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Inclusion/Diversity
January 2006
Alice Wheelwright, Chair
Women’s Foodservice Forum —Arming Women to Break the Glass Ceiling
By Peter Langlois, co-editor Weekly Restaurant Connections
I spent time recently
with Alice Wheelwright discussing gender goals and the realities of our
time. Tying together the vision required to move an organization forward
with what can sometimes be the confounding slow progress being made in the
area of equal opportunities for women is truly a huge challenge. I
applaud both Alice and WFF for daring to reach the stars. The next goal
of WFF is to have three women at each table, meaning three women on the
Board, three women on each team, etc. The ultimate goal, 2020, is to have
Boards and teams reflect the relative 50/50 ratio of men and women found
in the general population.
(PL) Reality Check: While it's true
that Foodservice has more women than men in the overall workforce, many
women are in functional positions such as serving and hosting but far less
are in management, particularly beyond the unit level. It appears that
many women view foodservice as a transition to real jobs in other
industries.
(AW)
We are still seeing a gender pyramid.
While there is female representation across the board, we are still seeing
the majority of women representing the lower
ranks of the pyramid. Most women continue to hold positions at the unit
level, while men represent the largest group holding the top tier jobs.
As the
largest employer outside of the government, with 12.2 million people on
the payroll, foodservice includes some of the largest companies in the
world. According to the National Restaurant Association, by
2014, industry employment is projected to be 13.5 million – an increase of
12%. Women currently represent 53% of the foodservice workforce, and that
number is expected to jump to 62% by the year 2015. We need to get after
this, as the talent pool is there, they just need the opportunity to be
elevated.
(PL) What is WFF doing to attract young
women into management and ultimately into committing to foodservice
careers?
(AW)
The WFF, now in its 16th year, is all about elevating women
into top-level positions. We encourage them to aspire to reach their
highest potential and help them achieve more through building personal
confidence and core competencies.
To attract young emerging
leaders early on in their careers, the WFF offers a variety of programs.
One of them is the WFF volunteer program. This allows individuals at any
level to work on various committees to help hone existing skills and learn
entirely new skills in a safe environment where other committee members
and WFF staff are
supportive of their
efforts.
The WFF Regional Connects
is a free program that is open to members and guests. Regional Connects
is a series of events that are held in cities across the country that
provide an opportunity for attendees to connect on a local level.
Programming includes offering provocative speakers, panel discussions, and
networking opportunities
Our Annual Leadership Development
Conference provides programming to help develop confidence and core
competencies. Women of all levels attend our conference to develop the
skills they need to move up in their careers and the WFF tries to create
an environment for individuals to take steps to excel.
We believe there is a trickle effect. By
attending a conference, young women and men can see others as mentors and
learn ways to grow within the industry. Specific WFF programs that foster
growth and development for up and comers include
The Emerging Leader Alliance,
which is a formal mentoring program that
pairs seasoned, executive level mentors with emerging foodservice leaders
to provide younger members
access to strong
role models to help shape their development path.
In addition, the WFF offers a scholarship
program, which is currently co-sponsored by Wendy’s International and the
National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF). It’s
called the Reaching for Your Dreams Award. Each year, the WFF awards four
outstanding young women who have demonstrated high academic achievement
and on-the-job proficiency in the restaurant and foodservice industry.
Each student is given $2,000 and the opportunity to attend the WFF Annual
Leadership Conference and network with industry leaders.
We reinforce the
importance for people to step outside of their comfort level and take
risks when necessary to catapult their career. Risk taking is one of the
WFF’s core competencies and Rosalyn Mallet, Chief Operating Officer La
Madeleine Restaurants, is a wonderful example of a person who took a risk
to make great things happen. Here’s a woman whose career began in human
resource and was very successful. To expand her career she stepped out of
her comfort zone when Wally Doolin presented an opportunity to her. Wally
offered her a position as COO at the multi-unit chain La Madeline because
he knew that Ms. Mallet could succeed in anything that she put her mind
to. Because Rosalyn took the risk, she elevated her career and in turn has
been extremely successful in her operations role.
