Amidst the war for talent, organisations are struggling to attract and retain talent, with many finding it difficult to map better career paths for women returning from maternity leave. For the Head of International at WTW, Pamela Thomson-Hall, “It has always been important to talk about subjects from a gender perspective so as to take purposeful steps towards improving the deficits.”

With the intent to inspire people, she has made some courageous moves in her two decade-long career at WTW, where she has not only put women but also men into roles that were different from what people thought was the normal move. 

For Thomson-Hall, leadership begins with providing the space where people can thrive and flourish. That’s why she is the biggest believer in the benefits of servant leadership, where you support your team as they map out their own destiny and enable them to achieve their purpose through listening, empathy and transparency when it comes to appointments and promotions. 

In an exclusive chat with us, Thomson-Hall talks about the challenges of being one of the first few women in the insurance sector and how she built herself along with the business. She shares her views on the needs for initiatives to give that extra push to underrepresented talent, the importance of benchmarking for pay parity, mentorship and coaching, and their value for women returning to work post-maternity, and the need for financial literacy early on in life.

Excerpts from the interview:

At a time when men were the dominant force in the insurance sector, as one of the first few women, how has the journey been? What were some of the initial struggles you had to face and how has the industry changed in recent times?

I began my professional journey at a law firm 26 years ago but since there was little chance of progress to partnership there as a woman, I left the industry and came to the insurance sector. At that time, there were very few female role models in leadership. I could actually count them on one hand! But my predecessor gave me hope and that has been my biggest takeaway in my career — the importance of role modelling. Having visible women in leadership at the top is critical as we build an inclusive future of work. From tackling bigger problems to breaking stereotypes, my journey was a series of hurdles turned into opportunities and here’s why:

From being invisible to standing out: In the early years at WTW, as the company grew, women from different countries were recruited and when I looked at the leaders, one in particular from Argentina, she was a very feminine, colourful and glamorous woman - so different from the women I saw in London. Women there were trying to look like men, dressing up in a way that made them physically invisible. 

I could better relate to women in other countries that were brought into leadership more than I could relate to my peers. These women who looked different gave me courage and hope that the industry would change. 

Breaking free of the Gentlemen's Club: The insurance sector was very much like a Boy’s Club or a Sports Club or a Gentleman’s Club when I joined, where women weren’t invited to drinks after work, and in some bars in London, women weren’t even allowed. There were some peculiar and gender-biased rules but slowly they started to fall away. 

Supercharging from within: Practical activities started to happen to move the dial and hence, many set up Diversity Councils to purposefully address the gaps following on from other industries, which led the way. I was on the founding board of the Willis Global Diversity Council set up in 2002, and while we knew there was work to be done, we didn’t necessarily find a successful way in those early days.However it did highlight then, how the insurance sector was lagging behind other professional and financial service sectors. 

With technological advancements, we actively started managing data to understand what we, as an organisation, were doing through our recruitment, hiring and promotional process. And when our company doubled in size in 2016, we established our Global Inclusion & Diversity committee to delve deeper into the issue of being inclusive and bringing forth all underrepresented talent. 

Changing the business with ‘why’: We embedded inclusivity in our design of policies and procedures, making it a part of the fabric of how we hired, retained, promoted, attracted and talked about talent. It wasn’t just an add-on as we wanted it to be led by the business, for the business and not by HR. For the business to lead it and embed it within their everyday, we realised explaining the “why” was imperative. We understood that having diversity of thought at the leadership table results in better decisions, which has been repeatedly proven through empirical data. From a gender perspective, it gives you a 15 per cent better return on your investment and from a multicultural perspective, it improves decision making by 33 per cent. 

Back in the day, the "why"’ was missing. No one really understood it and even today it is still not spoken about often. But the ‘why’ was a game changer for our organisation when we could explain to people that inclusivity and diversity is not about being nice but creating that equaliser for underrepresented talent of all nature including gender to drive better business decisions and innovation. This mindset shift has led to a visible diversity dividend and in respect of gender, more women into leadership roles. 

Bold moves for visibility and voice: My first business leadership role was leading the Central Eastern Europe, Middle-East and African region. 10 years ago, it was hard to imagine a woman in a leadership role running industries in the Middle-East, Africa, Central Eastern Europe including Russia and Ukraine which are still male-dominated patriarchal societies today. But the organisation made some bold moves, putting me and a few other women in clear leadership roles. In some select business areas, if there was a balance between a man and a woman and both could do the job, the woman got the chance because we wanted to give them the visibility and voice, which was critical. 

Tipping point: When it comes to diversity, most industries and governments around the world are now required to have women on the boards. Indeed, investors are looking for it. We have reached a tipping point, which many have not. Now, if a board comprises two or three members, where one is a woman, it’s likely to lead to better decisions, but on a board with 10 members, a woman on her own wouldn’t make a difference. So, we, as an industry, needed to get to that tipping point of over 30 per cent where the tone in the room starts to change and the discussions are different and more broader. In the end, this all needs active management of board composition.

Why do we still see single digit percentage of women in management roles or even as Fortune 500 CEOs? What are the ways in which we can tackle this crisis as we move ahead?

