DIVERSITY & INCLUSION
#buysidewomen
Possibilities to work from home and more flexible
working hours
Firstly, I think Emma Quinn makes a strong case on
page 38 about the potential power of flexible working
arrangements. We know from previous discussions it
is not always possible in all firms to work from home
due to compliance and system limitations but some
firms are considering solutions for staff to work from
home making it more appealing to work at their firm.
The buy side said that the additional empowerment
placed a feeling of responsibility to work harder in
return. The possibility to work from home and having
flexible working hours is not just a requirement for
women but enables both men and women to share
family responsibilities such as dropping and picking up
children from school or day care. Regardless of whether
this incentive relates to a man or woman, the finance
industry can help break down the barriers and lead the
way for other industries to do the same. The important
pre-requisites for more flexible hours would of course be
for trading desks to have sufficient staffing arrangements
and processes to cover individuals who are not working.
Such staffing arrangements should be considered as
part of the firm’s contingency plans to allow for sickness,
holiday and parental leave. Many asset management
firms are yet to implement such staffing contingencies as
some buy-side traders shared their own experiences of
how staff are forced to work and de-subscribe to legally
required working conditions.
Shorter market hours
This topic is particularly pertinent within equities
trading however trading hours in other asset classes
would potentially be impacted if European exchanges
shortened their hours. Europe has the longest exchange
open hours with both bank sponsors and equity buy-
side traders united in sentiment that it is unnecessary
to keep the overlap with three Asian markets. The peak
in equity trading in the morning would still remain
if the exchanges opened later which would make a
significant impact in the work life balance for traders
and thus making the asset management and banking
Summer 2019
industry a more attractive work place. K&KGC have
formally requested the Federation of European Securities
Exchanges (FESE) to comment on this issue as this would
need to be a concerted effort among stock exchanges.
Attracting the younger generation to trading
A major challenge to attain greater gender diversity
is that very few young people, especially women, are
attracted to the finance industry as it is no longer
generally considered as one of the coolest work places.
Through negative media and cinematic channels, the
capital markets reputation has been tarnished and
now requires major efforts to help improve the image.
Andrew Maack’s comments on page 26 are spot on;
the new millennial generation would be receptive to a
workplace that shows they care about diversity issues.
One of our bank sponsors mentioned how they make
efforts to attract younger talent away from the likes
of Google and Amazon with dress down days and a
more appealing office interior. A few buy side have
commented on their efforts to offer temporary job
experience roles to give a taster on working within the
trading desk. One question I received in confidence was
“to what extent would a woman tolerate the abusive
and colourful language that often occurs on the trading
floor?”. The concerted feedback from buy side and
sponsors is that abusive language during the working
day sits firmly in the past and neither men or women of
the younger generation would accept it.
Firms that have already made an effort to increase
gender diversity find that the next challenge is to
promote women in to management positions. That is
under the presumption that firms are able to promote
staff internally which can be a challenge in an industry
under tough pressures.
Another interesting area, slightly outside of trading
responsibilities, is the buy-side firm’s commitment to
ESG (Environmental and Social Corporate Governance)
investments, an area that should appeal to the next
generation. We would love to hear more buy-side
stories about how firm’s commit to adopting more ESG
investment to increase the attractiveness of both clients
as well as new staff.
www.buysideintel.com
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