TALNT Insights

Unlocking Consumer Sector Dynamics: Navigating Q3 2023s Executive Landscape

<div><strong>Globally, the gender diversity of senior hires continues to increase<br></strong>Explore the evolving gender landscape in the consumer sector with our Q3 2023 report, highlighting key shifts in subsectors like Lending, Payment, and Retail Banking. Our analysis, powered by TALNTs data, reveals a significant year-on-year increase in gender diversity among senior hires, particularly in Payment and Retail Banking, contrasting with a decline in Lending. This comprehensive report offers insights into these divergent trends and their implications for leadership roles across the consumer industry<br><br></div>
<div><strong>Gender diversity in senior hires increased by three percentage points year-on-year – and by 12 appointments <br></strong></div>
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<div>In Q2 of this year we noted that the proportion of senior female hires in Consumer had increased by 2.5% year-on-year, but that happened while overall hiring had declined. This is a common pattern: that as overall demand for senior talent declines, the proportion of female hires increases. <br><br></div>
<div>In Q3, meanwhile, the number of senior female hires increased by 12 according to the data available to TALNT, which was also a three percentage point increase at the same time. This, on the surface, is quite impressive, although there are some potential issues when we dig into the details that we will address shortly. <br><br></div>
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<div>Looking at the trends quarter by quarter through 2023, we that the trend of increasing gender representation within senior appointments has increased steadily throughout the year. <br><br></div>
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The charts above show the gender hiring gap over time. While the Q3 2023 chart shows a lot o variability, we can also see that the gap between female and male senior hires becomes close to disappearing at four points throughout the quarter, compared with twice in Q3 of 2022. <br><br></div>
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<div>The above gender hiring gap charts show that the gap between male and female hires was at its widest in Q1, before beginning to narrow significantly in Q2 and Q3.  <br><br></div>
<div>Looking at the year to date, the gap peaks in March before tracking quite closely on a monthly basis for most of Q2 and Q3. 
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<div>Speaking regionally, we can see that the greatest regional variability has been in the Americas. <br><br></div>
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<div><strong>Which subsectors performed best in terms of gender diversity in Q3 2023?<br></strong></div>
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<div>Looking at the numbers and percentages, we can see that, although the proportion of female hires in Lending declined sharply y-o-y, the proportions in Payment and Retail Banking increased significantly. Of course this is most significant in Retail Banking because the numbers there are so dominant that any increase in the proportion in that subsector has a significant overall impact of improving the gender balance across the entire sector.  <br><br></div>
<div>Looking at this same data on a quarterly basis:<br><br></div>
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<div>We see a lot more variation in the trends. Again though, it’s the consistency in the improvement in gender balance in Retail Banking that has the most significant impact overall – again down to sheer force of numbers. This does make sense because Retail Banking is after all retail, and retail jobs tend to have much higher female participation that most other sectors of the economy globally, meaning that in this subsector there is more female talent to draw upon for developing leaders. <br><br></div>
<div><strong>Which positions saw the best gender diversity in Q3 2023?<br></strong></div>
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<figure class="attachment attachment--preview attachment--png" data-trix-attachment="{" data-trix-content-type="image/png" data-trix-attributes="{"><a target="_blank" href="https://api.talnt.sh/v1/images/MjM0MHQvYldDNjJzMEtmSCs5YlVubWVTdUR1QjNQdWtEMUllOGNzNm1vRkZFS2FQTFpaRUFZYkNVZTRROGh0R2F0bEdRVU9ocGN4bUpzbWEvbHN1NzV5dkdpdlBINGVJczJieGRocUJROUE9"><img src="https://api.talnt.sh/v1/images/MjM0MHQvYldDNjJzMEtmSCs5YlVubWVTdUR1QjNQdWtEMUllOGNzNm1vRkZFS2FQTFpaRUFZYkNVZTRROGh0R2F0bEdRVU9ocGN4bUpzbWEvbHN1NzV5dkdpdlBINGVJczJieGRocUJROUE9" width="940" height="449"></a>
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<div>Looking at the top senior positions for Q3 2023 tells us a sobering story. Take out the high proportion of female Board hires and female participation in the top 10 collapses. Put another way, female appointments in strategic executive roles are non-existent in 4 of the top 10, and very low even in CEO, COO, and Chairman roles. This shows that the majority of the increase in female senior hires y-o-y has been on the non-executive Board and that in fact female participation in senior strategic executive roles higher in Q3 last year. <br><br></div>
<div>This suggests at best that the impressive headline percentages are misleading, and at worst that the industry is – whether deliberately or not – engaging in a form of “gender washing” which implies as a consequence that senior leaders aren’t really taking gender diversity as seriously as they might. <br><br></div>
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<div>Looking at the same data on a quarterly basis show again that the industry has struggled all year to appoint women into senior executive positions of consequence. This suggests that any progress made could easily be lost in future quarters, as the foundations for female participation at the senior level are in reality weaker than they first appear. <br><br></div>

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