It’s almost a century since women were given the right to vote (as long as they were over 30, mind you), yet in 2014 women are still struggling to make their voices heard. A recent survey, ‘Cracking the Code’ by the YSC, found that a man starting at a FTSE 100 organisation is 4.5 times more likely to make it to the executive committee than a woman, while senior women are two times less likely to be promoted than their male peers.
Although the ‘glass ceiling’ is clearly far from broken in the UK in general, here at Signature we are proud to have talented women in all the departments of our organisation, at all levels. We couldn’t be without the ideas, enthusiasm and dedication they bring to their work, and we invest a great deal of time and energy into ensuring they have the training they need to fulfil their potential.
We’re not alone in thinking like this, globally-renowned consulting firm McKinsey and Company has recently published a report entitled ‘Women as a Valuable Asset’, which states that “ Women and men tend to apply different leadership behaviours, and only combination of the most effective leadership behaviours makes it possible to increase the company value.”
The report claims that women bring three key skills to the management table that men lack:
• Ability to be a role model
• People development – ability to be a mentor and listen to individual needs and concerns
• Ability to define expectations and responsibilities clearly, recognising employees’ contributions and rewarding achievement of target
They also perform just as well as men in a number of the other key performance areas – meaning that businesses have no excuse for not giving women equal consideration when recruiting.
We’ve seen the positive contribution that women make in all areas of our own company, and are lucky to have talented individuals in everything from our accounting and logistics departments to sales and marketing.
We invest significant amounts of time and energy into providing the training our staff need to perform as best they can, and all aspects of Signature continue to benefit as they develop.
As Signature Boss Dee says: “I value talent and commitment, regardless of the person’s gender or background. I focus on developing strong teams that are proud to work for Signature, and it is a joy to watch both men and women build their skills and experience as the company grows with them. It’s definitely not a man’s world any more – put any of my female employees behind the wheel of a supercar and you’ll see that pretty quickly!”