Law firm HBJ Gateley and gender equality body Equate Scotland have joined forces to provide free legal advice to Scottish companies which want to attract and retain professional women.
The initiative, which launches on March 16 at the Teacher Building in Glasgow, is aimed at companies in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) industries, and will provide firms in those sectors with legal guidance on the issues involved in actively recruiting female staff and managing a more diverse workforce.
The new service from HBJ Gateley and Equate Scotland will provide employers with free access to expert guidance from the firm’s employment law team.
It’s hoped the partnership will help to address STEM industry skills shortages, by giving employers the knowledge and confidence to develop ‘best practice’ policies that will help them recruit and retain more female staff. More than 70 per cent of women with a STEM qualification no longer work in the sector, and in the engineering sector alone estimates suggest that 10 per cent of the workforce will need to be replaced by 2016.
Sarah Gilzean, an associate in the employment law team at HBJ Gateley, said employers often wanted to improve gender equality but were anxious about getting it wrong.
She said: “What we want is for employers who might be very positive on making their organisations more attractive to female employees to feel able to improve the gender balance in their organisations without being concerned that they might get something wrong.
“Many STEM industries, like construction and engineering, are male-dominated with established practices that are hard to break. However, we know there are lots of businesses which see the benefits of creating more flexible working environments to attract the best of talent regardless of gender.
“This service will give them the confidence to do that in line with their legal obligations, and ultimately we believe that, working with Equate Scotland, we can help Scottish companies become more competitive and increasingly successful.”
One of the main obstacles for women in STEM industries is the lack of flexible working practices, according to Equate Scotland.
Linda Somerville, project director for Equate Scotland based at Edinburgh Napier University, said being able to attract and retain talented female staff could help to address skills shortages and give companies a competitive edge.
She said: “Employers which can offer flexible working patterns – to all their staff, not just for women – will benefit from lower recruitment costs and better staff retention as well as the associated benefits including improved staff morale and increased productivity.
“There’s definitely a challenge in making sure enough women are studying and qualifying in STEM industries, but employers need to have the knowledge and confidence to successfully develop more inclusive workplaces.
“Scotland’s SMEs often don’t have the internal resources to manage this process themselves, so by establishing this partnership with HBJ Gateley we intend to make it easier for them to take advantage of a more diversified workforce.”
Case study – McEvoy Engineering
Steel fabrication business McEvoy Engineering is enjoying a period of growth, but like most SMEs, that presents a resource challenge in finding the right people to meet customer demand.
Alison McEvoy, business development manager for the family firm based in Stevenston, Ayrshire, said being able to access legal advice on creating flexible work patterns would remove a burden and allow it to focus on sustaining growth.
She said: “We’re interested in finding the right people, regardless of gender, and we understand that flexible working is a really important way of doing that. We need help in establishing flexible working policies, though, so being able to access someone who can give us proper advice would be invaluable.
“The guys in our workshop already take paternity leave and ask for time off for childcare reasons, so the world is changing. We’d like to be in a position where we’re comfortable-enough with our legal obligations that we can accommodate any requests properly, whether that’s from female or male staff.”
Alison also said bringing in more women could help them to find skilled people at a time of significant shortage for the industry.
“Having the ability to access another group of people in the workforce would be a great benefit for us,” she said. “Skilled tradespeople are in very short supply at the moment and what you have is an ageing pool of staff without very many new people coming in to replace them.”
A balanced workforce could also be a differentiator in bidding for major contracts, she added.
“Some of our clients are very large firms, and part of their procurement requirements can be that you demonstrate your gender equality policies,” said Alison. “Without that, you’re not even at the races.
“Clearly that’s something we already have in place, but access to legal advice would make that process faster and much easier for anyone who hasn’t gone through it before. There are genuine commercial advantages to being committed to an equal workforce, so any assistance in achieving that can only be a good thing.”
