Executive Recruiting And Women Leaders: Get Serious
Posted by Tim McIntyre on Thu, Feb 24, 2011 @ 08:24 AM
Executive Human capital, ahh. Everyone loves to talk about "gender diversity" and boardroom issues, surveys, why women leaders are leaving the workforce and talent acquisition, and all sorts of discourse, but in reality, very few are doing anything about really Targeting and Recruiting them.
For example, our search firm has published (an almost) quarterly survey sent to thousands and thousands of corporate personnel, and while there is strong sentiment and responses, and continuous downloading of ebooks and other materiels, when conversing with the head of diversity, or senior HR folks or heads of lines of businesses, clearly, these are academic pursuits for most,
getting up to speed on the latest lingo for that upcoming meeting, or preparing to foist off on unsuspecting colleagues, bosses or watchful eyes the latest spin on "breaking the glass ceiling".
In fact, the conversations I've had with leading organizations prove that almost all of them are strictly giving lip service to recruitment of female leaders and executives. It seems to me, that if you are serious about finding talented executives, you simply budget for it, and get it done. Even if there's a shortage of skilled engineering or more technical talent, then you go in on the 'succession plan' modis operandi, and begin to recruit the most promising middle management folks you can and see if they'll bloom through mentorship. Is anybody other than JNJ or TIAA-CREF doing this?
Sites like theglasshammer.com list openings for a select few sponsors and prattle about gender diversity (with the best of intentions) but if those companies don't pony up the recruiting funds and get engaged, then really, how serious are they? Love to hear your comments. Thanks for reading. BTW, we always adhere to the philosophy "best person wins the job", and as recruiters its about finding a broader array of talent to level the playing field.