19 Jun 2018

Diversity and Equality Pays Off

Uminova's kitchen was packed with entrepreneurs, businesspeople and business coaches when Anna Stenberg, the founder of Women Executive Search, Wes, lectured on diversity, equality, how to recruit wider and why you should care.

Equality is not just an issue of justice. It creates growth and development. Wes, the fastest growing executive recruitment company in Sweden, makes sure to use 100% of the skills base in their recruitments.

Anna describes that when she started Wes, as many as 70% of the customers asked for help to recruit women because they were afraid. Afraid that it would “look bad" with so few women in the management team and board of directors, afraid that the company would get “bad publicity” for not focusing on equality. Today, that figure is down to maybe 30% of the customers. The others have come to the realization that the question they should be asking themselves is "What does the lack of diversity cost us today?".

Companies who fail to recruit women often argue that there are no women with the right skills available. Anna effectively dispel that myth. She explains that women in Sweden has not lacked in skills compared to men since the 1960’s. The reason some companies can’t find the right women is because women reject certain companies and workplaces. Often because of poor leadership, that the company's basic values ​​do not match their own, that there is a requirement to always be present (face-time) or because of an authoritative corporate culture. It can even be as simple as the job listing not being appealing to women.

Anna further states that during a recruitment, different requirements are often imposed on an applicant depending on gender or foreign background. Those who are in minority are employed mainly based on whether they have experience or not, while those who are the “norm” are employed on potential. A person who is not the “norm” must therefore be much more experienced than a person who is the norm.

For those who are interested in learning more and developing your gender equality work, we would highly recommend the North Sweden Cleantech event, Women with Impact, which will take place October 4th in Örnsköldsvik (the event will be in Swedish).

Text and photo: Maria Klintenäs