The tipping point is just the beginning, and it really needs to trickle down to the bottomline. Once you reach the tipping point in the leadership team, there is still work that needs to be done underneath. In the insurance industry, from a gender perspective, you come across more parity at the entry-level but that trickles away as time goes by for various reasons, including unclear career paths and business being discussed outside of the work space, which results in women missing out on the real bonding and critical trust building. While we see efforts being made at the top, it’s not the same in the middle. Hence, it is essential for people managers to be aware of the need to be inclusive. 

Flexible work: After Covid-19, flexible and agile work was fast-tracked, which is both a blessing and a hindrance. While we can now work from any part of the world, we still haven’t honed the skills to design inclusive people management activities for those not visible in the office. And that’s probably the next evolution for the industry; to make sure that we get to a position where caregivers and people with other commitments are able to take advantage of the flexible work environment, while also being present at the workplace where opportunities are arising for them to be visible. 

The extra push: At WTW, we launched the Next Three project where we partnered with women in senior leadership to give female employees who just joined the company the visibility and opportunities to learn from the senior female leaders and work with them on projects. What it did was raise the profile of these high-performing women, with a number of them getting promotions, and those who were thinking of leaving, stayed because of our commitment to ensure they were seen and valued. 

Double deficit: These tactics are equally applicable to all underrepresented talent pools and the bigger challenges exist where we have intersectionality. For instance, if you belong to an underrepresented nationality, race or religion, and you are a woman, then you have risk, a double deficit in the ability to progress. And the challenge of intersectionality is prevalent among men too. But the good news is that we are talking about it and taking purposeful actions to bring balance to the workforce. We can not forget to keep at it and keep it fresh to ensure that people aren’t fatigued by the necessary initiatives. 

With access to a global talent pool now, why are companies, DEI and HR leaders still struggling to actively hire underrepresented talent? 

In any industry today, we are all vying for the same talent: good people who can make a difference. But there just aren’t enough diverse people out there to satisfy the need. Although there is a genuine talent shortage with the war for talent on, the great thing is underrepresented talent isn’t in hiding anymore. The war for talent has been the catalyst to go broader and deeper in order to source the right talent. It is a good position for all individuals to be in.

But with the pipeline relatively sparse, we need to continuously be purposeful and nurture talent. It’s not enough to retain them with money but with career development opportunities, extraneous benefits, flexible work, training, personal skill development, and so on. These are critical components to creating a sustainable and enduring workforce.

Coming to gender pay parity, as the International Head at WTW, can you enlighten us as to what leaders can do to decrease the pay gap, and what are some of the key trends you have witnessed in the recent past?

I believe it is the responsibility of leaders to get it right and understand the drivers of any lack of parity. In the end, people rarely do the exact same jobs so it is important to bear this in mind when benchmarking. My advice is to start with the basic data and understand the circumstances that have led to any differences, map it out and eventually equalise. 

Across the board, there should be pay parity. So, one should actively manage it without letting it drift or ignore it as it will only widen existing gaps. We need to put it on the table and have frank conversations with people about why it exists and what steps can be taken to address it. While bigger companies have it easier when it comes to evening up, in smaller companies, it is harder to address as they may simply not have the money. 

This is where mentoring, coaching and sponsorship comes in. Mentors can help an individual struggling to understand the pay situation and have a frank conversation. Sometimes you don’t get an instant answer because your people manager wasn’t on it and wasn’t purposefully looking at the data to find the gap. So, it is the leaders who have to actively manage it consistently. 

We have all come across the data on steep mid-career drop-offs for women. What are the ways in which women can lead from the front and create an infrastructure for new-moms, who are on maternity leave but are eager to contribute a certain amount of time to their jobs? How can we inculcate them into our workforce?

I, myself, have lived through this. But I don’t think it is the duty of the woman to manage it, it is the leaders and people managers who should manage it. The return to work should not fall on the shoulders of a woman. 

Legally, in some countries, contacting women on their maternity leave is not allowed so they can have the time with the newborn without work pressure. So, any desire to keep in contact with work during maternity leave should be driven by the woman and not the company. And the people managers have to assess if she is able to devote the time to work. 

In most cases, women are eager to keep in touch so they don’t feel excluded from the progression in the workplace. Hence, getting the same information as other colleagues becomes critically important so that when they are back, they are not back to a vacuum. In the UK, we have 'keeping in touch days', where you are legally allowed to be in touch and the woman is legally allowed to come into work without forfeiting her rights to maternity leave. It also inculcates a sense of belonging to the organisation. 

We are running some programs in India to encourage women who have been out of the workplace to return and it goes back to purposeful management of seeking out talent, irrespective of what they’ve done in between. I really like the idea as it values skills over duration, titles, and where people have worked and the industry they have worked for. If you have the skills, they are rarely rusty even if you have been out of work for months or a year. 

Finally, what is your advice for women on financial well-being since wealth is never really theirs to keep?

My advice to women is to educate themselves. As someone who belongs to a traditional patriarchal society in the UK, when I started working, my mother was very confused, and so were my husband’s parents, as to why I wanted to work and why I needed money when I have a husband. 

There are a number of reasons why women want to work, and for me, it was about my sanity, getting fulfilment, and having a sense of purpose. Being financially independent means that I can look after myself and my family. 

But growing up, I didn’t have financial literacy, but I saved my money and got some great benefits from my firm through my pension. I gained literacy in finances quite late in life. So I would say, start learning early and avail yourself of the amazing opportunities that organisations are showcasing to educate women on financial acumen to help them make informed decisions.