Voice At The Table

The number of job vacancies in Britain has plunged by almost half a million since January (to 295,000 in June), hitting the lowest levels since comparable records began in 2001. As competition among job seekers becomes increasingly intense, businesses are receiving hundreds of CVs for the relatively few openings they have on offer.  So, it’s important to stand out from the crowd. Here’s how:

1. You need to have a great CV and tailor it to the job you’re after. Over 90% of companies use software to screen CVs and 75% of CVs are rejected because they don’t have certain key words the software is programmed to identify. If you’re applying for a finance role which requires skills including knowledge of specific IT software like QuickBooks or Sage or the practice of “superforecasting”, make sure you use these words (and your competency in them) in your profile and in the main body of your CV. If you include abbreviations like having an MBA, or that you’re a CFA the machine won’t necessarily recognise them, so use the full terminology.
2. Make sure your job application has a well-crafted cover letter. Applications with cover letters, carefully tailored to individual job descriptions, are generally more successful than those submitted without a letter. Employers agree that cover letters materially influence their decisions on who to interview.
3. Reach out to a mentor: some jobs never get advertised – they get filled through personal contacts. We all have someone with whom we’d love to organise a meeting and now might be the perfect time to instigate it. Be bold… introduce yourself via email and ask a dream mentor for a virtual 30-minute meeting.
4. Ensure your social media accounts are in sync. If Twitter, Instagram or Facebook present an inappropriate or conflicting image of you, it will weaken your credibility. Remember, the goal is to have your entire profile – cover letter, résumé, LinkedIn profile, and other social media accounts – conveying one clear and consistent professional image of you. Bear in mind that any prospective employer will likely look at all your social media and see if the image of you supports your professional goals.
5. If you are furloughed, use this time to upskill. Learning a new skill can be either complementary to your existing job trajectory, or geared towards a new career. Ask yourself, “What skill would make you more employable six months from now?” Is it a specific type of software you’ve been meaning to learn? Is it HR knowledge about how the furlough scheme actually works? Is it supply chain research about how to manufacture products less expensively? Pick your area and put on your research hat.
6. Use your networks. Joining and staying active on LinkedIn and even Facebook can lead to unforeseen job opportunities. A strong presence on LinkedIn can be a launch pad to securing new employment. Résumés that included a link to a comprehensive LinkedIn profile received 71% more interview call-backs than those that included a limited LinkedIn profile or no profile at all, according to ResumeGo, a professional CV-writing service.

Guest Blog By Ian Miller

The digital revolution, or “Third Industrial Revolution”, is one of today’s most debated topics in politics, economics and the business world. The potential disruption of the “status quo” should not be underestimated, but it is the rate of change that poses the greatest challenge to business and users.

The following stats illustrate rate of change… approximate time for technology to reach 50 million users:

• Radio – 38 years
• Internet – 4
• Facebook – 2

The press heralds the “digital revolution” but in my view, it is more “evolution” – the culmination of many incremental changes – in a wide range of disciplines e.g. electronics, software, comms and battery technology etc. which make up the “digital” world we enjoy today. The irony of the term “cloud-based services” is that they are “ground-based” data centres across the world, highly reliant on infrastructure, such as a reliable power source, to provide the “24-7” service that we demand.

But there is a social myth that those of us of a “certain age” cannot cope with all this “digital” tech. On the contrary, people of my generation, so-called “baby boomers”, have spent their whole career developing and employing “digital” solutions. Although the rate of change is increasing, there have been many “quantum leaps” already that led the world to the current state. Here is a personal “timeline” of my journey on the digital path … NB: millennials may need to “google” some references.

Mainframe computer card

1970s – Birmingham University built a new computer centre. Only PhD students had access to the real-time computing, the undergrads had to punch computer cards, depositing them in an in-tray and returning, days later, for the output – quite often getting the answer “error”!

DEC micro computer

1976 – Ilford Films, tested an early example of industrial computer control making photographic emulsion – it took 20 minutes to programme, via a punched paper-tape, no hard drive!

