Company taking efforts to initiate more women into leadership positions

 Amongst the companies that are successfully launching initiatives to advance more women in leadership, is LeasePlan, that hires consultants and offers counseling and to promote female employees.

In 2003, Mike Pitcher, shortly after joining the company, realized that most of the representatives of the vehicle-leasing company's top customers were women. And even with more female employees than male, most managers at the high level were men.

So in order to transform the trend, the company took various measures including career counselling for women, revising the pay plan so it would benefit more women. The clinical professor of management at New York University's Stern School of Business, Sheila Wellington believes that the top executives need to make most efforts in order to introduce more women into senior positions. She adds, “ need to make it very clear that this isn't the flavor of the month.”

Even though most executives at fleet-management firms are still men, Leaseplan is working towards bringing a drastic change. In 2006, they hired an Atlanta human-resources consultancy that focuses on women, called, Pathbuilders Inc. The consultancy introduced a programme that looked over skills assessment, career guidance, and communication, helping 30 women yearly. They organize networking events that help women from different firms interact with each other.

Spark Initiative>

Maria Goldsholl, chief operating officer of Mom Corps (a staffing company specializing in flexible employment for women.) feels that companies need to broaden the spectrum in order to bring an effective and permanent change. She says, “I deal with companies every day who say that they want to promote women ... but they don't make sure that there is a change in the culture.”

Just a few years after the programme was introduced, six of the company's top 14 managers were reported to be women. The efforts have also been successful in boosting job satisfaction amongst the female employees.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal

http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB122446435886248933