Women in Recruitment launches equality study

In order to try and understand and correct gender disparity in the recruitment profession, Women in Recruitment is launching a comprehensive examination of the sector and its approaches to female talent, allowing them to benchmark their strategies against the overall market.

The initiative, founded by the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) and supported by sector-wide stakeholders is reportedly the first of its kind to conduct such a study.

With recent APSCo research showing just 23% of firms offer flexible working and only 9% provide enhanced maternity benefits, the survey will enable firms to challenge and rethink long-standing assumptions, practices, re-align out-of-date strategies and identify opportunities for change.

Ann Swain, Director at Women in Recruitment, CEO of APSCo, said: "While research shows females account for 41% of the recruitment workforce at recruiter level, this falls to just 25% board level. However, despite this, just 31% of companies have initiatives in place to retain women."

He went on to say: "With this disparity, we hope our benchmarking survey can work as a catalyst for change. For firms working to improve equality, measuring progress is crucial and benchmarking your success against contemporaries can play a large role in driving change."

She ended: "I’m proud to announce the launch of this project, and hope that together we can build an accurate picture of what our workforces look like today, and track progress within our own organisations and across the entire sector."

Take part in the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/Women-in-Recruitment-Benchmarking-Project

(Image courtesy  Robin Higgins at Pixabay)