American Business Women's Day 2021 - Citigroup

Financial Services
Apr 28 2022

American Business Women's Day is an annual celebration of women in business with an aim to "to bring together businesswomen of diverse occupations and to provide opportunities for them to help themselves and others grow personally and professionally through leadership; education, networking support and national recognition".

September 22 marks the date of the American Business Women's Association, this holiday was recognized in 1983 and 1986 by to commemorate the important legacy and contributions of the 70million+ American working women and female business owners.

For Hamlyn Williams this day marks an important occasion for gender and diversity, we want to celebrate businesses and businesswomen who are making strides to push this agenda and to celebrate the accomplishments of women within the American and global marketplace.

Read the Citigroup feature here.

Introducing these features is Hamlyn Williams' Head of Financial Services and Client Engagement, Gareth Carpenter:

"In Hamlyn Williams’ recently published Diversity & Inclusion report I observed that, due to the dramatic social progress made in the past few years (such as #metoo and Black Lives Matter), clients are not only accountable to the heightened standards of the moment but also those that will continue to be applied in the future. As recruitment partners, we are expected to live and breathe these values. I believe that part of upholding this commitment is a responsibility to provide a platform for leaders to have conversations about diversity, inclusion and representation wherever possible. That is why I am delighted to present our second annual thought leadership piece as part of American Business Women’s Day with contributions from, and in partnership with, our client Citigroup.

Hamlyn Williams’ saw a 50% increase in female placements into permanent roles within Financial Services organizations in 2020, and 56% of our placements in 2020 were considered diverse when looking at both gender and ethnicity. Despite this, in the historically male-dominated senior end of the markets we work, so far in 2021 roughly 1 in 3 of our placements is female. This shows there is still some way to go in advocating for women in business. And this is why firms across the board are pursuing innovative programs to increase representation and bolster diversity.

Hamlyn Williams is increasingly being asked to help our clients drive these initiatives, which have moved beyond simply delivering diverse shortlists of candidates or measuring applicant equal opportunity data. For example, clients are increasingly seeking our support in driving diverse submissions in microcosms within their organization where they haven’t seen broad representation in applications through traditional (usually passive) recruitment channels, such as advertising. Micro-niching focus on specific functions and even specific levels within functions allows us to map diverse and female candidate pools on behalf of our clients. In addition, focused networking via alumni and business groups allows us to make connections that are more sustainable, less transactional, for the longer-term benefit of our clients’ brands.

All of this, in conjunction with traditional search techniques, not only has the effect of improving representation but actually improves the quality of talent across all demographics. It is a recruitment truism that a thorough search targeting both passive and active talent generally increases the quality of all applicants – not simply diverse or female talent. A rising tide does indeed lift all boats.

Hamlyn Williams is pleased to have been involved in numerous projects driving female representation in partnership with a range of clients globally over the past year. We have increased scrutiny not only of our hiring practices on behalf of our clients, but also on behalf of ourselves, identifying areas of our own business where female leadership should be nurtured and developed."