HOW TO CREATE AN AWARD-WINNING FEMALE-EMPOWERED WORKPLACE

INSTITUTE OF DIRECTORS IN SOUTH AFRICA

HOW TO CREATE AN AWARD-WINNING FEMALE-EMPOWERED WORKPLACE

The Institute of Directors in South Africa (IoDSA) have recently won several awards for its achievements in female empowerment. According to their CEO Parmi Natesan, these accolades didn’t come about by chance, but they have also never been the focus of the IoDSA’s initiatives towards gender equality.

“Award-winning female empowerment is something that any organisation can achieve,” says Natesan. “It does however require a genuine belief in the value of creating opportunities for females, and consistent effort to effect to real, lasting change.”

MEASURE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INITIATIVES

It’s easy to create strategies, policies, and procedures to enable gender empowerment, but the implementation is often much trickier.

Parmi’s advice is to identify how successful implementation will be measured before designing the relevant strategy, policies and procedures. She also advises that every organisation should customise the metrics used for their unique situation but that the customisation be goal-driven rather than based on past experience or current information.

“One of the most common excuses provided for ineffective goal setting in gender empowerment is that an industry has always been gender-dominated, or that there aren’t enough suitably experienced candidates available to achieve a certain empowerment goal,” explains Natesan. “If this is genuinely true, and not just as a result of still following historic practices, then empowerment initiative metrics need to reflect a dedication to development and succession planning. There is always something that can be done!”

METRIC IoDSA SCORE IN 2021

Percentage of females on Board 63%

Percentage of females in Executive Management 100%

Percentage of females in Management 79%

Percentage of female full-time Staff members 73%

Percentage of bursaries allocated to females 83%

Percentage of females in Management Development Programme 67%

Increase in female members of the Institute From 37% in 2020 to 39% in 2021

Number of Enterprise Development Investments to female-led organisations 3

The IoDSA also considers metrics that are not be easily quantifiable or repeatable, but worth noting and comparing to future results:

• Improvements in the IoDSA supplier database to increase black female owned businesses

• Prioritise women in IoDSA succession planning

• Winning the Top Women Business for the Year for Gender empowerment category

PROMOTE SYSTEMIC CHANGE OUTSIDE THE ORGANISATION

Making changes to the way an organisation recruits and develops people is only the first step towards creating an award-winning female empowered workplace. The next step is to promote systemic and societal changes that make it easier for the organisation to expand its empowerment initiatives.

“Organisations can no longer focus only on their own bottom line; societal pressure to create equal opportunities will continue to increase and eventually have an effect on the financial success of an organisation,” warns Natesan. “Don’t wait for empowerment opportunities to come knocking at your door; make a proactive effort to become involved outside of your organisation.”

The IoDSA plays an active role in promoting systemic change in a variety of ways:

• It is the owner of King IV™ which recommends that governing bodies should set targets for race and gender representation in its membership

• It provides King IV™ training on 30% Club Board Masterclass for Women

• It is a member of Steering Committee of 30% Club for Gender Diversity on Boards in South Africa, and its Chartered Directors act as mentors at the Boardwalk sessions

• It partnered with the International Women’s Forum on a board readiness programme

• It is a partner in “State of Gender on Listed Company Boards” research

• It assisted with the conceptualisation and introduction of the Women Global Governance Conference

• It featured in the National Women’s Day magazine and the Empowerment Magazine

• It participates in various speaking arrangements at Women’s Day events

• Its CEO judges the Gender Mainstreaming Awards and Top Empowerment Awards

ENSURE THE SUSTAINABILITY OF GENDER EMPOWERMENT

It is also imperative to ensure that gender empowerment initiatives are not just reliant on one individual champion in an organisation. Some of the most effective initiatives have seen their end because the individual driving them has changed positions or employers.

To ensure that the change is sustainable over time, Natesan recommends that empowerment initiatives become ingrained in the culture of the organisation, not just part of its compliance or reputation building activities.

The IoDSA has already created empowerment goals and plans for next five years to ensure that its progress continues beyond the term of its current executives and board members.

These plans include continuous improvement in Employment Equity statistics, improving the BBBEE rating, and prioritise certain demographics in recruitment, training and development, and promotions. It also plans to continue to advocate for diversity in boardrooms in South Africa via media and other publications, continue to be a member of the 30% Club for gender diversity on boards, and continue with events, partnerships and projects to prepare and empower women for board roles.

