The importance of mentorship programmes for women, especially in insurance and finance, cannot be overstated and they’ve helped countless women advance in these dynamic and exciting industries. In the run-up to our prestigious Round Table for C-Suite Women in Insurance and Finance in September, we look at the role of mentorship in shaping women leaders.
Despite the progress women have made over the last few decades in every sector of society there are still barriers to their professional advancement. Those that aspire to leadership positions may encounter the quadruple obstacles of a lack of role models, having to challenge gender stereotypes, the problems of maintaining a work/life balance and the absence of cohesive D&I initiatives.
A report about gender balance from the FTSE, published in February 2024, reveals that despite women making up over one-third of all leadership roles in FTSE 350 companies, there’s still a long way to go before the 40% Women in Leadership target is reached before its 2025 deadline. However, the fact that the UK is now in second place (behind France) is credited to a voluntary approach, organisations leading the way, and support from the Government.
Many of those women who have reached the heights of the C-Suite have had to fight hard to get there, sometimes with little or no assistance from peers or more senior colleagues. Others have had a relatively smoother path thanks to mentorship – the act of guidance, personal and professional development, goal-setting, challenge-navigation, and inspiration.
These benefits are gained by a combination of factors such as targeted guidance and advice, offering a safe and non-judgmental space to learn and reflect, presenting clear and defined career path options and goals, understanding the pitfalls and obstacles, achieving empowerment, providing inspiration and motivation, and boosting confidence.
For organisations mentoring programs can also improve employee engagement and increase recruitment and retention rates, as well as boosting the bottom line.
Even though mentoring programs have been proven to be highly effective, particularly for women, and especially for women of colour, those with disabilities or those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, 45% of organisations offer no such schemes, despite it being a key driver of talent attraction strategies.
Research has shown that 94% of women believe that mentoring will help them advance their career, particularly at the start of their career, or when moving to a new role, new profession or taking on extra responsibilities in their existing career, or when returning to work after a career break.
Women rate mentoring as one of the most important career development strategies, with 94% putting it in first place, followed by leadership training (90%), networking events (75%) and fast track career progression (67%), demonstrating its value.
Mentoring programmes may include many different objectives but primarily they concentrate on performance management, supporting people through periods of change (either professionally or personally), learning and development, (whether that’s self-directed or more formal), and being able to share resources.
It’s vital that organisations that currently place less importance on structured mentoring programs up their game and leverage the data they currently hold to understand how they can meet their business objectives. This could be in terms of D&I initiatives, or recruitment and retention.
When designing mentoring programmes, or even reviewing current practices, planning for onboarding initiatives, where new recruits are connected to a mentor at the beginning of their career, can pay particular dividends, offering mentees the encouragement and empowerment they need from the very start of their career.
Mentoring can be transformative for women in insurance and finance, offering them the opportunity to have visible, high-profile role models, and demonstrating that they can progress their careers in the direction they desire. Women mentoring women also have a deep and meaningful impact on the mentees, allowing them to believe that gender barriers can be broken down and that true equality can be achieved.
We’ll be discussing these issues and many more in our exclusive September round table event which will bring together C-suite women to discover what more needs to be done to help women progress in their careers and empower rising talent.