(PL)
How do your bold goals for
foodservice compare to other industries. Have you benchmarked them?
(AW)
We are currently conducting a study to
benchmark this area and in the meantime have collected the knowledge and
support of the WFF’s bold goals from top-level women that represent
industries outside of foodservice. These individuals include Shelly
Rosenberg, retired president of Equity Group & Investments, Michelle
Hooper, managing partner of The Director’s Council, which specializes in
corporate board recruitment and advisory services, and Victoria Medvec,
Executive Director for the Center for Executive Women at Northwestern
University. All three women have been past speakers at the WFF’s
Executive Women’s Summit and have strongly supported our bold goals of
Three at the Table and 20/20 Vision.
(PL)
How do you take into account the very real life choices women face and
even embrace such as taking leaves or temp work as they have children?
(AW)
First off, in
reality, balancing work and life is an issue for both genders, albeit,
women traditionally have struggled with this more than their male
counterparts. Two former WFF chairs come to mind when addressing this
topic, Barbara Timm-Brock and Diana Wynne. Both women worked full time
straight through their child rearing years, and managed both family life
and maintained successful careers. In addition, Brenda Barnes had the
fortunate opportunity to take time off and then return to the industry as
CEO of Sara Lee.
The fact
of the matter is that there are a lot of avenues that women can take.
What the industry needs to do is create
workplaces that are flexible and engaging for women so that they can
manage these life choices. With the baby boom generation now entering
retirement, there will be more opportunity within top-level management
positions, and women provide a great talent pool to tap into to fill these
positions. In addition, there is a trend developing among generations
X&Y. We are seeing that more men want to share the responsibilities of
raising the children and managing the home. This in turn supports a
woman’s choice to balance work and life and making it easier for them to
do so.
Yet
in all honesty, none of us can have it all. Maybe we pick out two things,
but the idea that we can have everything is naïve. Being a senior
executive absolutely requires sacrifice at some level. CEOs make tough
choices not just for their companies, but themselves as well. It’s rare
that anyone could have a so-called balanced life and be in the senior
executive suite.
(PL)
Do you feel that it's realistic that in
15 years we will see 50/50 when we
are making minimal progress as a society towards equality of sexes, as
well as diversity in numerous other areas? After all, one could argue
that the existence of the WFF is a statement the equality does not exist
and that women need an advocacy group.
(AW)
The WFF’s bold
goals are absolutely attainable. The truth of the matter is, we are seeing
growth of women in the industry.
The great news is research conducted by Catalyst
and The Gallup Organization actually shows that there is a strong business
case for gender diverse work teams.
Catalyst
found that across industries, companies with the highest representation of
women on their top management teams experienced better financial
performance than the group of companies with the lowest representation.
In addition, Gallup’s research identified specific initiatives
organizations can take to engage a gender diverse workforce and create
sustainable economic growth. The research, entitled “Creating Companies
Where Women Thrive”, found that overall women are more engaged than men,
but the highest total levels of engagement occur when both men and women
are more engaged and feel more included. Thus, a company that with gender
parity - or 50% men and 50% women on work teams - results in the better
financial performance of a company.
The WFF
continues to promote this to the industry and have received tremendous
response. We are very excited to see what progress will be made in the
near future. To that end, the WFF is committed to tracking the
development of our progress. We have created a new service that will
assist in tracking member career advancement, board placements and other
key metrics.
http://www.womensfoodserviceforum.com
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Peter Langlois is founder of
www.RestaurantU.com: Tools of the Trade for Business, for School, for
Free!,co-editor of
Weekly Restaurant Connections (e-Newsletter), Culinary Instructor,
The Art Institute of Houston-Culinary, and Management, Marketing
and e-business Facilitator at The University of
Phoenix (Houston). Langlois is also a Malcolm
Baldrige 2005 Ambassador. He has a Political Science degree
from Michigan State University (Modern International Chinese Relations)
and an M.B.A from the University of Houston (Marketing and Business
Strategies). If you enjoyed this feature, you’ll probably enjoy his free
newsletter available on
www.RestaurantU.com.
Contact information: 832.860.5595 or
peter@restaurantu.com
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