The man dividend from Genesis' gender equality drive

Wednesday, 15 August 2018

Nic Richardson from Genesis says the men of Genesis have embraced change, and are benefiting from it.

Call it the man dividend from gender equality in the workplace.

The drive by Genesis to close its own gender pay gap, and to give women a fairer crack at landing senior leadership positions, has had knock-on effects for the men in the power company.

'I've got to be honest and say we went after it for females primarily, and then we were blown away by the value we could give to males from this whole programme,' said Genesis' Nic Richardson, executive general manager for people and culture.

More flexible working, options to cash up annual leave to spend more time with the family, and self-development courses are all things the men of Genesis are embracing after they were introduced to make the power company a more woman-friendly employer.

**READ MORE:

* Driving gender and pay diversity

* Government won't use 'positive' sex discrimination law to hire more women**

And ironically, a deep-dive study on the gender pay gaps in the company actually identified some men whose salaries needed bumping up because they were being underpaid.

WOMEN IN POWER

When we think about parental leave, we tend to think in terms of a mother taking time off work.

'In 2015 we started to realise the industry was going to look very different moving ahead. That's when we realised we had to start chasing different perspectives, different thought patterns, different experiences.'

'We were in a male-dominated industry,' she said.

That really didn't reflect Genesis' retail customer base where it was mostly women who paid the power bill, and made the decisions around energy supplier.

She recalls a senior leadership meeting four years ago.

'The females in the room were incredibly sparse,' she said.

'We immediately started to shortlist women into the senior leadership positions that were coming up,' she said.

'Now a very nice north of 40 per cent of our senior leaders are female.'

Four years ago the business boasted less than half the number of women in senior leadership roles.

There was never a quota for women in leadership, however.

'The decision lands wherever the decision lands, but we get women into the pipeline.'

'We have never targeted 'thou shalt have this many females in positions'.'

GENDER PAY GAP

Three years ago Richardson kicked off research to look at women's pay compared to men's across Genesis.

Corporates set pay ranges around jobs, after scoping out their size and complexity.

'We had a look at the females who were really low on those ranges who were really high performing and we gave them a bit of a top-up.'

The pay gaps were as much as 14 per cent for some people.

In some places, like the contact centre, women earned more than men.

'I was on the list,' Richardson admitted.

Her role at Genesis was the first she landed after splitting with her long-time partner.

'When I reflect back, every job I had, every career move, he was in my corner. He coached me around the negotiation process.'

Research suggests women generally do negotiate more poorly for starting salaries.

'I essentially low-balled myself,' Richardson said.

'I got asked what I was expecting. I also got asked what I was already earning.'

Genesis Chairman Dame Jenny Shipley was one of the founders of Global Women.

Women needed to know they should not disclose what they were currently earning because they risked importing their current company's pay gap into their new employer.

'In America, they outlawed employers asking for previous pay information,' she said.

She'd like to see New Zealand follow suit. Genesis already has.

'My team do not ask for previous pay information. We just ask what do you expect.'

JUGGLING LIFE

As a result of a drive to get more women to return after having children, Genesis has relaunched its parental leave scheme, and now offers more flexible leave and working options.

And men are among those to benefit.

'10 per cent of the organisation has bought more annual leave through salary sacrifice, which tells you it's a highly valuable benefit for our mums and dads who are juggling a lot in their lives.'

The law allows for 52 weeks of paternity leave. Genesis will pay full salary for 12 weeks to those who opt to take the leave.

Women 'own' the power bill in Kiwi homes, but the industry remains quite male-dominated.

'Now you get these wonderful emails from blokes working in the power plants for 20 years saying 'I've seen the births of my three children but never had the benefits you are offering now. It always seemed wrong. I didn't say so at the time. I'm pleased you are doing something about it now'.'

It's not only men in the company enjoying a dividend from that. Most families need two decent incomes to thrive.

'A mortgage requires two incomes,' Richardson said.

SELF-TALK

'We've got a huge uptake in the programmes that we offer to our females all around self-talk and building confidence.'

The programmes are provided by the Global Women organisation, of which Genesis is a supporter, and are aimed at helping women understand their 'inner talk'.

'We ruminate more,' said Richardson. 'It's a programme to understand what we are talking to ourselves about. And it's usually not good stuff for females.'

Now the courses are being offered to men in all-male groups.

'Males are more likely to speak up, if it's all blokes.'

GOOD BUSINESS

Is Genesis performing better as a result of the culture change?

'Can I see on trend that my employee turnover is going down? Yes. Can I see that on trend my employee engagement is going up? Yes.'

'We are overall performing better as a business,' Richardson said, but it would be to draw a long bow to claim proveable links to HR decisions on gender diversity.