QA with Carla Rebelo, Managing Director, Hays Brazil Viewpoint careers advice blog

QA with Carla Rebelo, Managing Director, Hays Brazil In this interview, Carla Rebelo, Managing Director, Hays Brazil, based in Sao Paulo, shares her experience of gender diversity in the workplace, her progression into a leadership role and assesses the survey results in Brazil. What was your route to Hays? After several leadership roles, in 2003 I joined Ranstad as CFO in Portugal and in 2008 changed roles to Senior Group Controller and relocated to Ranstads Corporate Headquarters in Amsterdam. I was responsible for providing insight and guidance on the performance of 8-9 operating companies. In 2011, I moved to Brazil to work for Kelly Services as Country General Manager. I joined Hays in June 2013 as Managing Director of Brazil and am responsible for managing all aspects of the business. I have a financial background, with a PhD in decision making sciences and have worked as a Chief Accountant, Finance Manager and CFO for companies such as Nestle Waters, Akzo Nobel and Deloitte. Before moving to   Brazil I had accrued international experience, living and working in Portugal and the Netherlands as well as work experience in the US, Canada, Argentina, Chile and Poland, due to my responsibilities in Amsterdam as Group Controller. Tell us about your progression into a leadership role, what challenges did you face along the way? I haven’t faced any gender specific challenges in my career so far, nor have I felt like being a woman has been a road block. My main challenge came from starting work at a very early age; I secured my first leadership role when I was very young. I began working at 16 and at 19 I was Chief Accountant for Nestle Waters. This is something we see a lot of now, especially from Generation Y. More young people are working in leadership/decision making positions and because they are young they cannot draw on experience to help them in these roles. A concern is that young people see other young professionals in leadership roles and think, ‘if they can do it so can I’. This is not always the case. You need to be prepared, not only technically but mentally. My advice would be that you have to be completely focused and dedicated to your role and willing to make sacrifices to do what the company needs at a specific moment of the economic and business cycle. If you show companies that you are determined, focused and hardworking they will be more likely to give you a chance. This will pay off with career progression and recognition that meets your ambition, even if you do not have much experience. In your opinion is there a difference between how men and women progress in their careers? Some companies still often question whether a woman with children will be able to work the necessary hours required or will be able to travel for her job. I think that having children does impact a woman’s career progression because companies become concerned that she won’t be able to dedicate the same amount of time to her job if she has family commitments. Have you encountered any gender specific obstacles in your career? I have not experienced any gender specific obstacles in my career. I am not a mother so I have the flexibility to work as many hours as is needed. I am not saying that working mothers can’t do this; women can have an organised home life and it can work really well. However there is an attitude that you can’t be as dedicated to your job if you have children and employers are more cautious about hiring because of this. Do you have any advice for female professionals who are in, or looking to work in, a leadership role? In my experience, men tend to network more than women which is significant when you want to progress in your career. Networking plays a big part in working your way up to a leadership role and succeeding within a leadership role. It’s about knowing the right people. Focus and determination is also very important, focusing on what you want to achieve and having a vision of what you want to do. Reconcile this with your family life, this is my advice. In Brazil, 51% of respondents said that their organisation did not have formal gender policies in place and 9% weren’t sure. What do you think are the implications of these statistics? This is not surprising. It is not yet that common for companies in Brazil to focus on diversity; it is not a high priority in company policy. There is also no push to increase public awareness about diversity in the workplace as well. However, out of the respondents who said their organisation had formal gender policies in place, 83% feel they are adhered to well/fairly well. This implies that gender policies are valued in companies that have them. Is this something you agree with? This statistic is most likely due to international companies, specifically American companies, which are more focused on diversity in the workplace. It is mandatory in the US for companies to have diversity policies and the Brazilian economy is more connected with the US compared to Europe. Brazilians look to the US for guidance and best practice and there is a lot of cross selling between the US and Brazil. This international and American influence is shown in the survey results. Globally, 48% of women do not think they have the same career opportunities as men. In Brazil only 41% of females do not think they have the same career opportunities as men. What do you think about this? This statistic is surprising. In Brazil family is still regarded as the responsibility of the woman and there is a belief that businesses think women will not be able to be as dedicated to their job once they have had children. This is a cultural attitude. Males do not have the same family responsibility and this will impact women’s career opportunities. 70% of female Brazilian respondents believe there is equal pay between genders, compared to 92% of male Brazilian respondents. Is this an expected trend? These statistics are quite high which is what I would expect. As recruiters we do not see clients asking to pay differently depending on whether a candidate is male or female. However, men are more aggressive in negotiating salaries compared to women. This may contribute to these statistics too. Globally respondents (both male and female) believe that allowing more flexible working practices and changes in workplace culture through education across the business, will have the biggest impact on diversity in the workplace. What do you think about this? I agree that flexible hours will have a positive impact on diversity, especially for women. However flexible practices work better in mature markets where there is more control/awareness of the work being carried out on a flexible basis. From that perspective Brazil, like many other south European countries (Portugal, Italy, Greece)   is not a mature market and therefore flexible hours may have some negative impacts, breakdown of communication and the loss of cohesiveness within teams for example. This could compromise productivity; people may think that because they are at home they do not have to work as hard because no one else is there. Brazil is moving towards being able to implement flexible hours but I think that it is important to gradually implement these policies, starting with only allowing working from home to select employees, not everyone. If you enjoyed the above diversity blog then you might also appreciate the following: Get the organisational culture right and the diversity will follow 4 business benefits of diversity Tales from the top: gender diversity QA with Carla Rebelo, MD of Hays Brazil Facing diversity Gender diversity: still a long way from equality More female leaders, please h3strong Share this blog: /strong/h3