International Women’s Day 2019

Women in Recruitment

To celebrate International Women’s Day, Foundation Recruitment attended the Women in Recruitment event, to champion gender equality and do our part in making a positive change for women.

There were some fantastic insights uncovered and some inspiring career journeys shared. An interesting point, that a lot of the panel admitted to themselves – which may resonate with a lot of recruiters – was that they didn’t choose recruitment as a career, the fell into the sector. All attendees at the event agreed they want to make recruitment a career destination of choice – for all genders – raising awareness of the opportunities available and the understanding that recruitment offers a challenging, yet equally rewarding career.

There were some fantastic tips shared to help diversify the future workforce and support women to develop to leadership positions.

For women:

• Surround yourself with positivity and encouragement. Find friends, family or even clients that will support you in your career journey and who you can learn from.
• Find an encouraging Boss/Leader you can aspire to.
• Push yourself and don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone.
• Support other women – peer championship can have a powerful effect on development and recognition.
• Listen and seek out feedback to understand and recognise strengths you may not have been aware of to build your confidence.

For businesses:

• Approach women you believe can progress to leadership and explain the career development opportunities available and support them through this.
• Offer a mentorship programme to allow junior employees to get real advice from a female in a leadership position.
• Give reassurance to junior or new colleagues to drive confidence and encouragement to strive to achieve more.

Gender diversity can have a significant positive impact on a business, especially at board level. A diversity balance delivers new perspectives, different angles and a variety of skills. We are committed to continuing to champion diversity, not only for Foundation Recruitment, but equally for our clients.

There is plenty of work still to be done, but the recruitment industry’s gender balance is definitely improving and we are proud to state our executive and senior management team has a 57% female bias.

The biggest development is the awareness of diversity challenges and the number of initiatives being implemented to support it. The event was a clear demonstration of the importance of the issue, and the volume of support behind diversifying the sector’s future gender balance.