By Leigh Doyle
Women who follow the roadmap to the executive suite in the foodservice industry need to make their career aspirations known and demonstrate their leadership abilities. Mentorship by senior company leaders who have the clout in office politics is important, but so is addressing the unconscious biases that make career progression difficult for women.
When an organization places a higher priority on equality, the gender mix is generally the same in entry level, middle management and senior leadership positions. However, like the United States, women lag behind men in many leadership positions across Canada. Companies that make a point about fostering the development and advancement of women enjoy the profitability and innovation that diversity brings to their company. As restaurant operators and corporations compete globally for talent and market share, women are more essential to business success.
“While the tide is changing and more women are being elevated into leadership roles, there is still much work to do in order to reap the benefits of gender-balanced leadership teams,” says Hattie Hill, President and CEO of Women’s Foodservice Forum (WFF), one of the largest non-profit organizations in North America focused on advancing women and increasing gender representation in the executive ranks in the foodservice industry. For 25 years, WFF has been at the forefront of delivering content, developing competence and building the connections needed for women to advance.
The facts
Over the next 10 years, Canada’s foodservice industry will require over 200,000 additional employees. In Alberta, there is currently a shortage of more than 13,000 employees in the foodservice industry. Signs, such as an increase in the number of job vacancies, are emerging that the labour shortage crisis is spreading to the industry in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario, causing a gap in both the skilled and unskilled workforce.
The competition for talent is growing exponentially, and our industry has an opportunity to attract, develop and advance women leaders who now make up the majority of the available talent pool.
The benefits of gender-balanced leadership teams go well beyond the simple notion that supporting women is the right thing to do. Independent research by consulting companies such as Mercer, McKinsey, Catalyst, and others confirms that companies with women in senior leadership roles positively impact business results.
A study published in the American Sociological Review found that gender diversity accounted for a difference of $599.1 million US in average sales revenue; organizations with the lowest rates of gender diversity had average sales revenues of $45.2 million, compared with averages of $644.3 million for businesses with the most gender diversity.
The number of women in the labour force in Canada is consistently trending upward from 45.6 per cent in 1998 to 47.3 per cent in 2013, according to Statistics Canada’s Labour Force survey numbers released this year. However, women in “senior management” in Canada represent only 29.3 per cent, indicating only one-third of those in the workforce are promoted to senior leadership positions. The picture worsens for Canada’s 500 largest companies as ranked by the Financial Post. Only 18.1 per cent of women achieve corporate officer positions. In addition, only 14.5 per cent of corporate Canada board seats are represented by women.
Taking charge of careers
Women should focus on what they can do to take responsibility for their own career progression by designing and aggressively pursuing their career development plan. It starts with aspiring to reach their full potential and taking to heart the now famous advice from Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg to “lean in” and take a “seat at the table.”
“Based on a recent WFF study, women in the top spots establish career goals early on and follow personal developments plans,” said Hill. “The women also told us that they focused on developing leadership competencies such as strategic thinking, delivering results, developing business and financial acumen and building strategic connections to move their career forward. This research also uncovered some common derailers and barriers to advancement such as lacking of confidence and self-awareness and most importantly lacking business and financial acumen competence. ”
WFF, in partnership with HR consultants Batrus Hollweg International, researched and designed a competency model uniquely tailored to women in foodservice and is applicable at all career levels. This model, along with our web-based Leadership Competency Assessment (LCA), provides insight into individual strengths and opportunities to prioritize competency development.
“Many women who aspire to leadership positions utilize a competency model like WFF’s for their own professional development,” said Hill. “They continually assess their skills, pursue development opportunities to shore up gaps and leverage strengths, and most importantly, make it known to leaders in the company that they want to progress in their career.”
Building strategic connections is also critical for career advancement. However, strategic personal networks don’t just happen; they are carefully and intentionally constructed. Women generally have the career-development and job-search savvy they need, however many tend to lag behind their male counter¬parts when it comes to working their networks. Moreover, when it comes to networking, women and men tend to statistically network with members of their own gender. Because there are more men in top positions, male networks are often more powerful; this is a disadvantage for women. Whether women are looking to move up in their current organization or take on a new position at another company, they should consider broadening their professional network to include both women and men leaders.
For our industry to flourish and grow, we need competent leaders that bring different perspectives to the table – at every level.
More women can advance their careers by:
- creating a professional development plan that focuses on leadership competencies
- building strategic business connections for networking
- pursuing opportunities to gain stretch assignments, cross-functional experience and P&L competence, all critical to advancement.
- And finally, women should pay it forward by inspiring and supporting other women who are working to advance their career.
About the author
Leigh Doyle is the marketing and communications lead for Women’s Foodservice Forum. The WFF is the industry’s premier leadership development organization with more than 25 years of experience advancing women in the foodservice industry. WFF serves thousands of individuals and hundreds of employers in all segments of the industry including operations, manufacturing, distribution, publishing, consulting, and more. Through highly effective and educational events, professional development programs and networking opportunities, WFF provides the competence, content and strategic connections needed to make a positive difference in the careers of women in the foodservice industry. For more information, visit www.wff.org.
