IWD 2020 - Keyote address

The theme for International Women’s Day 2020 is Each for Equal. To create a world where every girl and woman has equal opportunities to fulfill their full potential.

Equality is no longer a women’s issue – it’s a business issue. If I said to you that I had the solution for your company to be more profitable you’d be all ears.  

And yet the solution is simple. You don’t need to engage management consultants costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. You simply need to employ a diversified workforce.  

Studies show a balanced workforce is strongly associated with increased financial performance – specifically when a critical mass of 30% female representation at Board and senior leadership levels is achieved.

A study of ASX 200 companies showed organisations that have two or more women on their Boards had higher return on equity, higher market capitalisation, higher revenue and higher net income compared to companies with no women on their boards.

More women than men attain a Bachelor degree.

And yet according to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), Women hold only 14.1% of chair positions, 26.8% of directorships, represent 17.1% of CEO's and 31.5% of key management personnel.

It blows my mind that with all the financial data supporting women’s employment, that we still need to have these conversations 20 years into the twenty first century. We are not talking about employing a minority group – we are talking about 50% of the population.

When I accepted the role of CEO to start up the construction company, Roberts Pizzarotti, I was asked the question - If you could wave a wand over the construction industry to improve it, what would you change? 

There is no silver bullet that fixes the deep-seated issues in the construction industry but with a blank sheet of paper, I had the chance to attack a lot of elements simultaneously.

The construction industry is the third largest employer in Australia but when you lift the hood, the statistics regarding female participation, mental health and well-being are frightening. A construction worker is six times more likely to die from a suicide than a workplace accident, and our young workers are more than twice as likely to take their own life than other young Australians. The industry works six and sometimes seven days a week, suffers from high presenteeism and high divorce rates. Despite having a record volume of pipeline, it is an unsustainable industry.

The construction industry is second only to mining in being the most male dominated industry in the WGEA data set, where only 18% of employees are female and less than 2% of tradespeople are female. In construction there still exists a culture of denial and resistance to diversity and equality initiatives.

Most construction companies are focused on gender diversity at graduate level with many reporting that 50% of the graduate intake are women. Early enthusiasm by women about construction professions and their future careers in the sector decreases with increased exposure to the workplace, with women leaving the construction profession 39% faster than their male colleagues. It’s wonderful to employ women but we must set them up to thrive and succeed.

We have been focused on the employment and success of women, but not at the expense of men. The rigid work practices and toxic cultures are not only bad for women’s health and well-being, but also for men too. We need to improve the industry for both men AND women.

We had a once in a lifetime opportunity to build a better way and be the catalyst for positive change in the Australian construction sector. I have personally led our commitment to gender diversity as it’s a business imperative. My executive team gender split is 50/50 and the overall business has 30% gender diversity. There are many elements that will move the needle, but we have focused on seven key elements:

1.        Equal pay for same roles

We have salary bands for each role. Salaries are offered based on the bands and level of experience without referencing their current salary. Using a person’s current salary, perpetuates the pay gap. Whilst I acknowledge men are sometimes underpaid, we haven’t seen any male candidates needing 40% pay rises, which we sadly have for women.

Australian women won the right for equal pay in 1969. Companies that don’t have equal pay for equal roles are operating illegally.

The gender pay gap increases rapidly when women step out of the workforce to have children. Upon their return to work they typically don’t receive a pay rise as they haven’t been in the office for 12 months. 

But whilst on maternity leave they learn to:

·      Lead with agility through disruption and changing environments

·      Communicate more effectively in critical conversations– anyone who has a 2 year old will understand this.

·      Negotiate with confidence to maximise outcomes

·      Adapt their leadership style to situation and context; and

·      Manage their energy, time and stress levels

If those items sound familiar it’s because I took them from the leadership and management courses offered by AGSM.

Yes, their technical skills don’t change in that period, but their leadership skills do. They just spent a year at home on an intensive leadership course that you didn’t need to pay for. Their emotional intelligence and leadership skills grew exponentially – they enhanced the skills needed to be an effective leader.

Businesses need to start recognising the growth in women during their child bearing years and reward them accordingly. I know that as a mum, I am a far better manager and leader.

2.      Flexible work structures

We have created a workplace where everyone can contribute throughout their life stages including where parents have the bandwidth to contribute at work as well as spend time with their children. We have focused on developing technology to give access to real time data and reporting and to provide more time to solve construction challenges and less time on data entry. Everyone has an i-phone, i-pad and laptop. Everything is stored in the cloud so work can be done in the office, out of onsite or remotely. It’s up to each individual how they work. Removing unnecessary process and paperwork allow our teams to leave work each day and have time for life.

