As the number of women joining broking grows, ANZ is looking to boost women's confidence by empowering them to voice their opinions
As the number of women joining broking grows, ANZ is looking to boost women's confidence by empowering them to voice their opinions
More women are joining Australia’s mortgage broking sector every year, accounting for over a quarter of all brokers. But Simone Tilley, general manager of ANZ’s residential broker division, believes higher female numbers form only one aspect of workplace diversity.
Tilley is part of a growing movement to amplify the voices of women in the industry and encourage them to recognise their leadership positions. To that end, ANZ will launch a program called ‘Doyenne of Women in Broking’ by May or June of this year to build women’s confidence in contributing as experts in their fields and increase their visibility.
The program’s name comes from the French word ‘doyenne’, which refers to the most prominent and respected woman in a profession. Tilley says ANZ is looking for people willing to participate and will start with a small group at first.
“It’s really about an executive leadership program that builds skills and confidence around contributing to internal and external forums, including social media, events and traditional media,” Tilley tells MPA.
Tilley’s advocacy is driven in part by her personal experiences in forums and other events where she says she has witnessed poor representation of women.
According to figures from the MFAA, women accounted for 27% of all brokers across Australia at the end of March last year. More continue to join the sector, but growth seems to have slowed. Just 28% of brokers recruited from October 2016 to March 2017 were women, marking a 4% drop since the last edition of the report.
“Consistent with demographic forces at work in the overarching Australian population, the role of women in the finance broking industry seems not only assured but also a vital ingredient for its longer-term prosperity and the value of the industry’s proposition to customers in response to generational shifts,” the MFAA said in its report.
ANZ is already keeping up with this trend. Tilley says women account for over half of its leadership teams across its national home loans division. Likewise, the majority of new members in its head office are women.
“Connecting with empathy is something that a lot of women do particularly well, and I think they’re really adaptive in a changing landscape” - Simone Tilley, ANZ
“To drive a high-performance leadership team culture, I can’t emphasise enough the importance of having a multitude of career pathways that bring different perspectives and different prisms of thought, which consequently enables us to better challenge the status quo and think through the unintended consequences in a more pragmatic way,” Tilley says.
Working with a team of high-performing women herself has resulted in a highly collaborative environment, she says.
As part of its empowerment initiatives, ANZ invited its best and brightest BDMs – half of whom were women – to participate in a secondment opportunity last year. The group created and designed a governance and oversight framework that thinks through how they can be positioned in the marketplace.
Tilley was still relatively new to the business at that point, so she says she drew from their expertise. “But most importantly, and especially for the women that we had on secondment, it was valuing the rich skill sets that they have,” she says.
“Often I see women have some elements of self-doubt, and I just really wanted to encourage them and praise them and really build them up so they feel like their voice matters and they can do this.”
Apart from the Doyenne of Women in Broking initiative, ANZ also runs ‘Lean-In’ events, inspired by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s book of the same name.
Once a month, senior women at ANZ host open forums where they share stories about their lives and careers, the successes and challenges they’ve experienced in the corporate world, and being business leaders and mothers – and anyone from the bank can attend.
Tilley says the point is for women in the workplace to share experiences that create “a culture of ambition and aspiration and support” for one another.
These events are intended to encourage and inspire the bank’s workers, and to understand the fact that a career isn’t a straight line – often it has twists and turns.
As for growing the number of women in broking, that also comes with women sharing their stories and being put forward as role models to inspire others to consider broking as a career path. A lot of women already have the attributes that will lead to success in broking, Tilley says, such as being able to connect with empathy and being open to change.
“From an ANZ perspective, we want to encourage women in leadership, whether it is in our organisation or outside of it, and just make people believe that they deserve to have a seat at the table.”
Initiated by TM Finance Group director Belinda Gibson in February 2017, Ladies Who Lend is a bi-monthly networking event that brings together like-minded women to flourish in the finance industry by sharing each other’s experiences and skills.Ladies Who Lend is comprised of 10 women brokers in Victoria of various ages, experiences and fields of expertise. The majority of the women in the group are business owners, national and state award winners, and professionals who have a passion for lending, the finance broking industry, and obtaining the best outcome for clients.
The networking event takes place bi-monthly and allows members to come together to share not only their successes but also the difficulties they face, in the hope of nutting out a solution. It’s a collaboration of experience and skills.
