The lack of women leading Kent's firms needs to be addressed

Only 10.2% of women in the County’s workforce occupy senior manager or director roles

IN DEPTH

The lack of women leading businesses in Kent & Medway is a cause for concern. More must be done to resolve this.

As 2023 moves into its final weeks, CEOs and political leaders will be reflecting on this year, and finalising their plans and ambitions for next year. One of the key scripts for this year and past fortnight has been the question: how do we fill our local economy’s skills and worker shortages?

At a national level, politicians are tightening immigration rules to lower net-migration numbers, placing further pressure on businesses trying to replace staff and grow their operations. Locally, businesses continue to struggle to plug gaps. In the most recent Quarterly Economic Survey of Kent businesses by the Chamber of Commerce, it was revealed that over half (51%) of Kent’s businesses have tried to hire in the last three months but, of these, 71% found it difficult to recruit.

One business owner in Kent even said: “It has been very difficult to recruit good managerial staff in the past 3 months, with several having more than one job offer due to shortages in the market. This has resulted in higher salaries and increased holiday needing to be offered, and this is hard to recover where prices are set on longer-term contracts.”

HM Treasury believes that one way to resolve this is to bring more women into the workplace and increase female workforce participation. Earlier this year, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced a number of new policies to tackle barriers to work at the Spring Statement by revealing that working families will have access to 30 hours of free childcare per week for children aged between 9 months and 4 years. The announcement followed warnings from economists and business groups that rocketing childcare costs are among the reasons why thousands of people have quit the jobs market.

However, more needs to be done to address challenges in the workplace which are equally hampering female participation. Analysis by the jobs website Adzuna shows that less than 3% out of job adverts online mention support for women but more carry mentions of gym passes in their rewards sections. The Financial Times further reports that despite efforts to improve reporting of gender pay, the gap remains largely unchanged at 12%. To get more women in the workplace, greater strides need to be made to enable women to thrive at work.

One area of particular concern is female representation at a senior managerial and directorship level which is often regarded as the engine room for future CEOs. The Post’s own analysis of recent Census 2021 data shows that only 10.2% of women in Kent and Medway’s female workforce occupy senior management or director roles. This is 53% less than the percentage of men (15.6%) in similar job positions, despite Kent and Medway’s workforce being split 55:45 male to female. Without more female leaders at a decision maker level, it hampers the overall participation of women in our workforce.

In recent years, a number of new initiatives have emerged to get more women into business and leadership positions. This includes the Women in Business Awards which celebrates women in the workplace across the county and Her Biz women’s start-up programme launched by Kent & Medway Growth Hub. These initiatives highlight the numerous benefits of employing more women at a senior level. Yet, overall progress at the c-suite level across our larger corporates has been staggeringly low.

Image from a recent Kent Business Awards

At the top level, in 2022, 9% of FTSE 100 companies had a female CEO, compared with 4.8% among FTSE 250 companies. In Kent, this figure is even worse. Among Kent’s top stock exchange listed firms, no companies have a female CEO. This isn’t to say those individuals leading these firms are not the right people for the job - indeed, Gusbourne PLC has a female CFO in Katharine Berry. However, it is concerning and symptomatic of wider barriers to diversity at the top lovel that none of the Chief Executive roles in Kent’s listed firm have a female CEO.

While female representation is better within private firms at a decision-making level - Sevenoaks infrastructure contractor FM Conway recently appointed Joanne Conway as their latest CEO - the lack of female representation at the top of Kent’s PLCs should not be ignored. If this is not addressed, it makes it all but impossible for a greater number of women to ascend to Chief Executive roles. Creating a path to Chief Executive level for more women is vital to ensuring that a stronger pipeline of women in senior manager to director level positions come through the ranks. Failure to do so will hamper efforts to improving gender balance across Kent & Medway’s work force for decades to come.

To create real change and get more women into senior roles in the private sector, there needs to be a rethink of how we all support and recruit staff. Too many firms have gender biases in their recruiting still, and not enough are interviewing female leaders for top roles. Elsewhere, there are too few opportunities for women to grow and develop in the workplace while respecting work:life balances.

It is clear that more needs to be done to bring women into senior positions and decision-maker roles. By doing this and creating a strong pipeline of talent, more women will be ready to step-up and lead listed firms in Kent when the time arrives. It will benefit our county’s economy as a whole and enrich our business ecosystem significantly. It is time we tackled an issue that is so blindingly clear.

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BUSINESS NEWS IN BRIEF

🥗 Fresh produce firm A Gomez in Canterbury has announced to staff that it has ceased trading and is making 400 workers redundant. The sudden closure has taken many by surprise and the timing before Christmas has been criticised by staff. The management blamed ongoing financial challenges and have appointed administrators.

🥂 Tenterden’s Chapel Down has listed on the London’s AIM stock exchange. The company entered the growth market with a market valuation of £87 million. CEO Andrew Carter said the move to the London Stock Exchange's market was one that "reflects the maturity of the business and the ambitious growth plan we are committed to delivering in the years ahead".

⚡️ Swale Heating Ltd (SHL) has been sold to Sureserve Compliance Services Ltd. Sureserve Group is owned by private equity group Cap10. Dartford-headquartered Sureserve Group offers asset and energy support services across the UK, operating out of 31 offices and employing more than 2,800 employees.

🕺 Plans for a new night club in Ashford Town Centre have been submitted by DJB Nightclub Ltd. The firm plans to takeover a space under the Travel Lodge in the town centre.

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