INTERVIEW WITH PARMI NATESAN, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, INSTITUTE OF DIRECTORS IN SOUTH AFRICA

WORK IT HARDER. MAKE IT BETTER. DO IT FASTER. MAKE US STRONGER

ACHIEVEMENTS

• Parmi Natesan was awarded Global Woman Achiever at the World Women Leadership Congress in 2022

• Parmi Natesan was a finalist for Businesswoman of the Year in the Top Women Awards in 2021

• Parmi Natesan was one of Destiny Magazine’s Top 40 Women under the age of 40 on the African continent in 2017

• IoDSA was the winner of Integrated Reporting Award in NPO category in 2020 and 2021

• IoDSA was the winner of Business of the Year in the Top Women Awards in 2021

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY INITIATIVES

• Supplier Development and Enterprise Development towards black female businesses

• Corporate Social Investment focused largely on education

• Improvements in supplier database to increase black female owned businesses

FIVE TIPS ON SURVIVING AND THRIVING IN BUSINESS

• Understand and be able toclearly articulate your uniquevalue proposition

• Invest in innovation or you willstagnate, the world around us ischanging rapidly

• Be agile and ready to changetrajectory when somethingunexpected happens

• Stakeholders are key - look afteryour employees, suppliers andcustomers

• Employ the best people andinstill drive in them throughappropriate reward

WHAT ARE YOUR ORGANISATION’S GENDER EQUALITY AND BEE RATINGS AND POLICIES?

• Transformation is a priority for the organisation

• We are currently a Level 2 BBBEE

• We have a transformation policy that covers transformation objectives for our members, our board, our faculty, our employees and even the wider directorship profession.

• The majority of IoDSA employees, management, executives and board are females

• Females are prioritised for promotions; as well as bursaries and training and development

• The growth in female membership of the IoDSA has been steady, but slow. Whilst it is moving in the right direction, we would like this to increase pace.

In terms of the wider directorship profession, we are very active in advocating for more women on boards and in other leadership positions including:

• We use our voice to strongly advocate for better representation of women on boards and in other leadership positions in SA.

• King IV (which we own) recommends that governing bodies should set targets for race and gender representation in its membership.

• IoDSA is a member and active participant on the 30% Club. Our Chartered Directors act as mentors at their Boardwalk sessions. We also partner on “State of Gender on Listed Company Boards” research.

• We recently co-hosted a global governance conference on Women on Boards

• IoDSA was featured in National Women’s Day magazine and Empowerment Magazine

• We partnered with IWFSA to develop women leaders

• We participated in various speaking arrangements at Women’s Day Events

• Our CEO judges the Gender Mainstreaming Awards and judged the Top Empowerment Awards

WHAT ARE THE CURRENT AND FUTURE TRENDS IN YOUR SECTOR?

• With directors often being in the spotlight (not always for good reasonsincluding in the Zondo Report on State Capture) – we hope to see more accountability and consequences for directors who haven’t fulfilled their legal duties ie who haven’t acted in good faith, in the best interests of the company, with care, skill and diligence.

• We saw one case of director delinquency recently, but this is not enough.

• We need to get to a place where directorship requires a license to practice, like any other profession.

• Transformation remains a key issue in South Africa. Business in general, and the boardroom in particular, is still not representative of the country’s demographics. We expect to see more focus on this in future. Specifically, with regards to women on Boards, recent stats show that females make up only around 30% of JSE listed company Boards.

HOW ARE YOU USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO CREATE MORE BUSINESS?

• We have invested significantly in increasing our social media presence and engagement over the last few years, including investment into a full time salaried resource for digital communications. This has opened up markets and increased our reach and brand presence substantially.

• We regularly post thought leadership pieces, event invitations and event photos, webinar recordings and the like on our social media channels.

• We also make use of paid social media advertising to increase our reach beyond our followers.

• Social media has been a game changer in terms of growing our brand and increasing awareness of our purpose and objectives.

HOW ARE YOU INTEGRATING THE DRIVE FOR SUSTAINABILITY INTO YOUR ORGANISATION?

• We adopt Integrated Reporting and integrated thinking in our reporting and decision-making, which means we consider the effects of what we do as a business on all 6 Capitals (Financial Capital, Human Capital, Social and Relationship Capital, Manufactured Capital, Natural Capital and Intellectual Capital), not just Financial Capital as was historically the case with business.

• This results in us being critically attuned to the impacts of what we do now, on our future survival and success.

WHAT SKILLS DO YOU THINK LEADERS OF THE FUTURE ARE GOING TO NEED?

• Courage to make difficult decisions

• Ability to read people and situations

• Critical analysis and synthesis of information overload

• Strategic and visionary thinking

• Constructive challenge and conflict resolution

• Effective communication

• Commitment to personal and professional growth