ten Steps diagnostics internally and continue to promote these findings. • Reported good progress on sponsoring women which can be expanded across the organisation.

• Had a half day Board meeting to identify what to focus on as a group. • Identifed that better equipping leaders at all levels would create greater momentum. • Are now looking at unconscious bias and linking this to effectiveness of teams.

LessonsLearned • If a business undergoes a lot of change and restructuring ‘the journey’ may have to re-start. Previous incumbents had agreed to the D&I plan but conversations may need to start afresh.

LessonsLearned • Review your imagery, your language, even your use of colour in adverts.

CatherineUglow Director of Organisational Effectiveness

Where next for the Ten Steps?

Ten Steps is here to stay – WISE is developing a new website in 2018

which will align our support for members to the Ten Steps framework. We are collating content for each step, including case studies, hints and tips. WISE will continue to expand the Ten Steps programme by encouraging new member signatories to join the cohort. Ten Steps is only available to companies who are WISE members, to enable closer support and measurement of impact. Along with the new website we hope to be able to have a new online tool to facilitate benchmarking and tracking. We hope that signatories will use this within their businesses to establish priorities and action plans that embed the Ten Steps within corporate change programmes. We will also be using our ongoing calendar of Knowledge Sharing Events to continue to share best practice and advice on those steps that are most challenging to companies. We will respond to as many as the suggestions that you have made as possible so that the Ten Steps continue to be useful and relevant. We will also offer Ten Steps workshops for deeper dive into diagnostics and help develop an action plan for organisations who feel that they need ongoing support to keep the momentum behind their inclusive cultures and diversity and inclusion programmes. The Ten Steps for SMEs is currently in development and we look forward to a Knowledge Share Event early in 2018.

Making Progress with the Ten Steps 11

Other themes emerging from audience discussion

Further reading

• Differences with individual businesses across a large organisation. • Creating an environment where women can be themselves. • Keep talking about it and share success. • Male speakers resonate with a majority male population. • Don’t focus too much attention on the resisters. • Get managers to think again about what a successful team looks like – if all is harmony, is it going to be the best performance? • One audience member mentioned a manager who deleted any emails sent after 5pm, asking them to be re-sent in the morning. (Although the cohort noted that this could be problematic for those with small children who catch up on work in the evenings).

Boston Consulting Group (2017). Getting the Most from Your Diversity Dollars. To view an online version please click here.

Ten Stepssignatories

ThefollowingWISEmembersaresignatoriesoftheTenSteps:

WISE Leeds College of Building, Hunslet Campus Cudbear Street, Leeds LS10 1EF

0113 222 6072 info@wisecampaign.org.uk wisecampaign.org.uk

WISE is a Community Interest Company. Registered company name: WISE Campaign CIC. Company No. 07533934 VAT No. 136 5513 20

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