The gender imbalance is pronounced, but maybe that’s a good thing
Walk into any HR department or conference and you’ll likely encounter a sea of women — a perception backed up by Statistics Canada data that shows 72 per cent of those employed in HR are female. Is this a concern? Yes, according to one-half of respondents to a Pulse Survey of 1,354 HR professionals conducted in September by Canadian HR Reporter and the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA). And just as many — 51 per cent — feel the HR profession should actively recruit more men.
“Because the workforce is not skewed one way or another, there’s a mix and it’s appropriate to have more male representation,” says Deborah Scott, Mississauga, Ont.-based director of HR at Panasonic Canada.
But it’s difficult to deal with this issue when the whys and wherefores are not really clear, such as how this disparity came to be and why exactly it is a matter that needs to be addressed.
“It hasn’t been discussed all that much. It’s a funny topic because there’s no doubt it’s there but nobody wants to deal with it,” says Claude Balthazard, director of HR excellence at HRPA. “You know there’s a relationship but you don’t know which is the cause or which is the effect.”
While there has been plenty of discussion around HR’s move to be more strategic, people still say they went into the profession because they “like people,” he says. And women also dominate other “caring” professions, such as teaching, social work and medicine.
“So how do you explain the connection of women and caring professions? It’s somewhat easy to stereotype but is there something going on?” he says. “(With) the move to strategic — which could also be said as business credibility — is the amount of women in HR holding HR back?”
One issue to consider is whether the ratio of women to men factors into HR being seen as a caring profession when many people say it should be a harder business profession, he said.
In discussing gender imbalance, stereotypes inevitably arise — women are typecast as more sensitive and better with people while men are painted as hard-nosed and better with numbers. There may not be innate differences but men and women are streamed differently from early on, says Scott.
“I certainly experienced that. As a man, you don’t show feelings, don’t cry, keep all those inside and, as a woman, you’re more open with your feelings,” she says. “So when you get into the workforce, the same thing carries through and that’s the expectation from senior-level men.”
Employee relations may attract more women because of their “softer side” while many men gravitate to compensation or industrial relations because it’s “perceived as tough, negotiating, working with unions, more manly, for lack of a better word,” says Scott.
But having worked with two senior men in HR, one who had both a business side and a compassionate side, the other who was not touchy-feely, she says gender doesn’t always make a difference.
“In today’s world, everybody has to have that business savvy acumen paired with the compassion and ability to be empathetic with employees because it does come into play almost on a daily basis,” says Scott.
While companies are coming around to better appreciate HR’s function, there is definitely a perception HR is “almost like a woman’s thing, it’s a soft skill, and you don’t need a lot of business experience, which is not true,” says Fran Fisher, vice-president of HR at Meikle Automation in Kitchener, Ont. “Quite often there are no quick resolutions to HR problems. It’s about working with people, coaching people, working with supervisors. It’s perceived as being sort of a female job. But a lot of other things go on in HR besides that. Maybe there’s not enough value placed on emotional intelligence either.”
Men dominate senior ranks
Many indicate the bigger issue is the prevalence of men in senior HR roles, reversing the imbalance seen in lower levels. Often men are brought in from another department, says Fisher, suggesting there’s an attitude men are needed so HR will be treated seriously as a business.
“Do we have to bring someone in and does it have to be a male? And why are we not providing training programs at the lower levels to groom these women for these senior positions? My guess is there are lots of capable women out there who could fill that role but, for whatever reason, the company or board decide it has to be a male,” she says.
That kind of lateral move is something Scott has seen, as men are given HR responsibility to round out their position. But there are also many women who hold senior HR positions, she says, which could be one of the reasons so many are attracted to the profession.
“You don’t see representation of females at senior levels in positions other than HR, in most organizations,” she says.
Frank O’Brien, a Kitchener, Ont.-based health and safety co-ordinator at Flowserve, a manufacturing company, says he has seen mostly women in senior roles. And while men can make more sense when it comes to certain industries, such as having a better understanding of steel production, “sometimes men are more comfortable talking to a woman about certain things, they don’t feel as embarrassed or lessened if they were to explain it to another man — it depends on the situation,” he says.
Hard-pressed to see many other men in attendance at industry functions or in his HR classes, O’Brien is not sure it’s really a problem but does think HR associations could do more to recruit men.
“I’d like to see more opportunities for men,” he says.
What HR associations can do
If HR advocates diversity in the workforce, it should also look within, says Helen Luketic, a research associate at the British Columbia Human Resources Management Association. That could mean examining whether men are excluded by looking at the competencies, not just for men but everyone, to see if there are any obstacles.
“If there aren’t barriers, is it really such a big deal that there are more women?” she says. “It’s not something we’ve looked at because we’re not sure why (there’s the imbalance). It’s hard to do anything about it without knowing if there are any issues or if there are any barriers. So we haven’t had any programs to attract (more men).”
The industry could probably do more by raising the profile of HR in general, says Fisher, and further educating companies about the value of HR.
“What I’d like to see HR associations focus on is giving the work more credibility,” she says.
As awareness builds around the kind of education needed for HR, more men will probably enter the profession, says Scott.
“If the role is presented as more strategic and there is a real business acumen required to be in an HR role — because you do contribute to overall business strategy — if that’s pushed a bit more, perhaps it may draw more male attention.”
On the other hand, there could be a downside. Considering how many professions are dominated by men, is a female stronghold such a bad thing?
“In some ways it’s good to see more men entering the field, but women still find that we’re really not given the same opportunities that men are, so there could be some ill feeling,” says Scott. “Yeah, I could see some feelings like that — ‘Be careful what you wish for.’”