Painting robot

1980s – I played a small part in the deployment of painting robots (note – programmed by hand) and computer vision in Fords. The ‘80s also witnessed changes in the office, with secretaries giving way to office automation, one terminal for every four people!

Late ‘80s – CIM

Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) was coined – sharing data across company wide networks. The technology did not match the rhetoric but it was the birth of the idea that information could flow globally – we had to wait for technology to catch up with our “dreams”.

Late ‘90s – The internet was in its infancy, corporate websites were rare, but access to the internet was universally available. We had to justify the benefit of “surfing”, access granted to a chosen few who gained permission from the boss!

My first mobile

2002 – Redundant (again) so bought my first personal mobile, definitely not “smart” – a nightmare for typing texts but essential for job seeking!

Emails by mobile

2005 – Received my first “smart” phone, an early Blackberry, with its “qwerty” keyboard; we could access emails on the go!

The moral of my tale? I agree that digital products continue to evolve but these are more about maturing tech rather than quantum leaps e.g. the first car is the “quantum leap”! The trick is to spot the real game changers and ignore the trivialities.

Take internet shopping – the idea of ordering things from a catalogue, with home delivery is over 100 years old. In 1863, Richard Warren Sears started a mail-order watch business which became the largest retailer in the United States, in 1990 surpassed by Walmart, now overtaken by Amazon. I accept the process of selection, ordering and payment is easier “online” but “home shopping” is a very old idea.

By 2021, I will have been on this “digital” journey for 50 years, from punched cards, to floppy disks to “cloud based” storage. Those of us who have experienced this evolution in our lifetime, have had a steep learning curve, exploiting each generation of digital product. During this time, our dreams were often constrained by the technology; we have been waiting for this world. Please don’t misinterpret my generation’s scepticism about the latest “fad”, we remember the duds! I may take a little longer to learn the next trend this time round but I’m no less enthusiastic!

Biography:

Ian graduated in Chemical Engineering in 1974 at Birmingham University and has worked, almost continuously, for the past 46 years. He spent 22 years in manufacturing, working on the early developments in computers, robots and vision systems in household names such as Ford and Thermos. Following a master’s degree in 1989, Ian moved into management consultancy and continues to work in this field with a major global group as an Asset Management expert.

Today, I want to tackle an old topic with a fresh perspective: the importance of gender balanced boards.

I feel that the pandemic, the state of our planet and social and political ideologies make it even more important for Voice At The Table (and others like us) to keep pursuing our purpose with even more passion and rigour so as to maintain the momentum that got us here.  And, while the focus on diversity and inclusion seems to have returned to many corporate agendas, many sectors are backtracking on promises and initiatives, including gender balance.  So let’s remind ourselves of the old business case and look at new research, all pointing to the fact that women are the answer to many of our world’s problems.

1. Business nowadays is highly complex. Business decisions traverse matters such as global political and economic regimes, technology, cultural differences and sophisticated customer demands. Success requires companies to make complex and risky decisions.  This kind of decision making is vastly improved by diverse experiences, perspectives and opinions of the decision makers. Diverse views make it less likely for boards to be blindsided by groupthink or influenced by narrowly-pooled behaviours and habits of the in-group. So boards need not only gender-balance but also other type of diverse representation to ensure decisions are as informed as they can be.
2. In today’s world, companies recognise the importance of better understanding their employees, customers and markets. But if you fail to represent 50% of the population in your boardroom, it is highly likely that you will be unable to fulfil this requirement.
3. Women tend to me more risk-averse which helps temper excessive risk-taking by over-confident male board members. This improves the company’s reputation and lowers the number of corporate fraud incidents.
4. Companies with more women on boards initiate fewer takeovers. Given the fact that most mergers and acquisitions tend to fall short of expectations, this saves the waste of resources and energy that can be better used on more important strategies.
5. Women tend to think beyond profit and deliver to a wider pool of stakeholders. New research shows, for example, that companies with women on their board tend to use more renewable energy, delivering environmental benefits.
6. Similarly, women care more about CSR than their male counterparts, thus delivering good for a broader spread of stakeholders. Here are a few specific examples, evidenced in recent research:
   1. Women have a less aggressive attitude to corporate tax which means they’re likely to contribute more taxes to their governments.
   2. Women are less likely to downsize the workforce than their male counterparts, safeguarding the livelihood of employees.
   3. As we’ve seen with some of the female country leaders, women also tend to have a more generous response to those who have suffered in a natural disaster.