We offer $1000 per annum to spend on health and well being, offer three health and well being leave days per year and provide personal training once per week.

We offer part time work for any role on site regardless of gender. We currently have a part-time female Project Engineer who works 3 days a week with us – one day from home and two days on site. One of our male Services Managers works 4 days/week in the office and Fridays from his regional home to maximise time with his family. 

When people tell me part time work won’t work, I point to the medical industry where Doctors work in shifts and provide life-saving care. We are working with bricks and mortar. I have the attitude to ‘tell me how it can work, not why it can’t’.

I personally lead flexibility from the front, dropping off and picking up my son from school and regularly participating in his school events. At Halloween last year I wrote to all staff and said if you have young children, I expect you to leave work at 3pm and take them trick or treating. The next day, many of the dads sent me photos of them with their children and said ‘thanks – without your email I would never have even thought to go home’. I ask our employees with kindergarten children to attend their first day of school. One dad sent me a photo of the first day this year and said I’m not sure who was more excited – my twin boys or my wife.

We are piloting a five-day working week with NSW Health Infrastructure on our Concord Hospital Liverpool Hospital projects. The sites only operates Monday to Friday, giving a weekend to every worker. We have engaged UNSW to study the health and well being benefits for the workers and their families.

3.     Increasing the supply side

They say you ‘can’t be what you can’t see’. We have been inviting the local girl’s schools to attend our construction sites to learn about the varying careers offered in construction. I also wrote to 42 girls schools asking if could speak at careers days. Every time we have hosted a school or spoken at an event, at least one young lady has walked away planning a career in construction.

We also have four scholarships for women studying construction and property management at UNSW, guaranteeing space for women at University.

4.     Recruitment

We are committed to finding women for all roles and despite a concerted effort to positively discriminate for women, we have still found it hard to recruit women. What we consistently see is women doubting their abilities. If they have 90% of the required skills, they say they are missing some of the skill set and they doubt their abilities. Whereas if a man has 40% he says he is proficient. 

Our job ads are non-gender specific, open to full time and part time and don’t reference years of experience, which generates more applications.

If you’re offered an opportunity as a woman, don’t ever question why. It doesn’t matter why you’ve been offered an opportunity – what matters is that you say yes and make the most of it because we still have a long way to go before the gender imbalance is fully addressed.

5.      Sponsorship

We have a sponsorship program for both men and women.

Sponsoring seems to happen quite naturally for men, mainly because most senior executives are men and it’s only natural to think of your social networks when it comes to nominating people for opportunities.

Putting a formal program in place for all future leaders means everyone is exposed to the same opportunities, regardless of gender and no one is left behind.

6.     Equal conditions for men and women

People who are joining the industry now can’t see the gains that have been made over the past 20 years. The first site I worked on in 1998 didn’t have a toilet for me on site. I had to physically leave the site, and walk around the block, past two buildings to get my toilet.

It is sadly still common practice today for construction sites to be established with men’s amenities and the attitude of “we will build female amenities when they come”. With that attitude, women won’t come. 

We have set the following minimum standards for our construction sites, and I personally inspect the amenities.

a)       Toilet and change facilities to be provided for women on site - with appropriate safety considerations (i.e. showers to have doors and locks).

b)       Feeding rooms to be made available for women working on site.

c)       Zero tolerance for sexual harassment and sexually explicit graffiti. lf found, it must be removed within 48 hours.

7.      No dickheads

Anyone who does not support gender diversity and inclusion does not have a role at Roberts Pizzarotti, and we have stayed true to this.

I have shared these seven initiatives with you today because they are not a secret. We can and should all learn from each other. If we all work together as a collective industry to drive change, we will have a greater impact, faster.

There is no silver bullet to fix gender equality, but as my father constantly said to me growing up – if you don’t know what to do, try something, try anything, if it doesn’t work, try something else. Just keep trying and don’t ever stop.

I fundamentally believe that a business achieves better results when you capture the diversity of thought that is generated from men and women, from all different walks of life, working together.

Gender equality is a business initiative that needs attention, courage and a can-do attitude. It needs to be led by the CEO and tracked and reported against monthly to drive systemic change.

Importantly, it also needs every one of you to continue to connect, to celebrate the talented women & men in your organisation, to spark conversation and positive change.

If you’re going to participate / and want to be part of the solution - what better time to start than today.

Happy International Women’s Day