PageGroup, the specialist recruitment company, has reported overall improved retention rates, increased numbers of female employees holding management positions, and maternity return rates up 17% in its UK operations since the introduction of its global gender diversity initiative, Women@Page, in 2012.
In addition to the internal shifts in culture, PageGroup is continuously being recognised by influential bodies for its pioneering initiatives to improve diversity and inclusion in the workplace. In particular, it has achieved the following industry accolades in the past 12 months:
- Won the Global Diversity Award from Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion
- Highly commended for Working Families Award from Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion
- Commendation from Top Employers for Working Families in the Best for All Stages of Motherhood category
- Silver benchmark from Opportunity Now by Business in the Community
- Bronze benchmark from Race For Opportunity by Business in the Community
- Shortlisted by the CIPD People Management Awards for Best Diversity Initiative
- Signatory to the 30% Club Voluntary Code of Conduct for Executive Search Firms
Steve Ingham, chief executive officer at PageGroup, said Women@Page has been a success for both its people and the company.
“Our goal for establishing this initiative was to create a more inclusive working environment and to improve gender balance at all levels in our organisation. I fully believe in Women@Page. It enables a core part of our strategy, continuing to increase our home-grown management pool, keeping talented people we otherwise would have lost, and improves our employee retention rate.
Women@Page has only been in place for two years; however it’s great to see that our internal stats are shifting in the right direction. In the UK for example, our staff turnover has decreased by 6.4% from 2012 to 2013.
Female employees holding management positions are also up 4% and more new mothers than ever before are returning to continue their careers with us, on flexible working arrangements,” Mr Ingham said.
Early stages of Women@Page saw the introduction of a Global Mentoring Programme and a global internal website to underpin progress.
Progressive steps since this include PageGroup’s first ever global employee engagement and diversity survey, which was used to better inform senior management of the actual and perceived barriers women and mothers face within the organisation. The findings from this study have helped shape policy making and practice.
A Pre/post Maternity Coaching programme was introduced to improve the retention of women returning from maternity leave. A worldwide maternity, paternity and adoption policy review and has introduced ‘Keep in Touch’ days with extended maternity leave in many countries.
In addition, earlier this year, each operational employee in the UK who had been with the company for more than three months was given a smart phone to help them with flexible working arrangements.
“This is just the beginning for PageGroup. We are also increasing our diversity, inclusion and equality activities. Our success with Women@Page, which is in all 35 countries in which we operate, is our model for OpenPage, which was launched in 2014.”
“OpenPage spans five more diversity, inclusion and equality characteristics: age, disability, sexual orientation, families and carers, and race. We have great expectations of OpenPage to both benefit our people and our commercial capabilities,” Mr Ingham added.