Governments and corporations nowadays fulfil the demands of nearly 8 billion people on this planet. Companies also influence our world in ways that go beyond their products and services.  Many corporations have great social impact ambitions and influence over societies.  In fact, we have recently seen a number of situations where companies have acted where governments have failed to do so.  In other words, companies nowadays no longer focus on profit alone – they play the role of social influencers and guardians of a more sustainable future.

For this reason, it is important to get the right combination of leadership at the helms of corporations, and women must be a big part of the mix.  The business case for more women navigating the course of companies is clear.  But if we need evidence that women are the correction that humanity requires in order for us to get back on track, we have it.  Women deliver much more than just financial benefits to organisations, particularly if there is more than one of them in the mix.

So, just like the world needs a post-pandemic re-set, so do corporate boardrooms.  Male dominated boardrooms are not part of our future – a future that is looking to women to save the day.

In the words of a revered American president (you know the one), the word ‘crisis’ in Chinese is based on two characters.  One means ‘danger’, the other ‘opportunity’. 

For women in Britain, ‘working from home’ has been more the former than the latter.

Who would have thought that, on the 50^th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act we would find ourselves back in the house, cooking, nurturing, cleaning and educating – oh, and working professionally too? Even before the pandemic, British women were working twice as hard as their male counterparts  looking after family and home life. 

During lockdown, this gap has been exacerbated for mothers who put in 4 hours a day more than fathers looking after children and home.  The only notable exception to this harsh reality are situations where the father has lost his job entirely while the mother remains on the payroll. 

A shift in societal perception of roles in the home is urgently needed.  Working women contribute 35%-45% to the GDP in Europe and North America.  So any country that takes its post-Covid economic recovery seriously must do more to acknowledge and address the stark inequalities between the genders. 

Meanwhile, we women need to have more honest conversations at home with our partners and children (of capable age) to ensure that what can be done by them in the house is in fact done by them.  It may mean having to compromise on our way of doing things and it may also mean inviting some friction into what might already be a precarious situation.  But the burden of not doing so is too great for us to bear.  And not just us but everyone who depends on us, including the economy!  In this way, being a little more ‘selfish’ may actually turn out to be one of the most selfless acts we’ve taken in a while. 

As for those of you men out there who hide away all day ‘working’, my plea to you is to observe your partner.  If she can multi-task work, children, meals and laundry, surely you can do better!  Next time you come downstairs for your cuppa, swing by the washing machine and hang up one of the 15 cycles of laundry that are making their rounds each day.  Ask your older child to take out the recycling and tidy up after themselves and show their mum some respect – after all, the home they (and you) live in is not a hotel and their mum (your life partner) is not a maid.  Then, as tempting as that evening run might be, put in an extra half an hour with your children to check their spelling and times tables. And then please do indulge in some exercise while dinner is bubbling away on the hob.  The next day, then, tell your colleagues and mates to do the same.  It might seem as sharing chores, but in reality, it is a way to regain the closeness with and respect of your family – and isn’t it worth it?

Perhaps we should all take a moment out of our busy day to consider what it is we need in order to shift the balance of child-care and home chores, and then make the necessary adjustments.  After all, a crisis is not just ‘danger’, it is also an ‘opportunity’ – isn’t it time we find out what that really means to us?

