How tracking data could help overcome gender biases

women in finance women in financial services gender equality gender equity gender diversity

28 August 2024
| By Malavika |
image
image
expand image

Anja Pannek has urged organisations to measure its recruitment, retention and incentive strategies to ensure that there is gender diversity.

Speaking to Money Management ahead of the Women in Finance Summit 2024, the CEO of Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia (MFAA), who has a background in chartered accounting, said generating tangible data could be an effective strategy for organisations to track their record on gender diversity.

“The numbers don’t lie,” she underscored.

“Organisations could examine gender diversity when recruiting staff. Do they have a lens of ensuring that there are sufficient male and female candidates? Make sure you have measurements in place.”

She pushed organisations to measure pay increases, bonuses and other incentives to identify whether they are skewed more towards men.

While emphasising that employees should be recruited and incentivised based on merit, Pannek highlighted that gender biases could exist in employers and leaders in an organisation.

“The problem is that we’re all human, which means we come with certain biases,” she said.

“Some of it is conscious, but a lot of it is unconscious. Therefore, until you as the management team measure your hiring and other practices and put the numbers down, you will never know if that’s something you need to address.”

On top of this, organisational values and culture are crucial for business leaders and executives to build a diverse team and facilitate innovative thought, Pannek added.

“I think it’s important to promote a growth mindset environment where people know that they can express diverse thoughts without being shut down. It’s only through thinking differently that we get innovation,” she said.

At the Women in Finance Summit, Pannek and a panel of speakers will share leadership insights and how women can overcome gender biases and flourish in their careers.

She recalled that in her previous roles when her organisation interviewed new candidates, the management team would ensure that the interview panel had gender diversity.

“You can take simple steps to ensure that unconscious bias doesn’t become the norm and people don’t default to the easiest path and hire, promote, and reward employees who look and think just like them,” Pannek said.

“If you create an environment where that is addressed, people would naturally be inclined to promote innovation and different ways of thinking.”

Pannek called for women to take chances and explore new roles as it could lead them down a career pathway that allows them to thrive and enjoy that experience.

Having worked in financial services for 25 years at investment banks, lenders and aggregators before becoming the CEO of an industry organisation like the MFAA, Pannek highlighted that women can choose multiple career paths throughout their lifetime.

She advised them to consider their career goals, new skills they wish to acquire, and how they could develop their professional capability.

To gain valuable tips from Anja Pannek on how you could succeed in leadership roles, come along to the Women in Finance Summit 2024.

It will be held on Friday, 15 November, at Hyatt Regency, Sydney.

Click here to book tickets and don’t miss out!

For further information, including agenda and speakers, click here.

This summit is produced by Captivate Events. If you need help planning your next event, email director Jim Hall at [email protected]

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest news and developments in wealth management industry

MARKET INSIGHTS

This verdict highlights something deeply wrong and rotten at the heart of the FSCP. We are witnessing a heavy-handed, op...

11 hours ago

Interesting. Would be good to know the details of the StrategyOne deal....

4 days 16 hours ago

It’s astonishing to see the FAAA now pushing for more advisers by courting "career changers" and international recruits,...

3 weeks 2 days ago

Insignia Financial has made four appointments, including three who have joined from TAL, to lead strategy and innovation in its retirement solutions for the MLC brand....

2 weeks 4 days ago

A former Brisbane financial adviser has been charged with 26 counts of dishonest conduct regarding a failure to disclose he would receive substantial commission payments ...

3 days 14 hours ago

Pinnacle Investment Management has announced it will acquire strategic interests in two international fund managers for $142 million....

2 days 17 hours ago