I look at how women perform at a labour market. I support and motivate them to reach their dream positions. They have knowledge, competences, but sometimes in the male-dominated world they are not brave enough to apply for the best jobs on equal terms with men.
My attention has been drawn by „Women in Finance” raport prepared by Institute of Innovative Economy within „Known Women Experts” initiative. It concerns women in financial services and shows that 75% employees of banking groups are women. Unfortunately, the higher in a hierarchy, the fewer women there are – on a management level only 13% are women. In comparison to Sweden or Denmark, more than 30% are women, while in the UK: 31%. Women bring a lot to the companies, they have excellent work organisation, empathy and eagerness for development. The researches show that e.g.. McKinsey, ImF or banks where in management boards there were more than 20% of women did well during the economic crisis. This is the only one of the examples showing how important is the presence of women in this business. Unfortunately, once they have reached the glass ceiling they give up on applying for the highest position with the detriment of the sector.
A recruitment process for financial sector differs from the others. From my experience I can tell that while recruiting for most of the positions, crucial is experience and candidate’s personality, rather than having a degree. In finance it is different as ACCA, SFA, CIA or CIA the most important in an international environment. They are quite expensive so that they are perceived as an obstacle to professional development. In addition, managers require not only subject-matter knowledge but also soft skills, e.g. team management. This is one of the businesses where you need to constantly raise qualifications; law, legal records frequently change so that managers need to keep abreast.
I strongly cheer women on because I know that they have high qualifications and apply for a higher position as equals. The recruitment process reveals that there are perpetuated stereotypes – employers fear that an employee right after employment will go on maternity leave. There are also stereotypes concerning emotional nature of women and its implications, e.g. conflicts in a team. I personally believe that more important than sex is employee’s engagement. If one takes duties seriously, he or she will add a great value to the organisation.