The post below has been featured in the third edition of Housing On The Table, a fortnightly e-shot designed to inspire leaders of social purpose service organisations to transform them to suit the times we live in.

We will be exploring what we call the T.A.B.L.E organisation – which Thinks, Acts, Behaves, Looks and Expresses itself differently from how social housing providers have functioned in much the same way for the past 50 years.   This is a moment to embrace real change – from the Front Line to the Boardroom.

Sign up to receive future editions of Housing On The Table and get access to previous issues.

The B pillar of a TABLE organisation is Behaving Inclusively.

In my recent video podcast to the NHF’s Governance Conference (transcript available on request), I explain that a TABLE organisation starts with “Why”.  Why, is a question about Purpose.

An organisation’s purpose is related to the values it espouses.  This is where behaving inclusively is especially relevant.  In my podcast I say that acting with good intentions is rarely good enough (see below).  This is especially true when the purpose is to address inequalities, many of which are longstanding and deep rooted.

Ticking the box may fulfil the mission but is it meeting the purpose?

What’s on the TABLE today – are we behaving inclusively or dressing the windows?

Last week, the G15 group of London’s largest housing associations launched G15 Accelerate, described as “a new leadership development programme for BAME managers to help develop their potential to become our future leaders”.  Their target is to more than double the BAME proportion of G15 board members to 30% by 2025.

The programme follows on from a BAME diversity pledge signed by G15 CEOs in April, the latest of many similar attempts reaching back to the creation of BME housing associations in the 1970s and 80s.

These attempts notwithstanding, the evidence from three housing diversity surveys published by Inside Housing since 2016 suggests, not much has changed in the lack of representation of BME leaders on boards and executive teams.  Some even say that housing providers have gone backwards in recent years.  In other words, the collective behaviours have not matched the rhetoric and pledges made by housing leaders.

The key to addressing under-representation of black people at senior level is not more pledges or programmes.  There is enough evidence to show that on their own, they don’t work.  This is what we refer to as ‘window dressing’ – something that purports to tackle the issue, but fails to make a real and lasting impact.

Is it time for housing leaders to start looking beyond how to develop and recruit to their leadership teams and consider whether their behaviours are truly inclusive?

The Eight Inclusive Behaviours framework

Voice At The Table has created a framework of eight inclusive behaviours which, once embedded, changes how we interact with each other.  Inclusive behaviour helps to overcome unacknowledged attitudes or even prejudices resulting from a lack of understanding or empathy towards the experience of others.

Behaving inclusively goes beyond correcting unconscious bias and balancing representation at the top of organisations.  It requires us to have humility to recognise that ours isn’t the only way, to be curious about someone’s lived experiences and not rush to judgement when we encounter views which differ from our conceptions.

Behaving inclusively means being careful with our use of language and stepping in when someone speaks or acts in a way that marginalises or diminishes colleagues.

Most of us think of ourselves as being inclusive.  But extending rules and policies is easy if it doesn’t require a lot of effort.  So is welcoming individuals that make our leadership teams look more diverse (so long as they don’t challenge our own perceptions or impose other burdens).

But rarely are these efforts enough.  Leaders must be willing to go further than token gestures and statements of support – and that includes creating programmes that might advance a small number of people.  We must be willing to challenge ourselves, examine the data and evidence, listen to people’s stories. prepare to feel uncomfortable and resolve not only to do more for others but to grow and develop ourselves.

Take-Away From the Table – how behaving inclusively leads to purposeful action

Striving for more than just project-managing diversity (as many of the initiatives can be described) takes a lot of effort and commitment to change how we see and interact with the world.  That’s what behaving inclusively means.

Only when we are truly committed, will we be able to act with purpose to attract, retain and promote people of diverse backgrounds inside our organisations.  In this way, the B pillar of a TABLE organisation leads us to the A pillar – acting purposefully.  More on the A pillar in our next issue.

For now, we encourage you to find the courage to look inward, confess to having blind spots when it comes to inclusivity and take committed and concrete steps towards behaving more inclusively.